Joni Mitchell: "Song to a Seagull" Song by Song Thread

I have long harbored a desire to start a thread dedicated to Joni Mitchell. I would like to talk about her songs specifically, rather than creating a general thread, and I thought that song by song seemed like the right format. Today I'm beginning this thread to discuss Joni's 1968 debut album, Song to a Seagull.

If people seem interested, I would love to continue the series with more of Joni's albums. A search shows me that a few Joni song by song threads have been run in the past, but they were over ten years ago.

I will begin with general info and we can start by sharing overall thoughts on the record, and then we will go through the album song by song.

Song to a Seagull (aka Joni Mitchell)



Album Notes

Released: March 1968
Produced by David Crosby
Engineer: Art Cryst

Musicians:
Joni Mitchell on piano and guitar
Stephen Stills on bass
Lee Keefer and Joni Mitchell on banshee

This album is dedicated to Mr. Kratzman, who taught me to love words. (Joni's Grade 7 English teacher)

All songs written by Joni Mitchell

Cover photos: Mark Roth, Ed Thrasher
Album cover art by Joni Mitchell
Art direction: Ed Thrasher



The album was recorded at Sunset Sound in Hollywood, California during the later part of 1967. David Crosby was assigned as producer as part of the deal with Reprise Records. Crosby wanted Mitchell to sound pure and natural, so he asked her to sing into the studio grand piano, and set up extra microphones to capture her voice repeating off the strings; unfortunately the set up captured too much ambient noise, resulting in excessive tape hiss, which could only be removed post-production at the cost of the high sounds in the audio range, which gives the album a flat feel.

Mitchell had written songs that were hits for other artists (e.g., "Both Sides Now" and "Chelsea Morning" by Judy Collins and Dave Van Ronk, "Eastern Rain" by Fairport Convention, "Urge for Going" and "The Circle Game" by Tom Rush), but none of those songs were recorded for her debut.

This album was originally released as Joni Mitchell because the LP album covers were printed incorrectly, cutting off part of the "Song to a Seagull" title (spelled out by birds in flight). The cut-off, as well as the publishers at Reprise Records not noticing the birds spelled out the album name, caused the eponymous album title.

The two sides of the LP were labelled as Part 1 – "I Came to the City", and Part 2 – "Out of the City and Down to the Seaside".

Contemporary Reviews

"Don't buy this album UNLESS you are willing to sit back, relax and listen with gentle ears. To her credit, Joni Mitchell's album is not Musak. It irritates me not to listen to it. With a single exception, it is a single voice and a lonely guitar [if you don't include a secondary "banshee" riff which may bring you to your window, or sound system, according to your own perverse peculiarity in frightening sound situations."
Los Angeles Times, March 1968

"Here is Joni Mitchell. A penny-yellow blonde with a vanilla voice. Influenced, or appearing influenced by Judy Collins, gingham, leather, lace, Producer David Crosby (the ex-Byrd), Robert Herrick, North Battleford (Saskatchewan), New York (New York), Gordon Lightfoot, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Chuck, seagulls, dolphins, Dairy Queen floats, the Lovin' Spoonful, rain, sunlight, garbage, metermaids and herself."
Michigan Daily, April 1968

"Joni Mitchell has recorded an album without orchestration. She plays acoustic guitar. Her only side-man is Stephen Stills (of the Buffalo Springfield) on one number ("Night in the City") because, she says, "he came up with a beautiful bass line that I just couldn't deny." Her main studio trick is to dub in her voice a second time as a choral answer on certain songs (especially good in stereo).

'If I'd recorded a year ago," as Joni tells it, "I would have used lots of orchestration. No one would have let me put out an acoustic album. They would have said it's like having a whole paintbox and using only brown. But today is a better time to be recording. It's like in fashion. There's no real style now. You find who you are and you dress accordingly. In music today I feel I can put down my songs with an acoustic guitar and forget the violins and not feel that I need them.'

