My whole musical life, from the mid-seventies on, whenever someone has wanted to portray themselves as the kind of hip that transcends mere temporal hipness, they’ll claim to be Joni Mitchell fans.
Joni Mitchell fandom has gone through a couple of phases; its original stretch in the late sixties through the mid-seventies, when Mitchell was putting out albums that got all sorts of attention, of course. And then in the late eighties, when Prince confessed to being a huge Mitchell fan.
And today, in an era where quirky art-school girls with guitars is a booming genre, I’m hearing more would-be hypstrz claiming to be huge Joni Mitchell fans.
She always bugged me.
No, no – I know she’s an iconic songwriter, an amazing singer, and had been for almost forty years the leading voice of her particular genre. She’s a spectacular talent with four decades of great material.
It just happens to be a genre, and material, that leave me utterly cold.
Part of it is the whole “folk-jazz” thing. Folk music is a form that I go hot and cold on, depending on the singer and the subject material.
And jazz? Well, to paraphrase the Supreme Court wag, “I don’t know how to define what jazz I like, but I know it when I hear it”.
And while I know deep down inside that it’s wrong, and that I probably need to reset my internal musical CPU, I also have to cop to it; whenever Mitchell starts singing, I shut down a little inside. “Oh, goodie; another overly ornamented pseudo-jazz reflection on romantic ambiguity, delivered via lovely-yet-grating high-alto warble that just grates the desire to sit still and analyze the deadeningly-oblique lyrics right out of me”.
I know. It’s wrong. Maybe I’ll work on it when time permits.
Court and Spark is a pretty good album. It’s also the only one anyone really needs.
And you’re right, she’s jazzy, not jazz, in the same sort of highly polished, L.A. session dude way that Steely Dan is. Lots of the same musicians played with both of them, most notably Tom Scott. What makes Steely Dan better is that Becker and Fagen were smart enough to know that if you use cynical L.A. session men to make your music, the lyrics should be cynical, too.
Angryclown is with you. Don’t like Joni.
Do like Steely Dan, in moderation.
S. Dan: Like “Deacon Blues” and “Rikki…”. Deeply dislike “Hey Nineteen”. Regard most of the rest of their oeuvre about a step above Billy Joel.
angryclown said:
“Do like Steely Dan, in moderation”
He’s wrong on politics, but he knows music. Where have I heard that before? 😉
Mitch:
“Regard most of the rest of their [Steely Dan’s] oeuvre about a step above Billy Joel.”
You make that sound negative.
To me, it is.
Next you’ll tell us you don’t like Elton John (even after deciphering the lyrics of Tiny Dancer).
But seriously, she was “discovered” by David Crosby, which should tell you all you need to know. The nude photo in “For The Roses” ain’t bad, however.
Things I Can’t Stand, and Rightfully So: Joni Mitchell
and Joan Baez and Stevie Nicks and Rita Coolidge …
She sings like a cat in the spin cycle