Joni Mitchell: "Dog Eat Dog" Song by Song Thread

Here she is at Farm Aid that year, not smoking what Willie was smoking.

 

Next up:

Track 6: "Dog Eat Dog"


DOG EAT DOG
WORDS AND MUSIC BY Joni Mitchell
DON HENLEY, JAMES TAYLOR, JONI MITCHELL – Background Vocals
© 1985 Crazy Crow Music BMI

Lyrical Excerpt:
Dog Eat Dog
It's dog eat dog
I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white washed hawks
pedal hate and call it love
Dog Eat Dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

Joni on the song:
"Dog Eat Dog"
As the first few lines imply, this was my political awakening. I was robbed by my bank, by the government of California, by everyone around me who could- all at once. I was a kid with unguarded marbles.

During the Reagan era, greed became fashionable. We had come through the optimism of the '60s, then the apathy of the '70s and finally, the accelerated consumerism of the '80s- the hippie, yippie, yuppie.

 

Here's Joni doing a solo piano version of 'Dog Eat Dog' at Farm Aid in 1985:


This just reveals that the music/melody/structure of this song are pretty good. I have no problems with any of that. When it is just stripped down to Joni and piano, you can hear all the classic 'Mitchell' elements of the composition of the song. As always with this album, my problems lie with the lyrics and the production. Those awful '80s drums on this track just don't do it for me. They actively take away from my enjoyment of the track, from Joni's voice... Hearing this one song done acoustically (and the demo for 'Good Friends' shared earlier in the thread) really makes me wish I could hear this album stripped of all the 1985 production. I know others like it. I don't. Again, no comment on the lyrics.

 

This dog of a song breaks Joni's streak of great title songs. It's not boring, but for whatever reason it doesn't make much of an impression on me at all. It doesn't play in my head when I think of it, and that kinda freaks me out. I played it twice to make sure, but nope ... Teflon. Slid right off.

It's indistinguishable. The production is rote, and the lyrics are depressingly banal. It pains me to say it, but some of the lines border on amateurish.

If the credits didn't say James Taylor and Don Henley were back there, I never would've known. They blend into the murk.

The Farm Aid version is an improvement, but as any farmer will tell you, you can't polish a cow patty.

 

Finally, we are back to having a proper song! "Dog Eat Dog" is a pretty ordinary song by Joni's standards, it's listenable but unremarkable. It's an improvement over the previous three tracks, I'll say that for it.

 

Agree it's a very average song, but Wild Things Run Fast is no better.

 

Is it clutching at straws to say that the long fade ending means the song only outstays its welcome by about 45 seconds? (which is far better than the average up to now with this album)

 

I'm quite the fan of that one, which puts me in the minority here.

But I'll be the first to agree it's no "Hejira".

 

Indeed. In the case of a couple of the earlier songs, the amount by which the song outstays its welcome is equal to the track length of the song.

 

Hmmm. Thinks: might be a good topic for a poll.

Poll: Best album title song by Joni Mitchell

 

Joni included this entire run of songs we’ve been talking about from “Fiction” forward (excepting “Smokin’”), plus two other songs from Dog Eat Dog, on The Beginning of Survival, a collection no one asked for of her most grouchy and pessimistic latter day songs. I’d like to see the sales figures on that one.

Joni seemed frustrated that people didn’t care for or take heed of these message songs, but then she also placed them in musically unappealing settings...

 

Probably my least fav Joni album. Most are great, some are innocuous, this one is annoying.

 

I think the synth is worse than the drums on "Dog Eat Dog": so banal & lacking melody.

 

I have it. So that's one sold. And it's a great sequence of songs. Makes listening to the Dog and Chalk Mark songs more pleasurable.

 

Late to the thread, sorry, but don’t really have much to say. I’ve never listened to this album all the way through.

Hearing some of these songs for the first time, my first thought is, holy balls, what a monumentally crappy decade the 80’s was music-wise.

Did anyone ever like electronic drums?

 

It wasn't just the drums, what about the clothes ... Joni on the BBC1 program Terry Wogan Show with some band or other. I've posted this before on a previous thread, but there's an interview with Terry at the finish to enjoy.

JONI MITCHELL-GOOD FRIENDS-WOGAN-BBC 1-DEC. 6. 1985.

 

I didn't enjoy it. It's as though she was determined to lower the bar in every aspect of her public presence.

 

Next up:

Track 7: "Shiny Toys"


SHINY TOYS
WORDS AND MUSIC BY Joni Mitchell
JERRY HEY – Horn arrangement
JERRY HEY, GARY GRANT – Trumpet, Flugelhorn
LARRY WILLIAMS – Saxaphone, Flute
DON HENLEY, JAMES TAYLOR, JONI MITCHELL – Background Vocals
THOMAS DOLBY, ZYG WINARD – Speakers

Lyrical Excerpt:
Whatever makes you "Yahoo"
Whatever makes your time feel satisfyin'
Whatever makes you
"Oh I'm so excited"
Whatever makes you feel
like you're right on time

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

This is one of the songs Joni didn't comment on in the Geffen recordings box set.

 

Shiny Toys
Oh God. The production on this track is even more artificial than the previous few songs. It also goes hogwild with the vocal samples and all those little spoken-word "I love my Porsche" and "Oh I'm so excited" bits are nothing but cringe for me. Again, I think the lyrics are obvious, cliched and don't actually have anything worthwhile to say--oh no, people like to escape their crappy lives and feelings of existential dread by having hobbies and buying things! The horror!! Joni comes off as sanctimonious in these lyrics. She's got it all figured out and we're just a bunch of materialistic a-holes. The production and melody are pure cheese. Another thumbs down from me.

I love Joni Mitchell, as you all should know by now. I can't wait to get away from this album, because it makes me say and feel bad things about her art. But even the greats have lowpoints.

 

I'm choking on the irony of Joni railing about how shiny toys ruin your living experience ... whilst using all her shiny studio toys to ruin my listening experience.

Ah, but this artificial sonic environment is supposed to make you appreciate the simple pleasure of standing on the beach watching seagulls! Well, job done, I guess. I'd much rather be listening to their cries right now.

She apparently coined the word "ratepoll". It's not in Webster's and Google search doesn't know what the hell to make of it.

I fear the younger me is getting the last laugh here. "Ha! And you thought you'd come to terms with '80s inauthenticity!".

 

She's dressing like Rickie Lee Jones trying to dress like Joni Mitchell. Copying her own copycat.

 

Nailed it!

I would argue that at that point Rickie Lee was more "Joni" than Joni was. The Magazine had come out a year earlier, and while it had some '80s touches they were more tastefully and organically done.

 

Thank heavens for Kate Bush in 80, 82, 85, and 89 each time carrying Joni's baton until she found her running shoes again.

 

And Kate Bush! Heavens yes!

Let us not forget 1985 was the year of Hounds of Love, in which she showed everybody how to properly use studio technology.

 

The Magazine ....must dig my CD copy out ...did you have the vinyl ? Rorschachs was a song, on the CD it was replaced by an instrumental. Daft.