Joni Mitchell: "Ladies of the Canyon" Song by Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, Aug 2, 2018.

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  1. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    ''Conversation" is the song that balances as a counterweight the much heavier mood of 'The arrangement' later in the sequence, and I tie them together as orbiting at approximately the same distance from the central Canyon concept of the album. The bright and dark side of the same moon even. Until @Parachute Woman introduced the song yesterday, I had forgotten it was written as early as 1967. It has a timelessness I suppose that she also felt made it suitable for filling a piece of the emotional jigsaw puzzle of this record but not the two previous albums. She'll do this one last time with an early song on the next album.
     
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  2. chrisblower

    chrisblower Norfolk n'good

    I'm hoping this is pure speculation as I can't relate Joni with the Flo I've heard on the early seventies Zappa/Mother's albums. Volman did live in Laurel Canyon, and Joni moved from New York to California in late 67. Conversation was being performed in October of that year. Doesn't add up does it ....
     
  3. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Next:

    Track 4: "Ladies of the Canyon"


    Trina wears her wampum beads
    She fills her drawing book with line
    Sewing lace on widows' weeds
    And filigree on leaf and vine
    Vine and leaf are filigree
    And her coat's a secondhand one
    Trimmed with antique luxury
    She is a lady of the canyon

    Annie sits you down to eat
    She always makes you welcome in
    Cats and babies 'round her feet
    And all are fat and none are thin
    None are thin and all are fat
    She may bake some brownies today
    Saying you are welcome back
    She is another canyon lady

    Estrella circus girl
    Comes wrapped in songs and gypsy shawls
    Songs like tiny hammers hurled
    At beveled mirrors in empty halls
    Empty halls and beveled mirrors
    Sailing seas and climbing banyans
    Come out for a visit here
    To be a lady of the canyon

    Trina takes her paints and her threads
    And she weaves a pattern all her own
    Annie bakes her cakes and her breads
    And she gathers flowers for her home
    For her home she gathers flowers
    And Estrella dear companion
    Colors up the sunshine hours
    Pouring music down the canyon
    Coloring the sunshine hours
    They are the ladies of the canyon

    The Ladies
    The three women described in this song were indeed all real women that Joni knew in Laurel Canyon. Click on the links to read interviews with each one in which they describe the meaning behind their verses.

    Trina Robbins:
    [​IMG]
    Trina speaks about her verse in 'Ladies of the Canyon'

    Annie Burden:
    [​IMG]
    Annie speaks about her verse in 'Ladies of the Canyon'

    Estrella Berosini:
    [​IMG]
    Estrella speaks about her verse in 'Ladies of the Canyon'
     
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  4. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Ladies of the Canyon
    I have always just loved this song. It's been running through my head essentially the entire time I've been running this thread. Every time I read the album title, it comes back into my head again. It's a beautiful, enchanting, almost wistful kind of song and I *love* that it is a tribute from one woman to another three women, each with their own unique talents and beauties. It's a bit sad how unusual that is in the world of pop music--women praising other women. Joni also uses the real names of the women she wrote about, which adds that personal, homey touch that so permeates the whole album. More than almost anything else here, this captures the Canyon in 1970. The images in the lyrics, the sound of the song...it is warm, comforting and just plain lovely. This is a wonderful song.

    I highly encourage you to read the interviews with Trina, Annie and Estrella that I linked above to get some fascinating insights into the specifics of the lyrics and to hear from them about Joni and the song. :)
     
  5. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    These are the threads that keeps on giving. :)
     
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  6. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    A time it was, and what a time it was.
    A time of innocence.
    A time of confidences.
     
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  7. Hall Cat

    Hall Cat Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    A huge favorite of mine. Apparently she seldom, if ever, played it live.
     
  8. Tuco

    Tuco Senior Member

    Location:
    Pacific NW, USA
    @Parachute Woman , thanks much for the links to those three women and their warm recollections.
     
  9. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Estrella certainly comes over very well in her interview – I can really see why Joni and her hit it off. There's this 17- year old classically-trained musical waif, writing songs with enough intelligence for them to end up condensed (as lines) in a Joni Mitchell song.
    What I didn't quite feel so comfortable about in that extract is the fact that she hardly seemed in awe of Joni at the time, concentrating more on how stunned she was at Stephen Stills strong left-hand guitar technique. At least her interview couldn't be described as sycophantic: something Joni would definitely respect.
     
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  10. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    "the fact that she hardly seemed in awe of Joni at the time, concentrating more on how stunned she was at Stephen Stills strong left-hand guitar technique"

    I just realized my own ranking of Mitchell as a more creative musician overall than Stills coloured my thinking here. She's certainly a greater innovator in terms of tunings and jazz colourings than Stills. Perhaps what Estrella and the majority of those experiencing Laurel Canyon musicians first-hand saw above all, was confirmation of his reputation for technical prowess.
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2018
  11. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Track 5: "Willy"


    Willy is my child he is my father
    I would be his lady all my life
    He says he'd love to live with me
    But for an ancient injury
    That has not healed
    He said I feel once again
    Like I gave my heart too soon
    He stood looking thru the lace
    At the face on the conquered moon
    And counting all the cars up the hill
    And the stars on my window sill
    There are still more reasons why I love him

