Joni Mitchell: "Turbulent Indigo" Song by Song Thread

Interesting bit that I think encapsulates the general conflict that underpins Joni's career.

Kim Clarke Champniss: "You do a cover of a James Brown tune."
Joni Mitchell: "Right" (laughs)
KCC: "Now, this seems totally incongruous to -- 'oh, Joni Mitchell doing a James Brown --'"
JM: "Why? I'm a rock and roll dancer."
KCC: "Thank you! You just explained it."
JM: (laughs)
KCC: "It's that element. Everyone would say, you know, 'Joni Mitchell--oh, she's the folk singer,' but you're a rock and roll dancer."
JM: "No, that's -- only in Canada do they say that. It's the only place in the world they consider me a folk singer. Because I guess I started here as a folk singer, but the moment I crossed, in 1967, into Detroit and began to write my own music -- although I look like a folk singer, a girl with a guitar -- I did not sound like a folk singer. It was more like German lieder, classical song form. The chords are too modern to be considered folk music, but generally the guitar is looked upon as a folk instrument. But even with the synthesizers and doing my own orchestration and so on, people don't seem to notice that. They still seem to think that I've been interior decorated out of my own music, and they want to peel that off and get back down to the 'folk singer' that's buried undernearth of it. But it's a sheet of sound of my own devising."

 

Next:

Track 4: "Turbulent Indigo"


Lyrical Excerpt:
You wanna make Van Goghs
Raise 'em up like sheep
Make 'em out of Eskimos
And women if you please
Make 'em nice and normal
Make 'em nice and neat
You see him with his shotgun there?
Bloodied in the wheat?
Oh what do you know about
Living in Turbulent Indigo?

Complete Lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site



Joni speaks about this song's inspiration in the Much Music show I posted on page one, starting at around 11:30.

On the title's inspiration: "The swirl of Van Gogh's brush strokes...They attribute it with madness, but I don't think so. It's just fluidity."
On the subject matter: Essentially, this song is about the Canadian Arts Council who were trying to make Canada's "useless" (as Joni feels they viewed these people), of women, immigrants and First Nations, into artists because they couldn't think of what else to do with them. Joni argues that artists are born, not made. "Born to be the axe for the frozen sea within us. Born to be in conflict, an alien, an outsider." And there is where the parallels between herself and Vincent come into play.

 

Turbulent Indigo
I don't really care if it is "normie" of me, or really obvious, but Vincent Van Gogh is my favorite visual artist. I just love his works and I've got two prints of his paintings up in my house. I think he was a true master and I can't understand why he wasn't liked in his own time because his paintings seem to be so widely loved now, and to appeal to so many different kinds of people because of their to me obvious visual splendor. Well...he's a great topic for a song and this actually feels like something of a sister song to 'Judgement of the Moon and Stars' way back on For the Roses (an absolute favorite of mine). In that song, Joni felt a certain kinship with Ludwig van Beethoven, another frustrated outsider artist, and now she feels that same kinship with Van Gogh. I really love that she puts herself in the same trajectory and history of art as these other great masters, because I think she is in their same company. I think she really is trying to say in the song that living 'in turbulent indigo' and taking on completely the life of an artist is a different kind of commitment (financially, socially, emotionally) than just saying "I'm going to be an artist" or "I'm going to learn how to paint." It's something full of pain and conflict, but the rewards can be great and the work of the great masters speaks for itself and captures something of humanity for all of us. That's what I get from this track. I love it.

Musically, I really adore it. Hypnotic, waltzing, strange...it nags and pleads and really pairs extremely well with the lyrical content. Another highlight on an album of highlights.

 

She played the Oakdale in CT on the Both Sides Now tour- her last tour. I was a couple of years away of getting into her. A shame as she was like less than 30 minutes away from me.

I met Joni when I was 15 by the way in 1992. My dad was filming a documentary for James Taylor's wife at the time that I don't think ever was released. My friend and I were just hanging out at the Beverly Hills Hotel while he filmed the interview. It was a non-musical interview so it wasn't very interesting. She was nice but the meeting was brief as he was working. I knew who she was of course and that she was a legend even then but I wasn't immersed in her music at the time.

 

Thanks @Parachute Woman for introducing me to another Joni Mitchell album. My first cursory listen made little impression & the 2nd offered little more. Everyone's commentary really encourages me to keep listening.

