It isn`t easy to decide, because Joni created a lot of excellent songs. Today I would vote for the title song HEJIRA (1976). The sensitve bass of Jaco Pastorius and the pictoral, philosophical lyrics made a brilliant incomparable pearl of music out of it:
"...We're only particles of change I know I know
Orbiting around the sun..."
pero - www.regentropfs-reise.de
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A hardcore fan of the prairie girl since the late sixties, her first five albums will always be my favorites, where her voice, guitar, piano, and lyrics resonate most strongly. On her debut album, "Song to a Seagull," my favorite tracks are "Sisotowbell Lane,""Michael From Mountains," and "Night in the City." On "Clouds," her second album, I especially like "I Don't Know Where I Stand," "Tin Angel," and "The Gallery." On "Ladies of the Canyon," the title track, "Morning Morgantown," and "The Arrangement," come to mind most prominently. I like "Little Green" on "Blue," while on "For the Roses," my favorite tracks are "Electricity," "A Woman of Heart and Mind," "Lesson in Survival," "Let the Wind Carry Me," and "Judgement of the Moon and the Stars." Among these, as well as all the other good songs on those great albums, it's even more difficult to narrow it down to just one favorite, but if pressed I'd have to say "Sisotowbell Lane." Its ethereal lyrics effectively render an idyllic life in some quiet pastoral paradise. The last verse reads: "Sisotowbell Lane, Go to the city, you'll come back again, to wade through the grain, you always do, yes we always do. Come back to the stars, sweet well water and pickling jars, we'll lend you the car, we always do, yes, sometimes we do. We have a rocking chair, someone is always there, rocking rhythms while they're waiting with the candle in the window, sometimes we do, we wait for you." I think it is one of the most beautiful songs ever written.
Of course there is some good music in Joni's more recent work but I am much less familiar with it. "Sex Kills" on "Turbulent Indigo" seems quite good for a commercial hit from an artist whose more bankable offerings aren't usually my favorites. At the risk of over-generalizing, however, I consider her jazz-inspired period to be more commercial and collaborative than her early work, usually targeting a more mainstream audience and featuring contributions from other musicians who figure too prominently in the mix for my taste. In fact, sometimes, all you can hear is her voice, with her guitar, piano, or synth a little difficult to pick out. I've got no problem with Joni's increasing use of an electric guitar and synthesizers. Whatever reasons she has for making adjustments in her instrumentation are her own business. I'm just not a big fan of jazz and really object when "guest" musicians practically drown her out. It's HER originality and creativity I want to hear, not their so-called technical proficiency. (edited: 2009-Apr-15 at 20:09:38)
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Hejira gets my vote too. My favourite line of all Joni songs is in this song too
"White flags of winterchimneys waving truce against the moon
In the mirrors of a modern bank , from the window of a hotel room."
Something in me just stirs whenever this line goes through my head.It's pure Joni!The song Don Juans reckless daughter comes for me a close second.
Anytime I am near the sea the line "I'm looking way out at the ocean- Love to see that green water in motion." comes singing it's way out of me so I guess that song from For the Roses is way up there for me too. It's not really fair to say "This is Joni's best song."There are so many that are wonderful and brilliant -Jericho, Love or Money, Cherokee Louise...The list goes on.
Often when I am feeling happy "Magdalene is trembling like a washing on a line..tremb-e-ling and gleaming." comes out of me automatically! I love it... but to get back to your point Hejira is my all time favourite.
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First off there is no such thing as a best song. I think we all have our favorites. Why do we in this country insist on having a " best" or "winner" in art and music.?
My favorite song is one called "for real". It sounds like joni is almost lost in her fame and misses the simple joy of playing music. That's the song the moves me. And "black crow" with jaco on bass. Magical!!!!
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Oops. I know better then to type on a public forum when I an exhuasted. The song I was speaking of is called "for free". Sorry joni (edited: 2009-Apr-15 at 23:23:58)
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"you know it never has been easy, whether you do or do not resign.
whether you travel the breadth of extremities, or stick to some straighter line."
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What's Dylan's best song?
What is Picasso's best painting?
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Picasso painted two squares that were favourites for some people but I thought it was balls. :-)
Seriously, you cannot pick a best song from someone so prolific, only a favourite. For me, I would probably tell you something different every time I was asked.
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another difficult question... my favourites are, lesson in survival, hejira and don juand reckless daughter
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Amelia, Judgement of the Moon and Stars, Song for Sharon, River, Both Sides Now.............there are so many!
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Depends on my mood.
