Joni Mitchell: "Both Sides Now (2000 Album)" Song by Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, Jan 30, 2019.

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  1. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Both Sides Now
    I can't pick which version of 'Both Sides Now' I prefer. I think the real magic of the song actually comes in taking both versions together. The one on Clouds was written by a very young woman who had already experienced quite a bit in life, sung in that lovely soprano. This remake captures the same woman some thirty years later, reflecting on the fact that despite everything she has experienced she still doesn't know life or love or clouds at all. Hearing the two songs back to back tells an incredible story and, I think, illustrates some of the amazing qualities of Joni Mitchell's catalog as a whole. It has always been so personal and we have been able to trace Joni's individual journey over the years through her songs, words, her voice. Listening to the complete works of a singer-songwriter is a deeply emotional process, for me anyway. This version of 'Both Sides Now' is absolutely beautifully sung by Joni, with so much restraint and subtlety as she really lives each word. The arrangement is also subtle, simply painting the backdrop for her voice before flowering in the final moments of the song. It is quite stunning and I'm so glad that Joni recorded this version. It makes the original even better and it has always been such an amazing and complete composition.


    A reminder: tomorrow we will have a day for discussion on Travelogue right here in this thread. The following day, I will open up the very last thread of the series for Shine.
     
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  2. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I never want this to end. Can't you add another new verse or five Joni? Then perhaps it wouldn't be that great to gild the very pure white of the original lily.
    I have my problems understanding why everyone went so crazy about the 1969 version but if anything think this version is underrated.
    I've got used to her titling the album after the song, now. At the time it came out I thought she could have found an inner self- reference from the song.
     
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  3. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Hey, PW, how about just starting a Travelogue album thread? That way, you won't be tied down by 3 weeks of song-by-song discussion, and fans of the album will still have a dedicated place to discuss it now and in the future. Win-win. You're welcome! :D
     
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  4. Newton John

    Newton John Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cumbria, UK
    If Travelogue deserves it's own thread, there's also a good case to be made for Miles of Aisles and Shadows and Light.

    I have to confess I am struggling with Both Sides Now as an album.

    I came to it knowing the title track is magnificent. If she'd never made another album, I consider that this version of the song would have been a fitting end to her career (I haven't heard Travelogue yet).

    Also, I am impressed that she had it in her to produce an album of standards. It's the kind of thing my parents' generation would have loved. Yet, I can't say I enjoy listening to it as a whole.

    Nevertheless, I'm not giving up on it and will live it a few more listens.
     
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  5. I'll stick around, too. I just started listening to Shine on the way to work this morning. Once again, it's brand new to me, but I liked the opening instrumental track.

    "Both Sides Now" in its original form is not my jam. I don't connect with folksy, 60s or 70s stuff. I love the version here oodles more. Oodles & oodles!
    I dig that in retrospect she is still lost as a result of her misguided romances and the passionate forays her heart pursues. Her voice is revealing and almost tired. Beautifully tired. This is one of my favorite tracks.

    My other favorites:
    I think "Comes Love" is my favorite. I love the low drones of the bass trombones and the rest of the arrangement is great.
    "You're My Thrill" & "At Last" are terrific starts to the record.
    Towards the end, the last two tracks really stand out.

    I haven't heard Travelogue as of yet, but I look forward to the idea. I just want to throw out that for purposes of searches on the forum, a separately titled Travelogue Appreciation Thread may be more helpful for any one who is not currently involved in these discussions, but might be curious in a year or two down the road.
    The one aspect that I look forward to in listening to Travelogue is the same I bring to live records: I am interested in what the new arrangements bring to the table.
     
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  6. maui jim

    maui jim Forum Resident

    Location:
    West of LA
    PW. Am sorry I missed this thread. Was not aware of it til today. My morning is most afternoons for you out here in the Pacific. And the thread was gone from pg 1 by then. Didn’t this album come in a hat box ? Think so cause I sold it back when I left the mainland. Like most others here, not a fan of this album.
     
