Well let’s be honest, it’s about heartbreak in the context of Christmas, as the first lines are:
Anyway, that there’s only one track I don’t particularly care for in the entire first three albums is pretty good in my book.
I love “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” album, in toto - but my JM top 10 songs would be:
- Coyote
- Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
- The Circle Game
- In France They Kiss on Main St
- Last Time I saw Richard
- Don’t interrupt the Sorrow
- Raised on robbery
- You turn me on I’m a radio
- Chelsea Morning
- Harry’s House
- Carey.
also, I think Joni Mitchell would be really cool to hang out with, too.
Wilton Felder was a pretty handy bass player, playing as he did on the two greatest (in the mambo universe) bass parts ever - on Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s Get It On” and The Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back”.
There was a guy who could have quit his day job!
mm
Particularly the live version with the Band from The Last Waltz
And I have to second the thought about getting the entire albums - singles don’t cut it.
I’m partial to When Morning Comes to Morgantown
Preach it, brother. That version was enough for me. She has a great voice. I still prefer Emmylou (voice of an angel(from montgomery)) Harris. Joni is a clear runner up from that era. If I was going to list my favorite singer/songwriters from that era then John Prine is at the top, hands down. (hi, Sam Stone)
I could listen to the album Blue over and over again, and hav e done more than once.
I love
Carey,
My Old Man has my favourite lyric
“But when he’s gone,
Me and them lonesome blues collide,
The bed’s too big
The frying pan’s too wide”
- A Case of you* is a breath-taking song about lost love
- Little Green* makes more sense if you know she gave up a daughter for adoption.
I also have a soft spot for Ladies of the Canyon, especially
Woodstock-
“We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden”
- The Circle Game*
Other than that, I have a Joni compilation that my friend’s dad made for me when he heard me listening to Blue. My favourite songs from it are “Raised on Robbery”, * “Chelsea Morning”, “Free Man in Paris” and “Both Sides Now”*
Seriously, most music shops will have her CD albums in the bargain bin or priced to go…you could probably buy a couple of her CDs for the same price as cherry-picking 3 tracks on i-tunes.
Any Joni Mitchell fans?
I think that most people who appreciate music are fans, or at least are appreciative of her talent.
I love all the songs that have been mentioned in this thread, and I wish I were at home so I could listen to them!
My favs.
**Big Yellow Taxi **
*Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till it’s gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot. *
Both Sides, Now
I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all.
**The Circle Game **
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We’re captive on the carousel of time
We can’t return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.
**Michael From Mountains **
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday, I may know you very well
Will only add Twisted to what’s already been posted (the little Cheech and Chong bit it priceless), and to add she has a new disc coming out
I had Miles of Aisles on vinyl. It was stolen so I got the CD. They left off Free Man in Paris and California. :mad:
Oh, other favs: Real Good and Free, Last time I saw Richard, Love or Money
I’m trying not to judge before I hear it, but I’m not loving the social commentary. Not that I disagree, really, it’s just that the poetry is kind of creaky and dull. But then, I haven’t been blown away by her lyrics since Wild Things Run Fast. YMMV, of course.
The dawn of man comes slow
Thousands of years
Here we are
Still worshiping
Our own ego
Strong and Wrong!
Strong and Wrong!
[from Strong and Wrong, on her new disk]
I’m listening to Both Sides Now as I type.
Thanks to this thread for reminding me to listen to Joni’s work with Pat Metheny. Pat Metheny!
Regarding the OP, I’d have to strongly recommend the whole album Court and Spark. With the exception of Twisted (of which I’m very fond), I just can’t quite imagine cutting the album up into pieces (although I know it’s been done with considerable commercial success). They very much blend together in my aural imagination and each piece seems to draw some context from the previous pieces.
Or maybe that’s just arty-farty bullshit… YMMV.
ambushed, Pat Metheny when to high school with my first husband’s little sister. He used to practice in their basement.
Even though Joni wrote twisted, Bette Midler did it better. (and two heads are better than onnnnee.)
I was wrong earlier, the other song missing from the Miles of Aisles CD wasn’t California, it was Court and Spark. I’m just that old.
I was at Barnes & Noble at Christmas time and found a poetry book of her complete works on the remaindered table. Stupid me, I didn’t buy it. :smack:
I urge you all to watch this extraordinary live performance of California on the Johnny Cash show. My God her voice is out of this world.
And here is a clip of her looking totally hot back in 1965, seemingly during her “A Mighty Wind” era… 
I never liked Joni Mitchell- too hippie dippy for my bad assed self. Then, of course, I started dating a girl who loved her. She was pleasant enough to listen to my constant AC/DC (I was only a kid!), so I was more than willing to listen to her hippie music. Wow- Jonie Mitchell covers Nazareth, cool. Nice version of “their” song to boot. Nice CSNY cover too… :smack:. I still look back on this and cringe at what a putz I was. Joni Mitchell is amazing.
Joni didn’t write that one; it’s a Lambert, Hendricks & Ross song written by Annie Ross and Wardell Grey.
For some reason I thought Tom Rush wrote Circle Game but I’m not finding any reference to that - must have been my imagination.
Joni wrote it, but Tom Rush used it as the title track of an album on which he covered no fewer than three Joni songs (“Tin Angel” and “Urge for Going” being the others).
This thread was just what I needed now. It reminded me to listen to Joni and now all is right in the world. 
Listening to the album Blue right now and loving it.
Last time I saw Richard, A Case of You, Circle Line, Both Sides Now, Free Man in Paris, Big Yellow Taxi are my favourites right now. And I really like River, so there. 
Of all things, it was the movie Love, Actually that made me aware of Joni Mitchell. (Yes, I’m young) That scene with Emma Thompson breaking down in the bedroom while listening to Both Sides Now… Surprisingly powerful for such a lighthearted movie.