____twoism

If there's any one artist that I'm glad I discovered through BOC, it's definitely Joni. Consider this just some random rambling while I await that BOCset

It's actually sort of a funny mix how I found out about her music. I was completely unaware of her when Aphex Twin dropped his unreleased songs on Soundcloud, among which was a track titled "Parking Lot" that samples Big Yellow Taxi. It was only like 5 years later I finally thought why not see what that sample is from, and found out it was also sampled by Janet Jackson, but for some reason I didn't pay much attention to the name of the original artist.

Then sometime in Fall 2019 I took a bike ride and decided I need some new music since I'm just listening to the same stuff too much in my life (yeah, headphones plus biking is probably frowned upon, but who among us doesn't enjoy it once in awhile? ), so decided to just turn on a 70's playlist on Spotify since I've always liked that era. A couple hours in I reached some random shopping center and was riding around in the parking lot (it was fate, I tell you!) to cut across to safer grounds when Big Yellow Taxi suddenly comes on. I immediately thought it sounded pretty cool and somehow stood out from any of the other tracks on this playlist, but then the main "Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got till it's gone" part played. Immediately my head was like "wait a minute, I know this song!!" thanks to knowing it from the Aphex souncloud dump.

So I stopped riding and pulled out my phone to see what it was and I see Joni's name. First thing that came to mind, I kid you not, was "Hey, isn't this someone BOC have mentioned before in interviews? That' settles it, I gotta check out more of her music."

A few days later I got Ladies of the Canyon cued up on my phone, since that was the album the song was from. As soon as I started it I immediately knew I'd discovered something special. Morning Morgantown is such a perfect track IMO and had this organic and pure sound to it that really triggered all sorts of synesthesia for me. It honestly had been awhile since I really heard an "it" song that really gets to you in some way. Still one of my favorite tracks of hers.

Looking at their comments about her music after becoming more familiar with her catalogue and I feel like I can see their connection to her. There's definitely a sort of purity as they refer to it themselves, almost like this connection to nature that I also sense through a lot of BOC's tracks. Kind of hard to put into words, but I can see where they're coming from when they talk about her.

Interestingly she released a boxset of unreleased tracks and early demos last year with another follow up coming this year. Couldn't be better timing after I've relatively only just gotten to know her work, and I've always been the sort to love delving into the obscure stuff from an artist once I get to know them. I remember listening to the Old Tunes tapes as soon as I discovered BOC, for example I'm hoping that BOC have noticed what she's doing with her archives and are inspired by it. Joni apparently was pretty adamant that her past stay in the past for decades, so it was surprising seeing her finally embracing her past work, and history is better for it.

Well, hope that wasn't too long. Just saw the Prince thread recently, and I remembered his admiration for Joni as well and thought there's another BOC connection that couldn't hurt to have some discussion on. So anyone else mostly become aware of her name through BOC?

When "Mike Sandison" posted the quote from a Joni Mitchell song and I purchased it on itunes, it immediately made me reconsider how I saw her. I could definitely hear the BOC in that track. I forget the name, but it had the same kind of melancholic, fleeting beauty of the best BOC tracks.

Not *just* through BoC, but that connection definitely helped; knowing that Sonic Youth loved her too probably helped - over the last year I've really got into Joni Mitchell.

I'd always been a little put off - probably as Big Yellow Taxi was so ubiquitous and I always had her down as more of an MOR type artist without any real *edge* for want of a better word - same reason I'd never really investigated people like Rod Stewart or Elton John beyond the hits (more fool me - they've both done some great stuff).

I'd been getting into a lot of late 60s/ early 70s psych-folk over the last few years though; things like Fairport Convention and Pentangle and it was only when I discovered that one of my favourite Fairport tunes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m_xRdrfbwk) was actually a Joni cover (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWDyA4S-geg)*, I decided to investigate more and yeah - love her earlier stuff now. I've never gone beyond the 70s**, but the run of Song to a Seagull through to Hejira is fantastic. I'm sure that music industry sexism is the only reason she isn't feted as highly as Dylan or Neil Young.

* - I think I still prefer the Fairport version of Chelsea Morning.

** - 60s/70s artists 80s output is always iffy.

Yep, "Amelia" by Joni Mitchell was included in Marcus' Campfire Mixtape list, and is now one of my favourite Joni Mitchell songs.

The lyrics are full of BoC imagery. Hexagrams, 747s....

Have a look: https://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=118
Have a listen:

A_Northern_Soul wrote:**60s/70s artists 80s output is always iffy.

Quite. However...

If you're interested in quality late-era Joni, 1994's Turbulent Indigo is excellent, and her last solid album of original material. "Sunny Sunday", the album's opener, is a masterpiece of economy, plunging you deeply into the stuck-ness of a person and their predicament in a scant 2 and a half minutes.



I am also very partial to the song "Man on Mars" from her next release Taming The Tiger. I can recommend it to BoC fans who love their broodier, more melancholic songs:



Her late-in-life reinterpretation of one of her earliest songs, "Both Sides Now", is crushingly poignant:



I find her music to be a treasure of worth that cannot be overstated. For a very long time I was dismissive of the female singer-songwriter genre because the music always seemed to be lacking: I don't care how self-confessional you're being if your music is boring me to tears. Joni's work is worlds beyond mundane, both musically and lyrically speaking.

Next steps? Judee Sill: "The Kiss", "The Pearl", "Lady-O", "Crayon Angels", "Ridge Rider", "Abracadabra"...

Definitely in love with her Hissing of Summer Lawn album. Tried Court and Spark but idk, theres something missing it doesn't hook me. HoSL has something more to it.