The hissing of summer lawns

70sSoundquality wrote: I was sitting at home listening to that album last night, "the hissing of summer lawns" by Joni Mitchell, from 1975. I certainly consider the arrangements "progressing" since no song is shorter than 5 or 6 minutes (well a couple are 3-4 minutes) and they are highly, highly creative and unique and arranged to death, but still relatively docile to most. The album is painful for me to listen to because it is kind of sad in a way  but thee melodies and odd chords are what do it. Anyone else who can connect to me on this one? I only have one friend who likes this album, talk about a lonely world! best, John

 

Played Jungle Line on my radio show before Christmas.  (A favourite because of the sampling of  the Burundi Drummers - but she had pinched the idea from a French hit single which used exactly the same (full) sample, called Burundi Black - I have the 7" single somewhere). Hissing was the album that saw Joni shift away from the straighter folk rock to the more experimental rock, and then more fully into the jazz rock; here, first with Tom Scott's LA Express - apparently  her lover at that time was LAE's drummer, John Guerrin - and then with Jaco Pastorius. From this middle period Mitchell, Hissing  and Miles Of Aisles (which at long last, is due out on CD in the UK sometime in 2005) are the least played of my Mitchell recordings. IMHO Shadows & Light , sampling from many of Mitchell's albums, has better versions of tunes from Hissing (partly because that live album has one of my dream-line-ups of support musicians).

not only do we here Tom Scotts LA Express but Larry
Carlton and to a lesser extent Jeff Baxter from Steely
Dan, with Carltons influence all over this album. Of
course Tom Scotts band was always a part of Steely
Dans studio. Also clearly heard are the Crusaders
influence.

This could easily be considered a Joni Mitchell and
Larry Carlton collaboration as many of their mates
are brought together in this recording.


Edited by DallasBryan

Speaking strictly personally (i.e., not "officialy"), if "we" are suggesting here that Joni should be included in PA, I would say that, if the plan goes forward to include only the "progressive" albums of non-progressive artists, Hissing would probably qualify.  I might even include Hejira.  However, Court and Spark would not qualify: as good as it is, and though it may have "progressed" Joni's own work, I do not hear it as "progressive."  After Hejira, she went into he "jazz-tinged" period, and I would not include that either.  However, if a vote were taken, I would vote to include Hissing and, possibly, Hejira.

Peace.

DallasBryan wrote: This could easily be considered a Joni Mitchell and Larry Carlton collaboration as many of their mates are brought together in this recording.

no, joni did the composing! What good is great studio players without GREAT songs?

[/QUOTE]
Played Jungle Line on my radio show before Christmas.  (A favourite because of the sampling of  the Burundi Drummers - but she had pinched the idea from a French hit single which used exactly the same (full) sample, called Burundi Black - I have the 7" single somewhere). Hissing was the album that saw Joni shift away from the straighter folk rock to the more experimental rock, and then more fully into the jazz rock; here, first with Tom Scott's LA Express - apparently  her lover at that time was LAE's drummer, John Guerrin - and then with Jaco Pastorius. From this middle period Mitchell, Hissing  and Miles Of Aisles (which at long last, is due out on CD in the UK sometime in 2005) are the least played of my Mitchell recordings. IMHO Shadows & Light , sampling from many of Mitchell's albums, has better versions of tunes from Hissing (partly because that live album has one of my dream-line-ups of support musicians).[/QUOTE]


My gripe with hissing is that Larry Nash is missing on keys.

Damn, good info man! I always hated that song (!!) until a year or so ago; Jungle Line finally worked for me. I hated it because I thought the mixing was lousy (can anyone actually tell what chords shes playing?) but then I had sheet music for the chords, and played them alone. In fact, without that minimoog bass by Gueron, the song is hardly recognizable. I think thats why they mixed her guitar so low- just to mess with you, but to give you the impression of strumming along. Very effective.

That sample theft is quite interesting, but as long as the melodies are different, it dont` bug me. But the drums do sound original, something I never heard before and get the feeling I never will again.

Miles is GREAT because of the last 3 songs. 'Richard', 'Love or money', and 'Jericho'. Especially these live versions, much better than the studio versions (suprisingly, the live ones sound more "studio" than the studio ones themselves!).

On the contrary, I couldn't stand the musician line up on Shadows and light. I don't like jaco, I just dont like it! I'll take the original Max Bennet over Jaco ANYDAY of the week (by the way, max B is a *sickly* underrated bassist, who was born in 1925 or something like that- this dude has been playing longer than most and is still chugging today).

I dont like Metheny, I dont like the arrogance of that 1979 show. And the album versions sound way better than these live takes. Just an opinion, but the movie is cool to watch! I think it starts off black and white....very clever.

[/QUOTE]no, joni did the composing! What good is
great studio players without GREAT songs?
[/QUOTE]

Guess the driver did all the work, but in my eyes its
the vehicle that got her where she wanted to go.

I adore this album. One for private moments just to savour her lyrical genius. Shades of Scarlett Conquering and Dont Interrupt the Sorrow are beautiful songs.

JAco footage is relatively rare isn't it: I do have a video instructional tape by him - and there is a band jam at the end with John Scofield and is it Kenwood Dennard or someone. Its pretty impressive - being a bass player the first time I heard JAco I just thought I might'as well give up!

my fave piece of Jaco must be BAdia from 8:30 and his stuff on Coyote from Hejira.