Joni Mitchell - Dog Eat Dog - is it time for a re-appraisal of this fine album ?

I've been streaming Dog Eat Dog since Xmas quite a lot. An album I bought on vinyl on its release but never owned on cd or really got into it. It gets a lot of bad press from fans even now. Saw it recently described on this site as a guilty pleasure. But hang on - there's at least 6 or 7 great tracks on it. I've changed my mind about it ... I love it ...

And I came across this on YT - a solo performance of the title track.



I think its long overdue a re-appraisal. Ok the performance is definitely eighties ish - less acoustic than we're used to, but so be it. Its Joni

Anybody else love it - even hate it ... please share ...

 

My favorite Mitchell's album.

 

Dog eat Dog is a great record. For any Larry Klein or Mike Landau fans.. is a great record to listen to.

 

Love it! It was a prefect transition for her.

 

Always meant to check this album out, as this one, along with Chalk Mark... are the only 2 Joni albums i don't own, nor have even heard. I love all the rest (except Shine which i thought was a rather poor way to end her career) so not sure why i have always passed it by in used bins. Probably its bad reputation. I avoided Wild Things Run Fast for a long time for similar reasons, until i saw it for 50p in a charity shop. Ended up really liking that one on first play.

 

Dog Eat Dog has a certain sound about which I'm not crazy. But there is a lot of solid material, and of course, Joni's voice is sublime.

 

This is the sort of review you read - which would put you off for life !

'Only a completist would want to waste money on it' !!!!! Really it's that bad ?

Joni Mitchell

 

I preferred the 2 albums released either side of it - Wild Things Run Fast and Chalk Mark In the Rain in terms of her 80's work , BUT it is still a very strong album. If you removed some of the 80's production, then some of these songs could easily have appeared on the "classic" albums - very strong material.

However, not the album I would recommend to someone wanting to get into Joni.

 

I know my comment is about a song that isn't from Dog Eat Dog but from a later-era Joni; but -- I have to say -- while listening to my iPod (on "shuffle") shoveling snow yesterday, her song "Sex Kills" came on. I hadn't heard it in years.

One line stood out:

"You can feel it out in traffic --
Everyone hates everyone"

Sadly, this is so fitting, even twenty years later...

 

No it's a dog of an album
Seriously after Mingus it's the worst thing she ever recorded. "Chalk Mark.." is sublime and her best work (by far) from the 80's.. her return to form.

 

DED is not my least favorite Geffen album (that honor goes to "Wild Things" - YMMV), so I never got the hate in the first place.

But like another commentor, I also favor "Chalk Mark" from those four. Lost years to some ears, but I went so far as to buy the four-disc "Geffen Years" box.

 

I have never listened to this album. To be honest I tend to shy away from most of the 80's Geffen established artist catalog

 

You are missing out.

First off, there is no bad Joni Mitchell album.
DEG is my least favorite of her catalog but I would still give it a 2.5 our of 5. I don't play it enough.
Night Ride Home is my favorite from the Geffen era.
Most forum threads here when someone asks what albums to get by a specific artist, everyone ends up mentioning every album the artist ever did. Joni is a rare case where I would say you need every album to complete her musical journey. They are all special in their different ways.

 

This one took forever for me to appreciate--the production is very of its time and if you expect "old Joni" of any previous album you'll be disappointed. That said, there are some very, very good songs on this album--"Dog Eat Dog", "Ethiopia", "Three Great Stimulants", "Tax Free". Very prophetic stuff, too. One thing that helped me get into it was hearing stripped down versions--the piano demo for "Good Friends" in particular.

In all, an unexpected turn for Joni that yielded some amazing results that (given our climate today as well as the quality of the music) is well worth reassessing.

 

Always enjoyed this album. The Three Great Stimulants is my favorite song. Any album with Rod Steiger and a cigarette machine can't be all bad.

 

Agreed!!

 

Night Ride Home should have been a big hit but it seemed like Geffen was over her by then. They had too many other big artists that they were focusing on at the time. Joni wasn't getting sales.

 

yes, talk about seeing into the future. one only needs to slog through the comments section on any controversial issue on social media to see that "everyone hates everyone". she was/is a visionary.

if you haven't read the new biography on her "reckless daughter" it is superb and the one time i would rather have a biography than an "auto-b" due to her aging anger.

 

One of my least favorite Joni albums, though it DOES contain one of her best songs:

 

The "Good Friends" demo from the Geffen box is very nice:

 

This thread raises the thought that it’s a shame that Joni Mitchell’s Geffen era work, along with the general music industry climate in the following decades took a negative toll on her musical career. (In turn, perhaps her visual art benefitted, instead.)

AFAIK, Music Industry pressures for sales numbers, Lack of radio airplay, Scathing critical reviews, career fatigue, and possibly increasing self doubt all took a critical hit.

The ultimate irony is that in the 21st Century, music artists are no longer tethered to those outdated standards.

(It’s a shame she became so disgruntled, and discouraged, she “tuned out” and turned away from her musical career.)

Since Joni was always evolving musically, one can only imagine what she could have created in the past several decades - especially if freed from those artistic anchors.

 

I agree about Night Ride Home, that album stands with her best work, but Dog Eat Dog and Chalk Mark... are both wonderful albums that seem to get forgotten about.

 

Just read the book "Reckless Daughter" whose author clearly hates this album aside from "Ethiopia." He's friendlier toward Chalk Mark which for me is her nadir.

 

I love this album and all of the "modern-for-the-time" production touches. I thought it was more interesting and had better songs than the previous album. I especially love the trilogy of political songs on the first side.

 

It seemed that Joni went back to being Joni with Night Ride Home on so she found her way again musically. She was probably more frustrated with the lack of sales and attention her releases got. Turbulent Indigo wasn't a big seller so it was a surprise she got a Grammy for it. She slowed her releases down for sure as there was minimal drive to do it if it wasn't going to sell. Her Both Sides Now/Travelogue period is great though and so is Shine. She ended on a high note and giving us a pure original Joni album with Shine.