 

"Sunny Sunday" The lyrics on this one really pulled me in. Oddly for me, it felt more like a closing track than an opening one.

I love it though. It is nicely hypnotic. A bit of a downer. Thoughtful. I had an acquaintance in school in Montreal who claimed that she would rate each day on a calendar somehow (I don't recall the evaluation method), and if a month had too many failing grades so to speak, she made a major in her life.
The narrator says the song's protagonist always misses the light which leads me to question whether the misses are purposeful in order to continue in her familiar depressing rut rather than face an unknown even if it is better.

"Sunny Sunday" reminds me of Lyle Lovett's brilliant "Pontiac".

 

I need to spin this album again... I loved it upon its release and played it a lot in 1994-1995.

"Borderline" is especially brilliant... and I love "Sunny Sunday".

 

The one and only time I managed to see Joni live was during this period.. and it was luck-of-the-draw.

She showed up at a Shawn Colvin show in Los Angeles in December of 1994, and Shawn invited her out to sing! She sang backup on "Object of My Affection", and then took center stage for a couple of numbers: "Just Like This Train" and "Face Lift" Amazing.

 

Turbulent Indigo is among my favorite Joni tunes, period, not just on this album. I love the chords, the shuffle, the arched eyebrow of the lyrics targeting rich and comfortable art collectors who couldn’t have tolerated Van Gogh the man, and finally Joni’s inserting herself into this quick three and a half minute masterpiece.

 

"Sex Kills" is a really strong track which completely snuck up on me. I was lying in bed had it playing on the phone. i know, not optimum fidelity, but the guitar & synth just screamed and screeched in a very good way. Now it is a listen to loud song!

I really like Joni's vocals in the first 2 tracks.

 

Next:

Track 5: "Last Chance Lost"


Lyrical Excerpt:
Last chance lost
The hero cannot make the change
Last chance lost
The shrew will not be tamed
Last chance lost
They bicker on the rifle range
Blame takes aim
Last chance
Last chance lost

Complete Lyrics at Joni's Official Site

 

Last Chance Lost
On this track Joni directly confronts and writes about her divorce from Larry Klein. They were married for twelve years and collaborated fully on every album Joni released during the period. Overall, it was a fruitful relationship I think and they remained friends after the divorce (Joni seemed to often remain friends with men after her relationships with them ended--not always, but often). However, Joni speaks in 'Last Chance Lost' about her regrets and the finality of another relationship coming to a close. The lyric "the shrew will not be tamed" seems to speak volumes. Joni references Willie the Shake again and it seems clear that she is the 'shrew' who never could be 'tamed' by a man, though she loved them all fiercely. This dichotomy is perhaps the major theme of her entire discography. It's an excellent song and tonally the mood and arrangement suits the lyrics beautifully.

 

"How Do You Stop?"
I am neither here nor there on this track. It is nice and lush with sweet hooks. Pretty benign.

 

“Last Chance Lost” ... great track. I’m a sucker for any song were Joni harmonizes with herself.

 

Next:

Track 6: "The Magdalene Laundries"


Lyrical Excerpt:
I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries

Complete lyrics at Joni Mitchell's Official Site

Footnotes on this song:
[The following is written and used by kind permission of Mari Steed]
Ireland has suffered a great many tragedies in her long history...there are those we hear of every day - the "Troubles," the great Famine - Irish sorrows and issues we are all familiar with. But hidden beneath the surface, lies a tragedy just as great, just as terrible and just as unimaginable. And it is only just beginning to break through to the light of truth.

It is the story of thousands of Ireland's women...judged "sinners" by the cruel Church-driven society of the 1800's through present day. Their crime? Bearing children out of wedlock...leaving abusive husbands or home situations. The punishment? A lifetime of "penitence" spent in the service of the Sisters of Charity or other orders, performing domestic chores...harsh, thankless chores such as laundering prison uniforms, cooking, cleaning and caring for elderly nuns or their aging peers, still trapped behind the walls of Ireland's numerous convent laundries, industrial schools and the like. They are "The Magdalens," ironically called after the converted prostitute, Mary the Magdalene, who served her Jesus loyally and was rewarded with his forgiveness and love.

