Your Ten Favourite..... Joni Mitchell songs

[BlueChair]

1. Woodstock
2. A Case Of You
3. River
4. The Last Time I Saw Richard
5. Free Man In Paris
6. Raised On Robbery
7. In France They Kiss On Main Street
8. Amelia
9. Furry Sings The Blues
10. Hejira

[Mechanical Grace]

1. Amelia
2. Down To You
3. Conversation
4. Hejira
5. Trouble Child
6. Rainy Night House
7. A Case Of You
8. Free Man In Paris
9. Chelsea Morning
10. My Secret Place

[Who Shot Sam?]

A Case Of You
Little Green
Amelia
Black Crow
Otis And Marlena
You Turn Me On I'm A Radio
Woodstock
Conversation
Free Man In Paris
Furry Sings The Blues

My mom used to play Ladies Of The Canyon and For The Roses over and over again when I was a kid, so I have a lot of happy memories associated with those albums.

[Mechanical Grace]

So glad you like Conversation-- it was probably the first non-radio song of hers I discovered and adored. Rainy Night House, too. There's so much Joni I don't have on CD, but Ladies Of the Canyon is probably the biggest omission... gotta rectify that.

[Masterpiece?]

Turbulent Indigo
Cherokee Louise
Woodstock
Free Man in Paris
Black Crow
Come in from the Cold
Help Me
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Both Sides Now
Man from Mars

As you can see, I really love Night Ride Home and Turbulent Indigo. Also Court and Spark, obviously...

[Richard]

This Flight Tonight
Carey
All I Want
Help Me
Big Yellow Taxi
Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
California
Coyote
The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines

[Otis Westinghouse]

Coyote
Black Crow
Hejira
Amelia
Edith and the Kingpin
The Jungle Line
Shades of Scarlett Conquering
A Case of You
God Must Be a Boogie Man
Goodbye Porkpie Hat

As you can see, three I know and love are Hej, Hiss and Ming. And Blue, But less so. Special mention for Pat Metheny's guitar solo on S&L, vinyl only! One artist I'd like to know a lot more of. Had Court and Spark oncce, but it went before I really got to know it. In general, I much prefer the sound and feel of the Hejira-S&L-Mingus period with Jaco P and Don Alias. Great lyricist.

[Chrille]

Love Court... & Hissing... havn't listened as much to Blue and Hejira yet, but I can tell I'm gonna love those two as well in the end.

The Last Time I Saw Richard
The Jungle Line
Edith And The Kingping
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Court And Spark
Help Me
Free Man In Paris
People's Parties
Coyote
Black Crow

[Mike Boom]

The Last Time I Saw Richard
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
A Case of You
Song for Sharon
All I Want
Talk To Me
Shades of Scarlett Conquering
Hejira
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
Slouching Toward Bethlehem

[Mr. Average]

The Dry Cleaners From Des Moines
Shiny Toys
Hejira
Help Me
Woodstock
Free Man In Paris
Court and Spark
Dreamland
Furry Sings the Blues
Coyote

[Otis Westinghouse]

Where's Slouching Toward Bethlehem from? Is the title a ref to Joan Didion's collection of essays, or the Yeats poem The Second Coming, where she got her book title from? Or neither directly? Or both? Sounds like Didion in terms of 'slouching'.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all convictions, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

[Masterpiece?]

It's from Night Ride Home. In the liner notes, she credits Yeats, billing the song as "Music by JM, Based on a poem by WB Yeats". But that's all the detail she goes into.

[Mechanical Grace]

Joni's far too smart to reference Joan Didion. Anyway, if you're gonna reference someone, you use some words they actually wrote, no?

[Otis Westinghouse]

That's quoting more than the broader reffing, and this was my point: she's quoting Didion rather than Yeats, even if she acknowledges Yeats in the notes. And now that I look up the words, yes, it's very closely based on the poem:

Turning and turning
Within the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer
Things fall apart
The center cannot hold
And a blood dimmed tide
Is loosed upon the world

Nothing is sacred
The ceremony sinks
Innocence is drowned
In anarchy
The best lack conviction
Given some time to think
And the worst are full of passion
Without mercy

Surely some revelation is at hand
Surely it's the second coming
And the wrath has finally taken form
For what is this rough beast
Its hour come at last
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born

Hoping and hoping
As if by my weak faith
The spirit of this world
Would heal and rise
Vast are the shadows
That straddle and strafe
And struggle in the darkness
Troubling my eyes

Shaped like a lion
It has the head of a man
With a gaze as blank
And pitiless as the sun
And it's moving its slow thighs
Across the desert sands
Through dark indignant
Reeling falcons

Surely some revelation is at hand
Surely it's the second coming
And the wrath has finally taken form
For what is this rough beast
Its hour come at last
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born

Raging and raging
It rises from the deep
Opening its eyes
After twenty centuries
Vexed to a nightmare
Out of a stony sleep
By a rocking cradle
By the Sea of Galilee

Surely some revelation is at hand
Surely it's the second coming
And the wrath has finally taken form
For what is this rough beast
Its hour come at last
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born
Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born

But she does quote Didion!

Didion is highly regarded by some, less so by others, like MG:

http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/ ... rison.html

[Mechanical Grace]

That's quoting more than the broader reffing, and this was my point: she's quoting Didion rather than Yeats, even if she acknowledges Yeats in the notes. And now that I look up the words, yes, it's very closely based on the poem.

VERY closely-- it's really just Yeats's poem embellished. I've lost you-- she's quoting/reffing Didion because she chose the same bit of Yeats for her title as Didion did? Ahh, never mind...

Oh wait, do you mean because she writes 'slouching' versus 'slouches'? Well, all right. However, I'd prefer to say she's correcting Didion by appropriation, taking the title back for Yeats.

[Chrille]

Listening to Court and Spark, it's a wonderful album. I love every moment from the title track to Car On A Hill after which it goes slightly downhill. Still, not one bad song on there.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I love every moment from the title track to Car On A Hill after which it goes slightly downhill

Must have left the handbrake off.

[Mechanical Grace]

Listening to Court and Spark, it's a wonderful album. I love every moment from the title track to Car On A Hill after which it goes slightly downhill.

I gotta disagree, the second half is even better. Raised On Robbery is hilarious, Down To You is a masterpiece of melancholy. Just Like This Train is full of sweet spite, Trouble Child is a great portrait of misunderstood youth, seguing into the related Twisted, a 60s (?) jazz song.

[Mike Boom]

"Night Ride Home" is a great album - but the version of "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" I had in mind is from the wonderful "Travelogue" record.

[Masterpiece?]

I haven't picked up Travelogue yet. Now I have more incentive to...