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

Dog Eat Dog is not one of my favorite Joni albums. However, I do like "Lucky Girl" a lot.

The '80s sound of this album should not be solely attributed to Thomas Dolby. From what I've read, Joni decided on a 'modern' direction for the album *before* Dolby was hired. Klein and Joni heard Dolby's version of "Jungle Line" and loved it (Dolby was a huge Joni fan). Dolby was Joni's choice as producer.

Joni was obsessed with Marvin Gaye's "Trouble Man". She asked Dolby to come up with a programmed track that would re-create the tempo and groove of "Trouble Man". Dolby scoffed at the idea and a nasty verbal battle ensued. Dolby stormed out. He came back 2 weeks later but his input was no longer listened to at that point. Joni (and Larry Klein) eventually created the rhythm bed for Lucky Girl without Dolby's assistance.



The album sounded just like Joni wanted it to sound. This was not a situation in which a producer dragged a reluctant artist into a sound against their wishes.

After the album was released, Joni said that she viewed Dolby as a synth consultant rather that a producer. She was happy to disparage Dolby whenever an opportunity presented itself.

 

This is Dolby's 1981 version of Jungle Line that Joni found to be quite worthy:

 

Worthy? It isn't.

 

Re Joni and 80's music, I remember reading an interview in Musician magazine when Wild Things was released where the interviewer brought up the band Journey, assuming that Joni didn't care for their music, and Joni said that they had listened to Journey for ideas on mixing her album.

 

I don't hold Dolby the least bit culpable, and Prefab Sprout is the perfect example why. He produced Steve McQueen / Two Wheels Good just months before Dog Eat Dog and the stereotypical 80s touches on that one are applied judiciously.

They enhance the songs instead of detracting from them. Paddy McAloon is just as exacting as Joni, and yet he and Thomas worked well enough together to produce two of the finest albums of the decade.

 

Lucky Girl is my fave of the album and a song I have played to all of my daughters thru their teenage years.
You know the new commercial for amazon echo, where the college bound female asks Alexa to play dads playlist and the
Faces oo La La starts up? Am hoping my daughters view Lucky Girl the same way. Cause they are.

 

Joni thinks more like an artist than musician and she sees her music like her paintings. She took big risks in the music to match the anger in her words. Overall I like it, much more now than 30 years ago.

Here's a little excerpt from an interview she gave with BBC late 1985. Especially the question at about 1min 30sec. It's a copy from a video recording so the music is stretched.

Joni Mitchell - 'Whistle Test Extra' BBC2 1985 (part 4/4)

 

This crazy album generated over seven pages of discussion! It's been an interesting conversation, for sure. I'll be launching the thread for Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm this morning. Keep your eyes peeled.

 

After "Shiny Toys" we are done with the dross on the album, fortunately. The last three songs on the album are quite good, if not masterpieces.

Ethiopia

I really like the music on this one. I tend not to concentrate too hard on the lyrics, which are somewhat repetitive and I'm not sure exactly what she was trying to say in this song, despite reading her quoted explanation. I find this one of three songs that make the album worth having, the other two being Good Friends and Fiction.

Impossible Dreamer

This one harks back to the slightly jazzy sound of some of the shorter songs on Don Juan. Again, a little repetitive, but easy enough on the ear.

Lucky Girl

A fairly slight song, with not a lot in the way of a tune, but sincere enough, and nice to end the album on a positive note after so much negativity.

This album should have had the middle tracks omitted and been released as an EP. It would have been quite a good EP.