Joni Mitchell reached her commercial high point with Court and Spark, a remarkably deft fusion of folk, pop, and jazz which stands as her best-selling work to date. While as unified and insightful as Blue, the album -- a concept record exploring the roles of honesty and trust in relationships, romantic and otherwise -- moves away from confessional songwriting into evocative character studies: the hit "Free Man in Paris," written about David Geffen, is a not-so-subtle dig at the machinations of the music industry, while "Raised on Robbery" offers an acutely funny look at the predatory environment of the singles bar scene. Much of Court and Spark is devoted to wary love songs: both the title cut and "Help Me," the record's most successful single, carefully measure the risks of romance, while "People's Parties" and "The Same Situation" are fraught with worry and self-doubt (standing in direct opposition to the music, which is smart, smooth, and assured from the first note to the last).
...singer/songwriters aren't for everybody...hell, even when I get those press packs in the mail with that title suspiciously tucked somewhere in the verbiage I blanch involuntarily...but such was not always the case...and you know I like the old stuff...which brings me to the Knife's post of that "*Akon; Gerry Rafferty mash-up*":http://mog.com/Mike_the_Knife/blog_post/91348 which, in turn, m...
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...singer/songwriters aren't for everybody...hell, even when I get those press packs in the mail with that title suspiciously tucked somewhere in the verbiage I blanch involuntarily...but such was not always the case...and you know I like the old stuff...which brings me to the Knife's post of that "*Akon; Gerry Rafferty mash-up*":http://mog.com/Mike_the_Knife/blog_post/91348 which, in turn, m...
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Our man, DMDM, said this, and, for some reason, I though of Joni Mitchell's Free Man in Paris. I have no idea if this is the right kind of medicine, but the song has that rather soothing effect on me.One of the more fascinating aspects of Joni Mitchell's music is the ambiguity of the chords she uses. In music, a chord is defined by its root note, so an ambiguous chord is one that's equally am...
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i love that with a few cords of a song, we can instantly conjure up memories long forgotten- certain experiences, periods of time and people become intimately woven with a tune. how if i hear any song off of Joni Mitchell's - Court and Spark, i'm transported back to being a little kid in bed waiting to fall asleep while my mom read in the living room. this was a nightly occurrence, though som...
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Hello Fellow Moggers,Before you say it, I want to say I know I've been the absent father of lates. However this lag time was due to my external hard drive failing and my laptop dying on me. I lost both my collection of music and my access to the outside world all in one fell swoop. Plus I was going through some personal issues common for your average 23 year old.But as said before, I'm back bab...
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According to Sheila Weller's book Girls Like Us, the song is supposedly about Joni waiting at her apartment in West Hollywood for Jackson Browne, who apparently never showed up since their relationship was dissolving. He had started to see Phyllis Major, who he would later marry. The song is a great example of her visually-driven music. She had Tom Scott play horn parts to mimic passing cars. ...
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Court and Spark |
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| 2 Help Me |
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| 3 Free Man in Paris |
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| 4 People's Parties |
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| 5 The Same Situation |
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| 6 Car on a Hill |
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| 7 Down to You |
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| 8 Just Like This Train |
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| 9 Raised on Robbery |
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| 10 Trouble Child |
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| 11 Twisted |
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 "Court and Spark")
