Joni Mitchell: For The Roses - 1972

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Things liven up for Joni Mitchell from the bleakness of Blue a little (well only slightly) on this more melodic and playful offering (again, only at times) although it is still essentially Joni as singer-songwriter accompanying herself. 

A song like Banquet is a lovely song - with some wonderfully inventive lyrics about who gets the marrowbone and who gets the gristle - but its piano and vocal sound is nothing we haven't heard before. The same applies to Lesson In Survival, but again I cannot deny its stark, lyrical, poetic beauty. "I looked again at the ocean, love to see that green water in motion...". Joni never fails to delver, does she?

For The Roses is beautifully, acoustically warm. It is simply lovely songwriting too, I can't hope to convincingly analyse it. See You Sometime is in the same category. "I spring from the boulders like a mama lion" is my pick of the lyrics here. Musically similar is Woman Of Heart And Mind, albeit with an understated bass and percussion backing. Its guitar part reminds me of something else but I can't put my finger on it.

The album's closer, Judgment Of The Moon And Stars (Ludwig's Tune) is also classic piano and vocal Joni, containing one of her many references to "long silk stockings on the bedpost". It also has a nice jazzy, orchestrated but in the middle. 

She does let the full band in, though, on several occasions - the upbeat highlight being the catchy and slightly Dylanesque You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio and also half way through Blonde In The Bleachers, when drums and saxophone suddenly kick in. Barandgrill is a fine song too, as is the plaintive Let The Wind Carry Me. Oh man, just listen to that lovely, subtle bass and drum backing to Electricity as well. 

I  can’t help but carry a torch for Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire’s vague funkiness. 

Don't get me wrong - this is still a largely serious, contemplative album and one that sees Joni getting stuck into environmental and human rights issues in places as opposed to personal ones. I like this album a lot, and it is one that has remained somewhat overlooked. I much prefer it to Blue, which will horrify many, no doubt. 

Comments

  1. bobbyb26/04/2024, 03:43

    This album is great except for the first and last songs. Which isn't much of a problem because you can just start the album at track 2 and take it off before the last track. My parents had it on vinyl so that's how I first listened to it. And it came in one of those weird gatefold covers where when you opened it up there was another flap and in order to put the record back in the sleeve you had to open the cover and it was kind of a pain in the ass. Did you ever see one of those? I think I've only seen maybe one or two other albums like that. I think it was one of those innovations that they came up with but it really didn't go over that well with the public and they just stopped making them. Kind of like Dynaflex. Did you ever have any Dynaflex? I think it was only RCA records and I had David Bowie's Low that I found used and also a reissue of Man Who sold the World. I'm not sure what the point of Dynaflex was. Maybe they were supposed to be warp-proof or something because they were real bendy and flexible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Punk Panther26/04/2024, 09:15

      Rod Stewart's Sing It Again Rod was sort of like that, and Elvis Costello's Armed Forces - that was a total pain in the ass to open and close - flaps all over the place. It sort of opened out like a piece of origami. Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies too.

      I remember flexi-discs that were given away with magazines, they were really floppy.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous26/04/2024, 12:50

    This is cool. He talks about different albums that came out on Dynaflex. Lou Reed and stuff.

    https://youtu.be/qgUDyeWD0uQ?si=MeNH3VJNFAVDt-KS

    ReplyDelete

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