I'm listening to Joni Mitchell Hejira right now and simply wondering why we haven't seen a more extensive covering of her strong catalog beyond the DCC Blue and Court And Spark?
Sales? Joni has become for more of a cult audience. It's not reflective on her music but on an audience that sometimes didn't transition to her new music.
What's her vinyl reissue situation like? I see the target demographic as older vinyl buyers rather than SACDs.
Many, many of the current offerings of audiophile masterings by Analogue Productions, Audio Fidelity and MFSL do not have current large market sales. That is not the target for those offerings. It is and always will be a niche or "cult" market.
That's true but I don't think,that those two cults overlap or maybe the cost of licensing it is too much? Personally, I'd love to have audiophile releases but I do like the boxed set that came out as well. Only a couple of duds in terms of sound. That may be true but there's that large audience of younger vinyl buyers out there as well.
Joni Mitchell is not to everyone's taste, and I'm afraid that's putting it mildly. No one I know likes her singing... She seems to have limited appeal and that might be the reason the audiophile labels didn't and don't touch her catalogue - with the exception of DCC back in the 1990s, of course.
Ladies of the Canyon should get an audiophile treatment, strong album not to mention it must have some sizable audience for it as I will still hear Big Yellow Taxi and Circle Game on radio or a store PA now and then.
I have the Asylum and Reprise HDCDs from a few years ago and they sound pretty good to my ears. I would be all over some nicely done audiophile remasters/SACDs if they ever appeared as I feel she is one of the greats from that era - certainly on par with Dylan and Young (blasphemy, I know).
I think some of her 70's albums on SACD would sell as much or more than another version of Abraxas (scheduled), Santana S/T (scheduled) or discs released previously such as Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow, the hundreth reissue of Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East and the Cruising Soundtrack. I did ask Mobile Fidelity and they have nothing in the pipeline, of course this may all be moot due to licensing issues.
Wild Things Run Fast was issued on gold CD by MFSL many years ago. I hope for SACD versions of all Joni's albums that were recorded to analog. I would not even consider price for a well done SACD of Hejira.
I think there are two reasons for this: Firstly, it seems to me that every single one of Joni's LPs and CDs were well recorded and mastered in the first place. Most of her 1960s and 1970s CDs have sneaked out as HDCD versions without any fanfare, and indeed the versions in the cheaply available Studio Albums 1968 - 1979 box are mostly HDCD masterings. To my ears the only HDCD master that is disappointing is Court And Spark. Secondly, Joni has very good ears and her approach to recording is very hands on. She is a perfectionist and I suspect that she oversees the recording and mastering process personally, and does it very well. Also, you can pick up LP copies quite easily and cheaply in the used market. I bought a mint first pressing copy of For The Roses recently for £3.50. I bought it intending to frame the perfect condition cover and was amazed to find the vinyl in perfect nick too.
I read that a lot of her catalog was prepared for 5.1 DVDA in the early 2000s. The only hope for those would be if Steve Hoffman and AF were to release them.
I was lucky enough to be at Ocean Way when Allen Sides was mixing the Both Sides Now album, and he mixed it 2-ch and M-ch to DSD. Joni and Larry Klein loved the M-ch DSD version during playbacks, but Warner Bros. refused to release it as an SACD, so it came out as a DVD-A instead. http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/hirez/messages/9631.html
I could see the more popular titles possibly. It would be cool to have these as part of the silver series SACD's/
I prefer the original Asylum CDs to the HDCD remasters. In particular For the Roses and Hejira sound superb.
The boxed set had an interesting mix of them. If decoded, I think they sound pretty good as HDCD but I can also see a warmer mastering working as well.
I went temporarily insane and forgot that one as I'm still searching for a copy (at a price I'm willing to pay)
Kevin Gray cut Blue for Warner at 45 rpm, but it's never been released. I saw a test pressing at Rockaway Records but they were asking $200 for it. Has anyone heard it?
I would think that there might be a market for a new reissue of Hejira given the recent press about Jaco. Also, Joni has had some health issues recently and I'd love to see her celebrated before we lose her.
Ladies of the Canyon absolutely deserves a proper remaster, and I hate to think about the DCC CD which never saw the light of day.
