Flying sparks; Marc Cohn discusses "The Same Situation" by Joni Mitchell

"On Court and Spark she really manages to combine several musical sensibilities - jazz, rock, folk, pop, even a little bit of classical in the vocals - without sounding fusion-like. 'The Same Situation' is a lilting sort of song, with excellent instrumentation by this guy from LA Tom Scott. He plays the woodwind and the reeds on this song. Everything seems to be perfectly spaced and lends itself to the telling of the story. The arrangement is really lush, the song has an ethereal sound. I think that's Larry Carlton on guitar playing with the volume pedals, it swells and then recedes, as though it's just about to take over the track. . . then it catches itself. Robbie Robertson of The Band used to do that, so does Peter Gabriel. But Joni Mitchell's vocal is the absolute stand-out feature here, she sings with incredible ease, range, and clarity. . . with real soul. The high notes are round and smooth, she was just beginning to think of herself as a jazz singer, and it's most effective at this point, rather than later, because she's doing it subconsciously. Like the Beatles, she was a great sequencer of her albums. This song comes right at the end of side one so when the needle comes up you're left with these incredibly powerful feelings. It's a shame, you don't get that with a CD, where it's all one long thing."

- "The Same Situation" is available on Court and Spark (Asylum 1, LP K53002,CD 253002)