Joni has let her songs find out who they are and has dressed them accordingly. As a result, instead of following others' directions she has started on her own. If you ignore this album because you have enough old acoustic Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Bonnie Dobson records, you'll be like someone ignoring spring because he's seen it once before."
Michigan Daily, April 1968

"Sometimes it's the voice of a little girl, all pink and clean and full of wonder. The voice of innocence. And sometimes it's the strong and slightly melancholy voice of a woman, a voice that's hurting a little. It's fascinating – the voice of the woman who has grown up and knocked around without losing the little girl inside her.

It belongs to folksinger Joni Mitchell, and it has never sounded more appealing that it does on her first album, Joni Mitchell (Reprise RS 6293) which was released this week in Toronto. It's an exciting album; it displays a wonderful talent. And if there's any justice in these things (which, of course, there isn't) it will make Joni Mitchell a star."
Toronto Daily Star, April 1968

 

I'm interested

 

My favorite Joni album, and The Dawntreader is by far my favorite Joni song.

 

As a teenager, I spent over a year with just two tapes in my first car (someone broke in and stole the rest)

Tape 1 - Joni Mitchell - Song To A Seagull/Clouds
Tape 2 - The Band Music From The Big Pink/Grateful Dead Workingman Dead

So I have very fond memories of this album......listened to it early morning, late at night, middle of summer and height of winter. I remember the day I bought it, and when I play it I can even recall every detail of the moment I played it including how I felt, the smell of the album cover etc; and although I had other Joni albums before this (and grew to love others more) it remains a ethereal thing of beauty.

I was playing something else this evening and this thread popped up, and I have stopped playing the other album and dug this out once more...like welcoming an old friend with a hug.

 

Beautiful post

 

I'm so glad to see some interest! I'll give people a little time to find the thread before I open things up with the first song.

I got into Joni Mitchell when I was in high school, around age 15. At that time, my music collection was made up entirely of CDs I saved up to purchase from Best Buy or Circuit City. The only two Joni albums either of those stores ever had in stock were Blue and Court and Spark. I also got the Hits compilation, just for a few more songs. And that was all I had for a long time because I couldn't find any of the other albums. It wasn't until a bit later that I was able to start ordering music online and I began to collect Joni in earnest. Her music was incredibly important to me when I was in college--a real life-line for me during a difficult time in my life.

Song to a Seagull was one of the last of her '60s and '70s albums I heard and I instantly thought it was very underrated. It never seemed to get mentioned among classics of the singer-songwriter/folk genre or among Joni's best, but I have always been smitten with it. I love the incredibly bare production and I find it to be a very sense-oriented album. It is full of smells and colors and sounds and tastes. Really an album that opens me up with such beautiful, naked songs on it. Natural...it smells like the seaside and fresh paint and breezy kitchens.

Wonderful post! I would like it more than once if I could.

 

I bought the album back in '75 I think. That was the year I discovered her music on a special
presentation on a local FM station. At that time it became my favorite by her because every melody
on that album is a winner. Really liked Sisotowbell Lane, The Dawntreader and Cactus Tree.

The album sounds dated in many ways but that doesn't mean it isn't enjoyable because
it also seems as timeless as most good music.

 

Okay, I'm going to go ahead and open discussion up for the first track on the album.

SIDE ONE: "I Came to the City"

Track 1: "I Had a King"


I had a king in a tenement castle
Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown
He's taken the curtains down
He's swept with the broom of contempt
And the rooms have an empty ring
He's cleaned with the tears
Of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can they never can

I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley
Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind
He lives in another time
Ladies in gingham still blush
While he sings them of wars and wine
But I in my leather and lace
I can never become that kind

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can they never can

I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage
Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon
Beware of the power of moons
There's no one to blame
No there's no one to name as a traitor here
The king's on the road
And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can they never can

Known Inspiration
The Joni Mitchell documentary Woman of Heart and Mind goes into great detail about this song, which was written about Joni's failed early marriage to folk singer Chuck Mitchell.