No such rewards exist for these "penitents." They were told to forever hide their shame inside these walls, work under harsh, spartan conditions, driven unmercifully by the sisters and often abused by them as well. It is a story Ireland has every right to be ashamed of, which is perhaps why it has only come to light recently.

In the 1970's, church property held by the Sisters of Charity in Dublin which once served as a convent laundry was to be sold back to the Republic for public use. It was discovered at that time that some 133 graves existed, unmarked, in a cemetery on the convent grounds. The graves belonged to women who had worked in the services of the convent all their lives, buried without notification to possible family...unmarked, unremembered. When the discovery was made, a cry arose in the streets of Dublin...families came forth to identify and claim some of the women as their long-lost daughters, mothers, grandmothers, and sisters. Yet many remained unidentified. Finally, in the early 1990's, a memorial was established and the remaining, unclaimed bodies were reinterred in the Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, properly laid to rest with respectful homage and a sad memorial commemorating their plight.

(More on the lyrics page at Joni's site, if you would like to read more).

 

The Magdalene Laundries
One of the saddest songs in Joni's catalog. I think this is one of the strongest examples of Joni writing a song that is not personal in nature, and yet is powerfully impactful and emotional. She heard about this tragedy that occurred in Ireland and was obviously deeply affected by it. And she wrote a song about it, not from an outsider perspective, but actually taking on the character of one of the women and telling the story of these atrocities happening to so many women from an entirely human perspective. She isn't lecturing or soap-boxing here. It is an incredibly empathetic song that begs us to listen to and remember these women as real people who really had this happen to them. It's a striking lyric and very moving, especially the final verse with Peg O'Connell getting stuffed in a hole. The music is beautiful and moving. It's not an easy listen, but brilliant.


Here's a live version from 1998:

 

"The Magdalene Laundries" is one of the better songs on this album, indeed one of the best from joni's entire catalogue. It's maybe less sophisticated musically than a song like "Hejira", but this is made up for by the intensity of the lyrics.

As an unwed mother herself, Joni would have been able to fully empathise with these women. Although Joni was born in the 20th century rather than the 19th, it was no bed of roses for women who did not follow the traditional path - grow up, marry, have children, cook and clean for hubby and the kids.

 

I can't say that I "love" such a sad song, but it's certainly one of her best, on any album.

This is another one where I think after a few albums of struggling with arranging and composing with synthesizers, it really flowed in a very organic way for her here. This has an almost Eno or Lanois-esque feel to it, but is unmistakably Joni.

 

One of Joni's greatest latter day songs. I played it in the car yesterday and these cutting lines about the nuns jumped out:

"These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then they'd know and they'd drop the stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room"

The withering scorn of a woman whose life was so passionate for women without any.

 

Lyle is an artist I really need to explore. I only know a few of his songs, which I've liked. I do like that sort of singer/songwriter/folk/country blend (a la Mary Chapin Carpenter).

And also, he's a friend of Duchess Goldblatt.

 

In total agreement re. The Magdalene Laundries. Such a powerful song, and horrible in what it describes. This morning I finally had the time to watch the video clip from upthread, and Joni’s introduction of this song is also pretty gripping. Anyway, I think ML is an example of a topical song, a commentary on humans, cruelty and dark observations, that works well. To me, this song doesn’t sound at all preachy or strident, but makes its statement resoundingly.

One of the finest tracks on the album, imo.

There are also great versions sung by Emmylou Harris, but I didn’t find one readily loaded to YT to share.

 

I'm gonna take this CD in the car with me tomorrow. No guarantees I'll actually PLAY it...

 

"Turbulent Indigo"
I really love this song. My second favorite to "Sunny Sunday". It sounds like nothing else I have ever heard from Joni Mitchell. Sure, Shorter's saxophone bursts are familiar as is the synth wash throughout, but her lower register vocals and delivery is different. I love her pronunciation on "Talking about..."

 

"Last Chance Lost"
Another very different vocal on this one...it took me several listens to enjoy it. I do like it though. It is really the simplicity of the lyrics which caught me. These are the words of any significant relationship which is ending. Very familiar. "They bicker on the rifle range" - Golden line
Synth wash...I wonder how we would hear these last few records without this constant drone? I have thought the same listening to Bruce Springsteen's The Ghost of Tom Joad.

 

"The Madeleine Laundries"
Poignant lyrics. Strong track.
The ghostly background vocals are really nice sounding like spirits passing through empty rooms.