Joni Mitchell: "Court and Spark" Song by Song Thread

Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in America. He broke the color barrier in the '40s. He wasn't always treated the greatest for it, but he was very talented and now an American sports legend.

 

He makes an appearance at the 00:38 mark in this video for John Fogerty’s “Centerfield” - the “brown eyed handsome man” rounding third and heading for home.

 

^^ I guess "Jackie Robinson" is a name that's part of American popular culture and that every American would know, but I had never heard the name until now. I imagine much the same would be true if some famous Australian sportsman from the 1940s was referenced - Australians would get it immediately, everyone else would be scratching their heads.

 

Exactly! Agree!

 

I have the following Joni albums: Joni Mitchell, Clouds, Ladies of the canyon, Blue, Hissing of summer lawns and Court and spark.

Which one should I buy next?


I love her btw

 

Hejira. Without a doubt.

I'll also put a vote in for For The Roses, and her 2 live albums (Miles of Aisles, and Shadows & Light.)

 

Hejira and For the Roses. Those are the two you are missing from her first eight albums. They also happen to be my two favorite Joni Mitchell albums. Both are absolutely stunning.

 

Seems like For The Roses gets unfairly ignored because of the 2 albums on either side of it.

 

@Parachute Woman I think you nailed why I love Joni in your earlier posts. She tends to have very intimate and personal lyrics, as if she's telling the the listener "I've been in the same situation"

I also agree that Hejira is my favourite of hers too!

 

Yes, and it has always baffled me. "For The Roses" is right up there with the other two.

 

Indeed. Good album but treated like a black sheep during her prime.

 

Hejira is definitely my favorite Joni album, and "Refuge of the Roads" is her masterpiece for me....among so many other wonderful songs, this one just hits me harder than any other.

 

My favourites are Blue and Hissing

 

I think of For the Roses as a companion album to Court and Spark. Admittedly that's because a friend introduced me to both of those albums at the same time, but there is also a similarity in that Roses shows the beginnings of the jazz influence on her writing, which is carried further in C&S and brought to full fruition on the following three albums. In that sense Roses is a bit of a transition album. Without such a transition album, the change in style between Blue and Court and Spark would seem very abrupt.

 

Can't wait until the Hissing thread... I've been listening closely to the lyrics on that album, (inspired by this thread) and while most of the lyrics on C&S are pretty straightforward, Hissing is far more open to multiple interpretations... the jarring shift between those albums is not just musical. Joni adopts a different approach to the lyrics as well, and it's certainly intentional... each album of hers, while not a "concept" album per se, definitely had a unifying theme.

 

There is no need to wait. The Hissing thread has already been done, as have threads for all Joni's albums.

Joni Mitchell: "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" Song by Song Thread

Threads for the other albums have similar names.

 

During college, I had a friend whose tastes ran more in the direction of Korn & Primus, and he wanted to expand his musical palette... I was think he was puzzled by the sheer range of music I owned and sampled. I made him cassette dubs of Blue, Court & Spark, & Hissing (the three albums by Joni that I owned at the time.) He played them over a weekend and declared that Hissing was his favorite... at the time, I thought he was nuts. That had been the hardest one for me to get into... I considered it self-indulgent, but over time it really grew on me. I can't choose a favorite Joni album, but that run from Ladies to Heijira may be the greatest run of LP's by any artist in popular music.

 

Oh, drat. That thread is over a year old. I was hoping to follow along and contribute in real time. I have some reading ahead of me...

 

If I could combine best songs from her first two albums, that would be the best Joni Mitchell LP ever. Followed by Court & Spark. If I could remove "Shadows and Light' and "The Jungle Line" from "The Hissing of Summer Lawns" and replace them with "The Judgment of the Moon and the Stars" and "A Strange Boy", that would be her third best LP. For her fourth best LP, I'd take a few tracks from "Hejira", a few tracks from "For the Roses" and add "Green" from "Blue". Her fifth best LP would consist of the remnants from "Hejira", "For the Roses" and some tracks from "Blue" (I'm not a big fan of "Blue", believe it or not).

After these top five, I'd mix "Blue" with a few tracks from "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", or some tracks from "Ladies of the Canyon" (also not one of my favourites). The rest of her songs are quite 'meh' compared to her top 6 LPs. She took a left turn with "Mingus" and that's when I stopped passionately following her.

 

The more I listen to it, the more I like it.
The first side is perfect