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

Yep, looking forward to the Night Ride Home thread.

 

As for the Rickie Lee comparisons, there are similarities in their styles, but Rickie’s no copycat. She’s more bluesy than Mitchell, among other things.

 

"Ethiopia" is pretty trite, and I feel pretty bad saying that.

 

I like this album more than most here. No, it's not top tier Joni, but I play it more than Mingus.

 

I can understand her frustrations - these kinds of things don't always get money, power or resources into the hands that need them most - but I guess I would have appreciated her comment more if she'd talked about how she came to participate initially.

Because "Ethiopia" was not a song written years after the fact, with time to reflect on what happened, or after revelations about funds raised, etc. This song and album was released a matter of months after "Tears are Not Enough."

I'm not coming after Joni with pitchforks here....I just find it curious, and would have liked to know more about how she came to that conclusion after initially participating.

 

My 'Mingus: Dog ratio' is 10:1. Each to their own..

 

I don't know if you heard Dog Eat Dog on its release. But it wasn't as radical sounding then as I think it's being made out. That synth/keyboard/drum sound was everywhere. Certainly from UK hit making bands. Check out some Zappa albums from then. A lot are shot with that sound. The Joni sound of the early-mid seventies (not necessarily the albums leading to Mingus tho) was old hat and out of date in 1985. Although of course it swung back into fashion pdq. It now looks what it was - a 41 year old woman desperately trying to stay relevant. Time capsule.

 

I played it a fair bit when it came out, but just like Dylan's Arthur Baker mixed "Empire Burlesque" it disappeared utterly from my turntable as soon as I bought the three top albums I have from '85: The Smiths "Meat is Murder", Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" and Kate Bush "Hounds of Love". (forgot to mention REM 'Fables of the reconstruction').
Kate's album is the only one with synths on it, and brilliantly used.
Mingus appealed to me instantly from when I first heard 'A Chair in the sky' on BBC radio in 1989.

 

But she turned to Thomas Dolby. Are you familiar with any of his pre Dog stuff ? When it was reported in the music press she was involving him, I think there was general amazement and bewilderment.

 

Only his own short-lived chart career and his 'post-Dog' successful production work on Prefab Sprout's brilliant 'Jordan: The comeback'
I can vaguely recall the sceptical response to the Dolby collaboration in the music rags, although at that time I had a 'Record Collector' subscription. I first got properly contemporary when Q magazine started in 1986.

 

Q was great at the beginning. I like those albums you mention, owned most at some stage. The early eighties UK bands off the top of my hat - New Order, Soft Cell, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, the Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, Nick Kershaw, Joe Jackson (Night and Day album maybe), maybe even early Tears for Fears, possibly Alison Moyet. Very UK early eighties sound. I think that Kate Bush album influenced the next one - Chalk Mark - a lot.

This was the Dolby hit I was thinking of. Bit Gary Numan. So Joni knew what she was getting into.

 

Next:

Track 9: "Impossible Dreamer"


IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER
WORDS AND MUSIC BY Joni Mitchell
WAYNE SHORTER – Soprano Saxophone
ALEX ACUNA – Bata
© 1985 Crazy Crow Music BMI

Lyrical Excerpt:
In the darkest part of the night
Blue shadows conjure you
And in the brightest height of
the daylight
Sometimes I blink 'cause
I think I see you
Dreaming like you do

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

Joni on the song:
"Impossible Dreamer"
This is a tribute to Martin Luther King, John Lennon, and Robert Kennedy- to all those who gave us hope and were killed for it.

 

Impossible Dreamer
This one is pretty nice. The synths sound a tiny bit cheesy, but not too bad. The sentiment actually feels open-hearted from Joni, when she is so angry and bitter for much of the rest of the album. Her grumpiness has become kind of legendary, but it's a nice reminder that she is capable of writing kind and emotionally pure songs as well. I picked up on the John Lennon references right away, and thought the entire song was for him, but now I see that it was for MLK and Bobby Kennedy as well. It's very much a 'Baby Boomer in the 1980s' kind of song, but it has a nice feel to it and a nice melody as well. This is one of the stronger songs on the album, definitely.

 

Like I said way upthread, this song is too good to be on this album. One of my favorite Joni songs, maybe my favorite from this point forward.

 

Another song coming up at a coincidental time. On the Wednesday 38 years ago today, like millions, I was still completely dazed by what had happened at the Dakota that Monday night.

