Grace Slick & Joni Mitchell - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Well....the Jefferson Airplane are on PA as proto-prog so in that respect...yes , she is prog....but not on a solo basis. While the Airplane had psyche and prog aspects on their albums I never thought of them as full blown .prog .

Joni is not cited anywhere as prog (as far s I know...) though many of her middle and later period albums have jazzy elements to them and some interesting musicians on them. I could see where someone might call some of it prog folk.

Edited by dr wu23 - November 30 2019 at 10:04

One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin

I agree with Dr. Wu. Joni Mitchel would be a yes for prog folk. Grace Slick solo - not so much, but I still really love her voice.

Both amazing singers, and Joni also a superb composer/artist no doubt - but prog ? - hmmmm I guess not ...

(Blue by JM is one of my all-time records of choice but she has at least a couple other great 5* to her credit, love the lady !)

I wouldn't say they are, but since the definition of prog is pretty subjective... up to you if they are or not. :)

Of course they're not prog. Not every songwriter who's inventive is prog.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy

this thread needs to be moved to general music

I love them both - for at least what I consider the best parts of their careers - but don't see how either of them are prog.

Actually it was when Joni started getting jazzy and musically sophisticated that her music lost its emotional clout for me. I still love 'Ladies of the Canyon' and 'Blue', which aren't even remotely prog.

I didn't like any of Grace Slick's later solo stuff ('Wrecking Ball', 'Dreams'), but everything with JA up to 'Long John silver' is really good. Still don't think it's prog though. Some of that side-project stuff with Kantner - Sunfighter, Varon Von Tollbooth, or 'Manhole' - can barely remember those albums; maybe they were a bit more experimental.

She did co-write three tracks on Kantner's 'Blows Against the Empire', which you might consider a bit proggy in its concept, if not particularly its music.

Joni Mitchell is briljant, but I would not easily call her a prog musician, though the earlier mentioned Paprika Plains is somewhat proggish.

Paprika Plains is as proggy as lots of stuff on here under jazz and fusion ---if Miles Davis or Peter Gabriel and Traffic can be on here so can some of Joni...at least this song.

Edited by twosteves - December 01 2019 at 14:27