Sometimes, I’ll pit two entities against each other which
both have strong arguments and weigh those up, but here, you know, this isn’t
terribly close, and isn’t generally thought to be.
There’s nothing controversial or interesting about saying I
like Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ better than her ‘Court and Spark’. ‘Blue’ is pretty
universally agreed to be Mitchell’s masterpiece. It’s either, at any given
time, my favourite, second favourite or third album in the world.
Firstly, I should say I have a pretty weird internal thing
going on where comparing Joni Mitchell to Bob Dylan has been, over the last few
years, my personal testing ground for whether I’m utterly in thrall to the
patriarchal received truth of things.
Quite a lot of intelligent voices (not just David Crosby)
have said in recent times that Mitchell should not just be seen as the great
female songwriter but the great songwriter full stop, whose musicality and
originality place her above Dylan. A little challenged by this, I have tried to
give the same amount of time and effort to listening to and reading about Joni
as I used to with Bob.
Well, I think, after all that, I’m still in thrall to the
patriarchy, sadly, but I do think I should stop comparing Mitchell to Dylan and
instead compare her to herself.
So … Bob Dylan was inspired by ‘Blue’ to write ‘Tangled Up
in Blue’ whereas he fell asleep in a playback of ‘Court and Spark’ …. ha, no
that’s all …
Firstly, it’s not entirely “apples and pears” to compare
them. ‘Court and Spark’ was Mitchell’s most commercially successful album at
the time and is still highly acclaimed, usually, I’d say the second of her
albums in all-time lists.
‘Blue’ and ‘Court and Spark’ are 2 ½ years apart, but it
sounds longer. ‘Court and Spark’ marks a “progression” – vocally, in arrangements,
in maturity of the subject matter. But … it’s all a bit boring.
Compared to ‘Blue’, there’s so little jeopardy. Maybe it’s
about the men (jeezus, no …). But the subjects of the ‘Blue’ heartache were
songwriters like James Taylor, Graham Nash and Leonard Cohen. ‘Court and Spark’
is about Hollywood lotharios like Warren Beatty. Much duller.
And she is involved but also amused and distant. ‘Help Me’’s
first lines are “Help me, I think I’m falling in love again”. Imagine those
lines on ‘Blue’ the potential power and desperation they might possess.
Whereas here, they’re just a gentle sigh. Silly me, she says.
She doesn’t actually need any help.
Don’t get me wrong, ‘Help Me’ is a great song, one of the
best on the album. It’s her most successful pop song, and it’s a great tune.
In fact, the album starts brilliantly. I love the title
track – it hints and intrigues, it takes its time and solves the mystery of the
album’s slightly odd title.
After those two, it’s ‘Free Man in Paris’ – again,
considered something of a classic – and sure, it’s a good song, but, you know,
I always feel the chorus doesn’t scan that well, does it … “I felt unfettered
and alive … “ “stoking the starmaker machinery behind the popular song …”. It’s
all a bit Manics-y, no? And, you know, who cares that much how tough things are
for billionaire music executives?
Still, strong start … but then … honestly, the album
gradually loses me every time. It’s like ‘Swingers’ or something, just an
indistinct blur of barely intriguing playboys and parties, of the geography of
LA and somewhat involved observations.
‘Blue’ cuts with every word, every chord, yet is still fun,
funny, cool. And of course, she shouldn’t have to play the victim every time,
and being the amused observer-participant is great, but I think she’d go on to
do it in a much more interesting, bold way elsewhere – on ‘The Hissing of
Summer Lawns’ and particularly ‘Hejira’ which I think is streets ahead of ‘Court
and Spark’.
An … ‘Raised on Robbery’ is pretty dreadful, and ‘Twisted’
is even worse.
Quite a common take is that Mitchell’s golden period from ‘Blue’
through to ‘Hejira’ is one of the greatest runs in the history of pop music,
and I actually agree, but I think it’s first and last are its greatest, and its
middle its weakest.
I would score them
Blue 10
For the Roses 8 ½
Court and Spark 7
The Hissing of Summer Lawns 8 ½
Hejira 9
So there …. This is fun.
No comments:
Post a Comment