    Willy is my joy he is my sorrow
    Now he wants to run away and hide
    He says our love cannot be real
    He cannot hear the chapel's pealing silver bells
    But you know it's hard to tell
    When you're in the spell if it's wrong or if it's real
    But you're bound to lose
    If you let the blues get you scared to feel
    And I feel like I'm just being born
    Like a shiny light breaking in a storm
    There are so many reasons why I love him

    [​IMG]
     
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  12. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Willy
    'Willy' is a song we know is about Graham Nash (middle name William) and Joni's relationship with him. It's quite a sad song to listen to, knowing that they loved each other but even here Joni is considering all the reasons she knows the relationship is doomed to fail. "He cannot hear the chapel's pealing silver bells" is quite the lyric, used to express the fact that they did consider marriage. I have also always loved the last few lines of this song:

    But you're bound to lose
    If you let the blues get you scared to feel
    And I feel like I'm just being born
    Like a shiny light breaking in a storm

    Fear of pain and rejection so often keeps us from giving ourselves fully. It's a lovely arrangement on piano and Joni sings her heart out. A very real song, exposed.

    Graham had this to say:
    "Every word is true. It’s a heartbreaking song for me. To be in love with Joni Mitchell and have that love come back at you, even to the point of marriage — to lose that was devastating for me. I’m old enough now to realize it was a long, long time ago, and I can admit that I was heartbroken.”
     
  13. oxegen

    oxegen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    Good to know that Graham and Joni are still in contact. He referenced her in his concert in Dublin last week before playing “Our House”.
     
  14. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    For the first time since 'I Had a King' and 'Cactus Tree' we hear on 'Willy' marriage as tangible reality. In contrast to those song she has stripped her relationship and her song 'naked' all but for the thinnest of veils by using his middle name.
    By the way I'm still really unclear whether he really means every word is true, if so 'He can't hear the chapel bells' means as she wrote this he hadn't caught up with how she saw the end of the relationship panning out, with a marriage ultimatum/ proposal.
    Over the years she has recalled it slightly differently, namely that he wasn't behind and blind to where they were going at all.

    EDIT: I think I was overthinking things again!
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2018
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  15. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    'But you're bound to lose
    If you let the blues get you scared to feel.'

    Is Joni at her tight and economical best. It expresses less poetically but much less clumsily the identical sentiment found in Judee Sill's "Emerald River Dance":

    It seems like everyone's so afraid of emotion cause they can't bear the pain
    But the deeper sorrow carves in the heart of your being the more joy you can contain

     
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  16. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    I'm not surprised Estrella was awed by Stills' guitar prowess. When he was at the top of his game - and he surely was during this era - no one in the canyon could touch his acoustic playing. Not to go to far off track, but I personally would put his musical creativity right up there with Mitchell's, although she was clearly the better lyricist. Sadly, Stills' wasn't able to maintain a consistent creative output like she was.
     
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  17. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Back in the mid 90s the best UK music mag at the time put together a ranking of the 100 greatest guitarists and these things are always immensely contentious but I was delighted to see Joni on the list, 77th.
    Stills didn't make it at all though so it pretty much invalidates the ranking. The link here might still interest a few:

    Rocklist.net...Mojo Lists... Rocklist.net...Mojo Lists...

    They didn't include bassists either so no Jaco or Carol Kaye
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2018
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  18. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    Meh. I enjoy the music they both made, but find it hard to care much about their relationship. It's always disappointed me slightly that Joni got drawn in by a tosser like Nash.
     
  19. Quakerism

    Quakerism Lean into what frightens you.

    Location:
    Rural Pennsylvania
    I was digging through a huge room of records today looking for something totally different when I ran across an abused outer sleeve of Joni Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon. I was drawn to the cover by the artwork. Without the vinyl , I put it back. I was leaving when for no apparent reasonothe rthan I hate to leave a stack of unsourced records, I walked over to pick up a few and toss through them. The top record was an orange/tan W7 Reprise Of Ladies of the Canyon. It had a big scratch in it on side 1 but for $1.....I rescued her and paired her up with the outer cover and original sleeve. Brought it home and she pops but she doesn’t skip. Think I’ll keep her. So now, I can with an informed opinion discuss the album now that I own it.
     
  20. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Thought about a name change? 'Antihipsterism' would be appropriate. We're reasonable people in this thread so you've got twenty minutes to prepare posts on each of the first five tracks.....we'll be waiting....;)
     
    Last edited: Aug 6, 2018
  21. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    She's your ''Lady of the Canyon" now. Look after her.
     
  22. Quakerism

    Quakerism Lean into what frightens you.

    Location:
    Rural Pennsylvania
    Not that I’m not up for the challenge but......I have a golf course calling me tonight. But I’ll be back.
     
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  23. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    @bluemooze Did you have 'Willy' in mind? I can't pick out exactly what you mean. I know it's not you imagining things.
     
  24. Hexwood

    Hexwood Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK
    I've always liked this one. It's a beautiful song, one of the best on the album.
     
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  25. oxegen

    oxegen Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    Are you by any chance David Crosby in disguise? If so, I just want to let you know that Nash had some nice things to say about you as well.
     
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