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Best song best song I don't know....but my favourite song is "Both sides now" so of course my Joni's favourite song is...."Both sides now" too :) !
(The Clouds' version is my favourite.)
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It's just not possible to ascribe such a title - so many beautiful songs, so unique a voice, musicianship and lyrics that often stand comparison with the finest poetry. Her music seems timeless but how can I say - it hit me at an impressionable age and I've been entranced ever since. I'm always lost in admiration for her - heroine worship I suppose - but justifiable for such an immense capability. But I think 'Electricity' and 'Secret Place' maybe would edge the rest if I was forced to choose two to take to a desert island - but I would beg for another hundred tracks. As to albums I continue to be astounded at the range of invention evinced on 'Hissing...'.
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There is such a wide array of songs. But of all the songs - the one that touches me the most is "Two Grey Rooms". It is a beautiful song... It is actually a song based on a story that Joni came across. It's a story of obsession ... about this German aristocrat who had a lover in his youth that he never got over. He later finds this man working on a dock and notices the path that the man takes every day to and from work. So the aristocrat gives up his fancy digs and moves to these two shabby gray rooms overlooking this street, just to watch this man walk to and from work. Joni said, "That's a song that shows my songs aren't all self-portraits". It is a touching song for me as my partner committed suicide in 1998 and when I hear that song - just for a moment I have him back. That is my favourite song. (edited: 2009-Apr-24 at 05:15:24) (edited: 2009-Apr-24 at 05:17:08)
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With respect to all great songs you mention I´d still would like to put Woodstock as number one. Why? It was a song for a new music loving generation at a festival that she could not even attend herself ( if that is true?)
Second choice would be Last time I saw Richard
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It's not my favorite but Song For Sharon impresses me most. Archly moving through middle-age angst in a divine tai chi of delicious sturm und drang; in ordit with a cohering resolution to stay the course even as one struggles to steer it. "Vicarious" favorites include Strange Boy and Botticelli Black Boy, neither of whom I was ever blessed to resemble. Sigh. What's an old man of heart and mind to do? (edited: 2009-Apr-24 at 21:24:14)
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JMFriend: I agree with you: "Two grey rooms" is soooo beautiful. Not my favourite, but it is on my 10 top Joni songs. Sorry about your partner. Something like that happened to me, but for me the song always attached to his memory is "The sire of sorrow", another one of my favourites. BTW, "Amelia" is always on my 5 top list... I'm sorry my English is poor.
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Job's Sad Song/The Sire of Sorrows - A harrowing, brilliantly envisioned & achieved song, moving through the subject's/protagonists predicament and shifting, striving responses to.......what ? A crisis of Faith ? Despair, disillusionment ?.......with dense implications swelling from subtle, dramatic shifts in nuances of tone and word - 'Show Your face/Help me to understand/What is the reason for Your heavy hand.'
It is a broad, colossal work, that achieces as much in less than ten ten minutes as a film (could, or should - if any were made that good) or the greatest written stories - everything preceding is certain though undefined, in the drama of the song.
The only problem I have with it is that entering the song, it is impossible not to be lived by the universality of the thoughts & feelings ascribed to Job, and this is a harrowing experience.
I don't think the authoress/singer can in good conscience call such a thing into life and leave it unanswered. (edited: 2009-Apr-29 at 15:22:23)
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Zanobbi - Thank you!
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So so many lovely songs .but my personal favorites are . Both sides now , The circle game and Real good for free.A million thanks Joni.x
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If I had to choose my favourite Joni songs it would be. Blue, Michael from Mountains, Edith and the Kingpin (lovely song that!) and River.
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If I had a gun to my head,my first choice for best song would have to be Woodstock, followed by The Wolf that Lives in Lindsey from Mingus: "If you're smart or rich or lucky, Maybe you'll beat the laws of man, But the inner laws of spirit and the outer laws of nature, no man can. No man can" WOW The wolves howling in the background send chills down my spine. I actually heard real wolves howling once, in Canada, and Joni came to mind.
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Best? That's a toughy. I think Hejira. My favourite? Coyote, followed by Hejira and Amelia.
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I am surprised to see that "Paprika Plains" has not been named by anyone. I found this song to be extremely introspective and brave. My favorite song? I don't think I could pick just one... that's impossible! Although "Paprika" is definitely one of my many #1s!