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  7. WaterLemon

    WaterLemon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Massachusetts
    I haven’t had much to add about this album. Like many other commenters, these arrangements don’t do as much for me as most other Joni albums. Throughout all these threads, I gotta say you lot, lead by Parachute Woman, have shed so much insight into the back story of Joni’s songs and musical creativity. Thanks to one and all. I’m looking forward to revisiting Travelogue which has sat dormant in my music collection for far too long.
     
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  8. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    With this final song on her last album of her reprise with Reprise, she fulfilled her contractual obligations and to finish off what had become a jaded relationsship with the record company, together theh found a way to present her songs that suited her vocal range / limitations and at the same time challenged her to discover new talents. Did the album cost the company or singer much to record? Probably not so much. Even on poor sales it can't have been a financial disaster. I just don't understand Reprise not trying harder to keep Joni.
    Her new Nonesuch contract on the other hand laid out a pavement of gold to give her a much bigger budget. Double album, luxurious packaging, many more players and arrangers on hand in the studio and the rest is history...
    Nonesuch's communications department certainly knew how to convey the appropriate level of respect for their artist:

    With the dazzling aplomb of an idea whose time has come, Travelogue, the long-awaited new Joni Mitchell double CD release on Nonesuch Records, re-imagines twenty-two essential selections from the trove of this legendary artist’s expansive repertoire. Set in gorgeous soundscapes courtesy of a 70-member London-based orchestra, a 20-voice choir and a select cast of special musical guests, this resplendent offering features Joni Mitchell in some of the most resonant and revealing performances of her career.

    It’s an enterprise that underscores several already well-established facts from an entirely new, and aesthetically audacious, perspective. First and foremost: the songs of Joni Mitchell endure. With material that reaches back to 1970, including such classics as “The Circle Game” and “Woodstock” (from Ladies Of The Canyon) through such mid-90’s milestones as “Sex Kills” and “Borderline” (from Turbulent Indigo), and a full spectrum of artfully chosen tracks in between, Travelogue is a superb tutorial on songwriting that survives and thrives in any number of musical contexts.

    Travelogue also proves conclusively that Joni Mitchell has entered into a new and richly nuanced phase of a career already marked by constant creative evolution. This latest metamorphosis began to take shape with 2000’s Both Sides Now, a torch singing homage that also matched a full orchestra to her evocative and richly textured vocals in a tour de force that proved nothing less than a revelation to both her newly-minted and long established fans.

    Finally, the triumph of Travelogue conclusively consolidates Joni Mitchell’s reputation as an artist for the ages. One of the most powerful singers and songwriters of the modern era, she has fashioned a body of work which has influenced going on three generations of aspiring musicians and songwriters. Yet, from the abundant evidence of Travelogue, it remains an indisputable fact that there is no more gifted an interpreter of the music of Joni Mitchell than Joni Mitchell.

    Aiding in this ambitious recasting of a repertoire highlighting both hidden treasures and certified hits is a phalanx of A-list collaborators beginning with co-producer Larry Klein. Another indispensable collaborator is arranger and conductor Vince Mendoza, whose work on Travelogue elevates his longstanding creative partnership with Joni to a whole new level. The same could well be said for such stalwarts as drummer Brian Blades, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and saxman Wayne Shorter. It’s an impressive creative complement rounded out by the likes of Billy Preston on the mighty Hammond B-3, bassists Larry Klein and Chuck Berghofer; Plas Johnson on tenor sax, Kenny Wheeler, flugelhorn, and percussionist Paulinho DaCosta.

    This powerhouse ensemble anchors the magisterial splendor of the orchestra in an inspired selection of some the artist’s most exquisite melodies, creating a richly textured musical tapestry against which her lyrics find lush and lustrous new meaning. Travelogue is, in short, a tour de force by an artist working at the very height of her expressive powers.

