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Thread: Joni Mitchell recordings production/sound quality

  1. #1
    Join Date: May 2010

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    Default Joni Mitchell recordings production/sound quality

    I've recently acquired two Joni Mitchell LPs: "Court and Spark" (1974) and "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" (1977). What blew me away on both albums (besides the music and the performances) is the incredible sound quality. It is quite rare that one hears such brilliant, intense and detailed recorded, mixed and mastered sound. My question is: are most of her other albums that well produced, or was it only that back in the 1970s she was able to get the engineers to produce such marvellously sounding records?
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  2. #2
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    No they are all good productions, some of them she did herself btw
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  3. #3
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    "Blue" is certainly a very good recording as well as being one of her best albums (the best IMHO)
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  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    No they are all good productions, some of them she did herself btw
    Yes, I watched an interview with Joni in which she claims that after David Crosby totally butchered her first album, and after the overbearing producer made her hate music during the recording of her second album, she decided to do it all by herself. She was such a trailblazer!
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  5. #5
    Join Date: Feb 2013

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    Thought Blue was awful both content and the mastering .... sold it. Might just not have been my cuppa
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  6. #6
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    'Blue' is the best of them IMO. All her stuff is an acquired taste, though.
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  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    'Blue' is the best of them IMO. All her stuff is an acquired taste, though.
    Back in the day I really liked her "Mingus". Now I think "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" is brilliant, and not only because of Jaco Pastorius and his mind-blowing bass.
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  8. #8
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    Not forgetting she managed to recruit arguably one of the world's best bass players
    for the albums Hejira, Don Jans Reckless Daughter and Mingus, namely Jaco Pastorius
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaco_Pastorius

    Joni is a visual artist as well as sound artist. For instance who has spotted that it
    is her dressed as a man, also on the front cover of Don Juan's Reckless Daughter ?
    As for sound, her guitar playing is totally unique and well worthwhile hearing just for that
    aspect.

    As for sound quality, I agree where she had control over what was being recorded,
    there is consistently good quality. For instance compare, Shine to Don Juans's
    Reckless Daughter, despite 30 years between them.

  9. #9
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    I don't agree regarding Jaco Pastorius - I find his bass playing overbearing, both on 'Mingus' as well as when he played with Weather Report.

    To my mind 'Mingus' and 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns' are Joni's weakest recordings.

    Her best recordings? Well for the poetry of her lyrics it would be the first three: 'Song to a Seagull', 'Clouds' and 'Ladies of the Canyon', with 'Blue' coming a close second.
    Barry

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    'Blue' is the best of them IMO. All her stuff is an acquired taste, though.
    I might add it was the new reissue i had.
    Regards,
    Grant .... ؠ ......Don't be such a big girl's blouse

    I've said it before and I'll say it again: democracy simply-doesn't-work
    .... ..... ...... ...... ................... ..... ..... ..... ..... .....
    FIIO K7 BT, M11 PLUS, BTR7, KA5 - OPPO BDP-103D - PANASONIC UB450 - PANASONIC 4K ULTRA HD TV - PIXEL 6 - AVANTREE LR BLUETOOTH - 2* X600 SOUNDCORE - HEADPHONES INCLUDE, FIIO, NURAPHONES', FOCAL, OPPO, BOSE, CAMBRIDGE, BOWER & WILKINS, DEVIALET, MARSHALL, SONY, MITCHELL & JOHNSTON - 2*ZBOOK'S- MERCURY BD ROM, ROON, QOBUZ, TIDAL, PLEX, CYBERLINK, JRIVER - MULTI HDD'S -

    Oh my god! There's nothing wrong with the bidet is there?

    “Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, he never abused it, except on the side of mercy".

    “You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

    "You don't have free will. You have the appearance of free will.”

    “There's a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it's not about who's got the most bullets. It's about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think... it's all about the information!”


    ***SMILE, BE HAPPY***

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