Joni's tribute is touching, despite the generic backing and simplistic (for her) lyrics.

Reading the lyrics for these past two albums feels like watching an Honors student suddenly turning in papers resembling the efforts of her most average classmates. It's disheartening.

But just the fact of her heart suddenly growing 3 sizes after being a Grinch for most of the album (sorta) makes up for it.

 

Sue Tierney, one of the key musicians to transcribe Joni's songs plays this on guitar. I always assumed it was written on keyboard. Would love to hear the first demos whichever instrument she used. Agree its a very special song. Top 10 even.

 

Sadly I have to agree; this is the biggest problem I have with all of JM's post-Mingus output. I get that she was looking for new musical styles, and I accept that her voice was changing. But those lyrics - it really does break my heart.

 

Yeah, I love the song as is, but I'd still like to hear a stripped-down version like we got for "Good Friends."

 

Kind of an over-generalization.

I know I am a fanboy of Night Ride Home - it is a desert island recording for me - but I don't think you've given that one a careful listen. Listen to the first tune, and especially the second, then get back to me regarding the lyrics. They make some of her earlier work - e.g. certain tunes on Court and Spark - look like fluff in comparison.

 

I know this may be a first for the internet but I think you're right about the lyrics on those two (and also for "Come in from the Cold").

But you lost me on the "fluff" I'm afraid.

 

"Impossible Dreamer" is the silver medal on this record, following "Good Friends".

 

We have come to the final song on the album:

Track 10: "Lucky Girl"


LUCKY GIRL
WORDS AND MUSIC BY Joni Mitchell
WAYNE SHORTER – Tenor Saxophone
© 1985 Crazy Crow Music BMI

Lyrical Excerpt:
I'm a lucky girl
I found my friend
I've been all around the world
Mission Impossible
Chasing the rainbow's end
Wise guys
Shy guys
And sly lover boys
With big bad bedroom eyes
I never loved a man I trusted
As far as I could pitch my shoe
'Til I loved you

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

Joni on the song:
"Lucky Girl"
"Lucky Girl" was a celebration of my relationship with Klein. Years after we split up, he was dating this girl and he said, "Joan-Joan, she wants to be worshiped." So I said, "Well, worship her for a while and watch her turn on you!" The man/woman thing is SUCH a turkey dance.

 

Lucky Girl
This one is okay. If 'Good Friends' is clearly the best on the album for me, the only other two I can kind of get behind are 'Impossible Dreamer' and this one. I just like the break from Joni's venom, I suppose, and to hear her write such nice things about her husband. Too bad her thoughts about the song afterwards (after they got divorced) are full of that same old negative streak... Well, the song itself seems very sincere for the time and a jarringly uplifting note on which to end such a downer of a record.

Phew. This record really tries my patience.

 

I felt the strangest sensation listening to these two final tracks. I couldn't quite put my finger on it and then it dawned on me ... she's actually singing.

Not haranguing; not emanating bitter, clipped tones. Singing. I missed it.

"Lucky Girl" is an insubstantial bit of fluff, but I actually mean that as a compliment. After eating gruel for most of the album, it's like getting cotton candy for dessert.

Wayne's solo is the highlight for me. It gives me the same feels as listening to the Weather Report albums of that era: hey, there are actual humans under all that digital fog!

We're all lucky girls to be putting this album behind us. Having lived with it again over the past 10 days, I feel it's like that family member you don't want to disown but that you also don't want to see very often.

I'm more fond of our next visitor, so I'm putting on my raincoat and getting my calcite stick prepared ...

 

I've been refraining from commenting through most of the individual songs.

I don't think my feelings are too original - I could only bear a handful of songs, found many of her thoughts more respectable than exciting or inspiring....

I should like this more than I do. I like Thomas Dolby and loved what he did with one of my favorite bands, Prefab Sprout. But I don't. And I don't think it's just production.

My dime store analysis of this after listening to this again track by track is much the same as it was years ago. And that analysis is this: Joni isn't really on this album.

I like nearly every Joni album, to varying degrees. There is always at least a bit of Joni on them. Her heart and mind, her wit, her longing, her observations. And her voice. There are a few later albums I don't love, but even there, I can find her, find some core of her voice and some songs to enjoy.

But this was the album that I just simply couldn't hear her on. This felt like someone else's idea of Joni. Geffen's idea, most likely. (Whether it's Geffen the company or Geffen the individual, not sure.)