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Where to begin choosing a "best" song. Or even a favorite song! Its like trying to understand the universe. I have to stop coz it makes my head hurt! But if there was one it must surely come from "Summer Lawns" or "Hejira". I know one of my favorite lyrics is "a helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof, like a dragonfly on a tomb"... it knocks me out every time i hear it. Overwhelming visual imagery and poetic simplicity combine. And of course the entire last verse of "Refuge of the Roads" ("...and you couldn't see a city on that marbled bowling ball, or a forest, or a highway, or me here least of all...". Joni you paint such beautiful pictures with your music.
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There are two for me - 'A Case of You', I heard this at 17 and it stopped me in my tracks and it began a life long love for her music. .I could drink a case of you and I would still be on my feet.' Still does it for me! The other is 'Hejira' amazing!!
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Hejira or Amelia I guess? A case of you, Woodstock, Coyote, Cactus tree, Edith and the kingpin, Help me, Wild things run fast, River, All I want... I don't know but every song she ever wrote is beautiful.
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I agree with 'eclipse 128', Paprika Plains just does it for me!! Nice to know someone else feels the same way.
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Song for Sharon is my favorite song, so far. Interesting that it attracted me so. Haunting melody and emotionally brutal; it's quite amazing what it did to this man - I could not stop playing it. woof!
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there's Cactus Tree
there's All I Want
there's Blonde in the Bleachers
there's Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
there's Court and Spark
there's The Boho Dance/Harry's Haus/Centerpiece
there's Furry Sings the Blues
there's Lakota and Cool Water
there's Passion Play
there's Sex Kills, ...... but what, me?, a favorite?
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my favorite? today? "just a little green".and then 100 after....
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Edith and the Kingpin from The Hissing of Summer Lawns.....
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PLUS.....Two Grey Rooms, Shades of Scarlet Conquering ("she stood cast iron and frail with her impossibly gentle hands and her blood red fingernails"), Lakota (for inclusion of Iron Eyes Cody singing an opening chant), Empty Try Another for recording 1,200+ "pulls" of an old-fashioned cigarette dispensing machine as the instrument of the song, Song for Sharon
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"Down To You" is one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs.
Some songs hit you at a moment in your life and describe exactly what you never were able to verbalize to yourself.
"You go down to the pick-up station craving warmth and beauty.
You settle for less-than-fascination, a few drinks later you're not so choosy.
When the closing lights strip off this strange new flesh you've found.
Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf, you hurry, to the blackness, and the blankets, to lay down, an impression, and your lonliness."
After I figured out what the lyrics meant (and it took me a while)I realized that she had described my life (and many others) at that time better than anyone else had in a pop song.
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As someone mentioned, too many to choose from and it depends on my mood.
So many of her songs gave me the feeling that I was not alone in my loneliness,
not the only one who cherished a sunrise, was heartbroken or loved.
I guess Both Sides Now covers it all in a nutshell.
I believe that I have most, if not all of Joni's vinyl albums and after the mid seventies a new one would come out I would think to myself,
"this sucks, this ain't the Joni I love."
But after listening to it for a while, I would fall in love again.
Music CD's are great but I will still listen to my vinyl, scratches and all.
I'm just another guy who fell in love with her music and longed to meet her.
I'm 56 now and she still has my heart in that crow's nest, dang-it.
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"Sweet Bird"
One of her best "whatever you want to call it slapping the strings and sound-board" songs.....
Hey, it's just guesses based on ....
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"Sweet Bird"
One of her best "whatever you want to call it slapping the strings and sound-board" songs.....
Hey, it's just guesses based on ....
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It depends on my mood, and I love to listen to all of them over and over. However, my current favorite is "Be Cool." I guess I need to be cool, and that song makes me laugh.
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I also get a big kick out of "You're So Square."
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I don't know if she has a best. My favorites are Barangrill, Coyote, Help Me, Just like this train, Trouble Child. Her music means the world to me.
PEACE
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'condemned to wires and hammers
strike every chord that you feel
that broken trees
and elephant ivories conceal'
Those lines give me goosebumps.
Next time you listen to 'Song for Sharon' Turn the bass up and check out Max Bennet's playing... awsome!
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Does feel kind of silly to be doing this. Like I am somehow making contact with her by revealing here what song springs forth when asked the question "Her BEST song" When someone reaches in and strokes your heart you never forget. Really wasn't sure but as I was reading the other comments Jesse H. reminded me with>>>>>>>"You go down to the pick-up station craving warmth and beauty.
You settle for less-than-fascination, a few drinks later you're not so choosy.
When the closing lights strip off this strange new flesh you've found.
Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf, you hurry, to the blackness, and the blankets, to lay down, an impression, and your lonliness."
And in the morning..Oh man where's there a bus I can toss myself under?
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