 

I Had a King
I think this is a pretty sensational song to begin one's career on. Joni was already having success as a songwriter, but opening her career as a recording artist with "I Had a King" was brilliant. This is a deeply personal song, but Joni wraps the story in an allusion and disguises some of her heart. She's not quite yet at the point of Blue and the boldly open writing of that period. Her early songs are often just as personal, but usually ambiguous. This is a song about a failed marriage. Joni creates a stately melody that pairs well with the lyrics that sound like something from a sad fairy-tale. The queen cries at the end of her love affair. It feels like something of another time--something mythical. And that's just the point. The lyrics point out the fact that Joni thought Chuck was of another time:

He lives in another time
Ladies in gingham still blush
While he sings them of wars and wine
But I in my leather and lace
I can never become that kind

He imagines himself as this sex god folk singer with all the giggling girls blushing and worshiping him...but Joni can't be that for him. She can't live an old-fashioned marriage. She wants to be creative and independent. This is a major theme of her career. So many of her songs have that searching, yearning quality as she looked for love, inspiration, appreciation, understanding. She didn't want to be a housewife, but she was also always a deep romantic with a love of companionship. It's a major conflict of her life and work. Joni is not of the era of courtly love and giving it all up for the king.

Later, we have what I think is the key section of the lyrics:

I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage
Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon
Beware of the power of moons
There's no one to blame
No there's no one to name as a traitor here

No one is to blame for the failure of the marriage. They just weren't right for each other and they were much too young. Joni had a different path to take. She looks back at the marriage with sadness, but it made her wiser. Not knowing the backstory, one could hear this song as a piece of pure storytelling and myth-making, but digging deeper we get our first look at Joni as an individual.

It's worth noting that Graham Nash made his own allusion to this song after his break-up with Joni. He wrote a song called "I Used to Be a King" for his Songs for Beginners album. They were in love, but he lost Joni as well.

 

This album is one of only a few that I don’t have from Joni. I just realized last week that P.M. Dawn’s “The Ways of the Wind” is an interpolation of “I Had A King”!
I’m going to explore the album further but that blew my mind.

 

I already knew some of Joni's songs prior to the release of this album, through cover versions. I was working in a record store at the time, and the album was highly anticipated by the whole staff. When it arrived, we all loved it so much that it completely dominated the turntable for at least a week.

I've followed Joni throughout her career, but this album holds a very special place in my mind and heart. When I play it, it takes me right back to 1968.

The perfect companion to Song To A Seagull is the wonderful set of bootlegs from Joni's shows at the Second Fret club in Philadelphia, from 1966 to 1968. Her talent as a performer was amazing even in those early days.

 

It's mine as well, and "Marcie" is my favorite Joni song. Either that or "Sisotowbell Lane"

 

"The Dawntreader" for me. Such evocative imagery ... I searched most of my life for the girl in that song, with me as the man she's singing about. That's the effect early Joni's songs had on me.

 

Michael from Mountains and Cactus Tree are my favorite tracks on this album.

Joni's poetic lyrics are stunning.

 

I think "I Had a King" is my favourite song from the album, but really it's all good - and, importantly. it is not all the same, the moods shift just enough to keep one interested. Possibly my favourite of her folk period, which I regard as consisting of the first four albums (though Ladies of the Canyon comes close).

"Night In the City" is the only song that sounds a little bit out of place, though I still like it. When I acquired this album a couple of years ago I realised that NitC was a familiar tune that I had heard years earlier but had never known who it was.

 

It always intrigued me that although the marriage failed, Joni kept her ex-husband's surname. It's common, one might almost say normal, for female performers to perform under their maiden name even when they are happily married (witness Toni Tenille), and that was the case even in the 1960s.

It may have been for the best, as we probably don't need yet another Anderson in popular music. We have Jon, Ian, and Benny - that's enough to go on with.

