Bless Andy Baio:
These are the unreleased demos from Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, one of my favorite albums ever. Unlike the lush arrangements found on the album, these early versions are stripped down to only piano, and acoustic guitar.
He found this rare recording at Big O Magazine which has a bunch of other interesting things up for download (oh look: Loggins & Messina!). Just try to ignore the Japanese girl with the bouncing boobs to the right, and focus on the left part of the page…
Just listened to the first 2 minutes of the MP3 ” Miles Runs the Voodoo Down 09:26 ” from Miles Davis on that site.
Horrible sound quality.
Compare it with cooking. A chief prepares an exquisite meal. A guy, who has dinner in the same restaurant, and who’s sitting four tables further, takes a quick picture of the dish making use of a cheap camera. Result? It looks like porridge, and you guess: it tastes like porridge.
Basic message is : keep buying CDs.
Two weeks ago I made a trip of 2 ( = up & down) x 140 kilometers, just to buy 12 CDs in Lille ( France), the Harmonia Mundi shop with the broad, comprehensive musical perspective , it’s http://www.harmoniamundi.com/france/boutique.php
And I was hapy to be in Lille again for sightseeing & as happy to meet again a couple of old friends from the Ruckstein Jewish Lille society over there as well.
If only they had stripped them down further. Perhaps they could have taken off the acoustic guitar, piano, and vocals off. Boy do I ever hate that simpering bitch! She’s even worse than David Bowie.
Apologies, Clark G.
My guess is that every reader of this blog knows right now that I really don’t like song writers. My starting point is : why do you need lyrics when music can tell it all?
Music is the best.
Just one example : J S Bach, the lyrics ( written by Picander) are truly ridiculous. His music survives.
However.
There are truly great song writers. That’s about art, i e combining things. According to my humble taste both Bowie and Mitchell ( and yes, N. Young) are truly great. Their music will survive for +/- 40 years.
Another further attempt to combine things is film, motion pictures. Yes, even after just 10O years, truly good motion pictuers are plentiful.
[quote comment=”111″]Boy do I ever hate that simpering bitch![/quote]
Apart from the simpering: why?
[quote comment=”111″]She’s even worse than David Bowie.[/quote]
Now I’m really curious! What makes her worse than Bowie — and why drag him into the equation in the first place?
Not at all busting your balls, mind you Clark — just interested at pickin’ your brain 🙂
A recording of the “Penelope wants to Fuck the Sea” – or whatever it was called – onstage with the MOI is something I’d like to hear, simpering or no….
Thanks for these links, Barry (downloading as I speak). Looks like I’m going to have to invest in a whole new external hard drive.
What does anyone got against singer songwriters? I could make a list of great singer songwriters who also happen to be fine musicians, but it’d go on and on and on and on…
As another great undiscovered singer-songwriter, I concur… Welcome back Barry & co! Love the Clapton-Winwood link. Brings me back to better days!
Betty Chestnut says: I really love Bach – especially his poems ! 😉
[quote comment=”111″]If only they had stripped them down further. Perhaps they could have taken off the acoustic guitar, piano, and vocals off. Boy do I ever hate that simpering bitch! She’s even worse than David Bowie.[/quote]
At least she didn’t steal Adrian Belew from under Zappa’s nose at one of his early ’78 concerts, like Bowie did!
@Roland. It happens to be my fate. I dislike pigeonholing, condemning yourself to just one musical jail. When I meet people intersed in classical music, I start talking ’bout pop & jazz. And the other way around. My conclusion is : music ( all genres) seems to be related to ” convictions”, which in realty are mere sentiments. Result : skyhigh walls in between the genres, blocking possible progress. ( I hope I’ve been provocative enough).
@ Urban. The academic wing of my family lives in Canada: Windsor ( brother in law) and Toronto ( niece). Visited them both 3 years ago, after 10 days in Halifax/ Nova Scotia.
Back to music. My niece tells me that right now there is a very good contemporary ( both classical & jazz) musical scene in Toronto ( by the way a nice place).
In my opinion: the best presents from Canada to Music are (1) Gil Evans ( arranger , sound colors) and (2) Lisle Ellis ( bass ) http://www.lisleellis.com/. Tell us more, please.
[quote comment=”111″]If only they had stripped them down further. Perhaps they could have taken off the acoustic guitar, piano, and vocals off. Boy do I ever hate that simpering bitch! She’s even worse than David Bowie.[/quote]
As a fellow Western Canadian, I must come to Joni Mitchell’s defence. While I don’t like all of her work, her 1971 studio album ‘Blue’ is considered by many to be her best work.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Mitchell
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_(Joni_Mitchell_album)
@bernard: Yes, provocative enough. And humorous, too.
At the moment I read Mozart´s “100 recipes to stay alive beyond 40”.