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Post by ganews on Feb 1, 2022 10:38:47 GMT -5
The winner of the February poll is Joni Mitchell, "For The Roses". Post your thoughts below!
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber 
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
Posts: 7,514 
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Post by Dellarigg on Feb 2, 2022 16:30:46 GMT -5
Sadly, I don't like Joni Mitchell as much as I thought I would, though I like her some. Over the course of an album, even Blue or Clouds, my attention is apt to wander. I don't play this one often, but I played it earlier, and again, it just passed me by. Oh well, you can't win 'em all.
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Post by ganews on Feb 4, 2022 15:21:04 GMT -5
Turns out I can't listen to this album with a clear head on its own merits. I can only switch in and out of listening to Mitchell's poetry while thinking about Dad who had always been a fan. He would have been 14 when this came out, though I have no idea where or when he would have actually heard it. Perhaps a couple years later when he got a job and saved up enough to buy albums and turntable; come to think of it I'm not sure if this is one of the albums back at the house. I'm not sure when he moved from being a mischievous little shit to a wannabe-hippie. I didn't know him until he had settled down to a reverence for old-time, reading Wendell Berry instead of Carlos Castaneda. Music like this must have given him a nice vicarious experience for people going the places and having the complicated experiences that he didn't have, which I guess is what art is for.
Some things stick through. I like the guitar playing on "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire", and I note that the tenor sax is not completely poison to my ears. I might have thought I was too old for the lyrics of "Let the Wind Carry Me" but they really catch me. "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" might have been a sarcastic write for the radio but it's still really good and fits the rest of the album.
patbat what did this mean to your folks? |
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patbat
TI Forumite
OK です か
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Post by patbat on Feb 5, 2022 14:07:45 GMT -5
My mother is the Joni Mitchell fan, and Joni Mitchell's music formed an integral, constant presence in the sonic wallpaper of my childhood, along with Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Carly Simon, and James Taylor. At the time, I didn't have much appreciation for Mitchell's music; it wasn't really until I was in my early 20s that I came to recognize how amazingly talented she was. I suggested For the Roses mainly because it's the album that stands out most clearly in my memory.
I don't really ever listen to just one song; for me, this album is one cohesive statement, so I won't go track-by-track but just hit some of the highlights:
First, this is one of the greatest breakup albums ever made. Just putting that out there. For the Roses was recorded in the wake of Mitchell and Taylor's breakup due to his severe heroin addiction, which was immediately followed by his marriage to Simon. The emotional turmoil Mitchell was feeling at the time comes through so clearly; the specific heartbreak of investing so much of yourself in an effort to fix a broken partner, only to be passed over in favor of someone new. It's devastating, and it's evident in every note and lyric of Roses.
"Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" used to scare the shit out of me when I was a kid, even though I had no idea what it was actually about (heroin, the death urge)
I love the flute on "Barangrill;" I also love how the lyrics evoke the wounded vulnerability that follows a bad breakup, as the subject of the song's weakened emotional boundaries lead her to become absorbed in fantasies about the service workers and other people she encounters.
I love how the music of "See You Sometime" directly references that of "My Old Man" from Blue.
The "You can't hold the hand of a rock and roll man for very long" breakdown at the end of "Blonde in the Bleachers" is just the best thing ever. Right up there with the "Never gonna get it, never gonna get it" breakdown near the end of En Vogue's "My Lovin'".
Um, that's all I can think of for now. My mom is a melancholy person by nature, to put it mildly.
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Post by Djse (and a Sack of Cats) on Feb 7, 2022 11:53:29 GMT -5
No Spotify link for this one.  I will really try to listen to this some time this week. |
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repulsionist
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Post by repulsionist on Feb 17, 2022 21:27:51 GMT -5
Context: After purposely buying The Hissing of Summer Lawns in my late 20s, I continued exploring the works of Joni Mitchell about 10 years later. I have Hejira, Blue, Court and Spark. Songs from those records find their way into mixes. My first introduction to Joni's work was watching something related to Woodstock . Much like my first impression of Kate Bush as a teen, Mitchell's work didn't inspire me to listen to more. Seeing her videos from Dog Eat Dog in the mid-to-late 80s didn't encourage me to reconsider my first impression. Feebly maturing sensibilities allowed me to hear her voice and words respectfully - I really like the Burundi drums and old synthesizers on Hissing.
Album: It's surprising that I didn't enjoy this. Wrong set, setting, and dosage to appreciate her introspective poesy about sadness and loss musically phrased, I'm presuming.
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I will really try to listen to this some time this week.