 

I thought "I Had A King" was almost a devastating way to start this album - it starts in the very midst of realising your no longer in love, there are doubts there that she ever was, although in realising she cannot possibly be the person her husband needs her to be, there is personal hope as she discovers her way out towards her own personal journey.

Very stark and personal this song; a vulnerability which makes way for an adamant, almost defiant refusal to continue....personality traits that we would later find out are very Joni...and to capture this in the first song.....when you think of other songs she had already written at this time, this is a bold statement as a songwriter for a first song. It is no wonder her peers were in awe.

The thing that always sat in my mind with this album is there is a very baroque tone to this album and I may explain more as we work through the songs.

 

I’ve only listened to this album completely once, and it happened to be when I was watching the sunset on Moonstone Beach in Cambria. It was really beautiful. I mainly listen to Joni’s jazzy period but I know I need to go back and give this another listen.

 

This thread would be a nice chance for you to play it again.

It probably has to do with what name they have when they first gain notoriety. If they get famous with their maiden name, they'll keep it as their stage name even after marriage. Joni was married to Chuck Mitchell from 1965-1967 and it was during this period that she was first established as a performer and songwriter. I'd guess she kept it for that reason. "Joni Mitchell" also has a nice ring to it, I think, and rolls off the tongue well.

 

I got round to istening to this album for the first time 20 years into my Joni fandom, after having developed an ever so slight aversion to the 1969-70 Joni era. 'I had a king' immediately dispelled the negativity. OK the slightly mannered Baez/Collins- influenced delivery takes a while to draw you in, but the baroque pop arrangement and songwriting was above any preconception I had from tiring of 'Clouds' and ''Canyons".
I'm not sure if the album is done any favours with this as the opening song. It makes it a bit top heavy: 'Had a king' goes too deep on a psychological level to be suitable for frequent repitition,

 

A heartfelt THANK YOU to the OP for this thread.

Even though Joni is well respected and admired by many members on this forum, I believe she is sadly forgotten and underrated by most people.

I believe she is at the top of the heap in the singer/songwriter genre---and that includes all the usual iconic suspects---Dylan, Neil, Leonard, Waits, James Taylor, etc. etc.

Her talent is SO unique---tunings, incredible vocal range, poetic imagery, determination to do things her way (could also be called stubbornness), willingness to explore different styles for the sake of art--- not commerce, that she is a one person genre all by herself.

I am looking forward very much to exploring her catalogue song by song and will chime in when I think I can add to the discussion.

 

Interesting post! It is quite a mournful song to open the record with, isn't it? Thinking about Joni's choices for album openers, she seemed to alternate between slow burn openers (Tin Angel, Banquet, Court and Spark) and more uptempo ones with a bit more movement to them (Morning Morgantown, All I Want, In France They Kiss on Main Street, Coyote). I think both styles have their place and I can pick favorites from both groups.

The mannered style you mention isn't something that has ever bothered me with Joni because I just like her voice so much and think it has so much natural character. She always seemed to sing in just the right way for each individual song. I think "I Had a King" suits this kind of stately style.

You're so welcome and thank you for joining! Wonderful post and I agree with every word. She is truly one of a kind and one of the all-time greatest. There is no need for the "female" qualifier she is so often given. She's one of the best singer-songwriters, period. She seems to be known just for "Big Yellow Taxi" in many circles, which saddens me.

 

I'd say there are three songs for which Joni is chiefly known, and there would be many people who know only these:

• Both Sides Now
• Big Yellow Taxi
• Woodstock (but they are more likely to know the CSNY version)

 

Yes, this seems fair. "River" has also become something of a Christmas standard and gets covered a lot around the holidays. The more I think about it, though, I would say that most of the great singer-songwriters are only known by most people for a handful of songs. Even Dylan. Their songs just aren't played on the radio in my experience, which was always the surefire ticket to lasting impact with the average listener. A shame.

 

And I would think that Both Sides Now would be more known by Judy Collins' version. One more candidate for this list is Help Me