    One of the great pleasures of Travelogue is, in fact, the way in which it refashions our perceptions of many of the milestones that brought Joni Mitchell to these very heights. The tune stack of the double disc is, in itself, a travelogue of sorts, tracing a musical journey to the sweeping vistas of this present destination. It’s a journey that began nearly three decades ago, with such landmark releases as Song to a Seagull, Ladies Of The Canyon, Blue, For The Roses and Court And Spark. Key tracks from those albums, including the above mentioned “Woodstock” and “The Circle Game,” as well as “The Dawntreader,” “For The Roses,” “Judgment Of The Moon And Stars (Ludwig’s Tune),” “Trouble Child,” “Just Like This Train” and “The Last Time I Saw Richard,” provide a familiar point of departure even as they are recast in Travelogue thrilling new musical milieu. From 1976’s pioneering stylistic departure, Hejira, comes the song of the same name and the standout cuts “Amelia” and “Refuge Of The Roads.” Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter (’77) yields “Otis And Marlena” and from the exuberant jazz fusions of 1979’s Mingus, “God Must Be A Boogie Man.” Culled from Joni’s seminal 1982 album Wild Things Run Fast are a quartet of memorable selections, “You Dream Flat Tires,” “Love,” “Be Cool” and “Chinese Café /Unchained Melody,” while more recent material includes “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” (based on a poem by W.B. Yeats) and “Cherokee Louise” from 1991’s Night Ride Home, and three tracks from ‘92’s epochal Turbulent Indigo: “The Sire Of Sorrows” (Job’s Sad Song from The Old Testament), “Sex Kills” and “Borderline.”

    It’s a repertoire of almost encyclopedic range, yet among the many accomplishments of Travelogue is the way in which it elicits new meaning and fresh connections from this wealth of music. It is not simply the glorious orchestral accompaniment that unites these songs into a single, breathtaking listening experience, but a vocal performance that stands as one of Joni’s most potent and persuasive.

    The album was recorded earlier this year at Sir George Martin’s Air Studios in London. Acclaimed filmmakers Allison Anders (Gas, Food, Lodging; Grace of My Heart- for which Joni composed the song “Man From Mars”; Things Behind the Sun) and Alistair Donald (Wingspan) were invited to document these historic sessions and the post-production in Los Angeles. The resulting hour-long documentary, tentatively titled Circle Game: The Making of Joni Mitchell’s Travelogue, offers an intimate look at Joni’s creative process and includes exclusive interview footage with her and some of the other legendary artists participating in the project. It also documents some of the unexpected challenges of making the album such as a studio fire that nearly destroyed the master tapes. The film has been submitted to the Sundance Film Festival for possible screening in early 2003.
     
    Last edited: Feb 12, 2019
  9. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I'm going to take @Planbee's advice and start an album thread for Travelogue later this morning. It will not be in song by song format, but will an open-ended discussion for anyone who wishes to participate. That will run side by side with the Shine thread, which I'll start up tomorrow. I'm not going to do the live albums, as I have almost no interest in them and rarely listen to live albums.

    @HenryFly --I hope you will repost this beautiful post about Travelogue in that new thread I start up this morning. I'll tag you, and everyone here.
     
  10. Fortysomething

    Fortysomething Forum Resident

    Location:
    Californ-i-a
    Sadly, I missed this entire thread.

    But I do love Both Sides Now. Especially her songs, but I love the entire album.
     
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  11. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
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  12. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    I wonder if this was Joni's inspiration?

     
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  13. DmitriKaramazov

    DmitriKaramazov Senior Member

    Out of all of Joni's many many glorious and wonderful performances, this, this is the one that I prize, most of all!

    This "re-imagining" of an old song just slays me every time.

    -- David
     
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  14. Yovra

    Yovra Collector of Beatles Threads

    I heard this track on my MP3-stick containing a few podcasts and radio-shows during the long car-travels....this one was a revelation; what a beautiful song and a great version!
     
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