A Celebration of Led Zeppelin

'Celebration Day' - The film of Led Zeppelin's show at London's O2 Arena in 2007, is a real treat and worth catching on the big screen if you get the chance.

It captures the band at their majestic best, turning in a performance that defies the fact they hadn't played a full live show for almost 30 years.

There was plenty of clapping and whooping in our movie theatre, which for once was quite appropriate.

The film takes you into the crowd and onto the stage, giving a sense of what it was like for both audience and band on the night. And it really does capture the spirit of classic Led Zeppelin.

At one point, Robert Plant says, "It still feels pretty good up here" and there are several moments where you see them look at each other, as if to say "we've still got it". I was at the Knebworth show back in the day and I think the 02 performance stands shoulder to shoulder with that 1979 vintage.

We're gonna groove - backstage before the show

I was also at Earl’s Court in 1975 and while that was really the band at their peak, for anyone coming to 'Celebration Day' without knowing more than a couple of the classic albums, this film gives you a good representation of what Led Zeppelin were about.

Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are both on fine form here and Robert Plant manoeuvres his way round the difficult registers without losing the spirit of the original songs.

There’s so much to enjoy. The material is nicely varied and really blows away any notion that they were just ‘Hey hey mama and squeeze my lemon’ big haired posers. The best musical moments are the ones where they show their roots but also their sophistication: In My Time of Dying, No Quarter, Kashmir. And if you have ever liked Stairway to Heaven, you will love this version.

Jason Bonham did a great job of driving the band, especially on things like Kashmir. As his father did at the Knebworth shows, Jason allows the band to ride on top of his monumental groove. Similarly, In My Time of Dying stays true to the spirit of the original recording. Jason really channels the spirit of Bonzo at times. It’s true what Jimmy Page says; they couldn’t have done this with any other drummer. At no time do you feel like he’s throwing them off – his appreciation of the music is total. What a proud moment for him.
Another great thing about the film is how it shows the many warm exchanges between all of them, when they know they’ve nailed a tune. Like on Black Dog, you can sense their elation at having not just got through it, but really rocked it.

JPJ talked about the over-riding feeling being one of relief, that they got to the end of the show without any train-wrecks, and as long-time fans we share in that relief. But what makes this show special is they reminded themselves, and us, in the best way possible that they were an incredible and quite unique band.

You don’t see musicians playing with this level of respect for their music and their legacy – not rock bands anyway.

 I'm glad they didn't take it out on the road though. This was a one-off.

I was curious to see how the film would look on my phone, so towards the end I took this clip of Kashmir. It came out pretty well. The original file size was 290mb! For less than 3 mins.
But there's a much better clip that someone else has posted from the screening at Hammersmith Apollo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=QoGnVrybqDc

I was in Tokyo not long after the O2 concert and, as I always did, went to visit the bootleg CD and DVD shops in the Nishi-Shinjuku area of the city.

Jimmy Page had been there a few days previously and the shop owner, who was selling an unofficial film of the O2 show, gave everyone who bought a copy a photo of JP he'd taken when Jimmy came in to get a copy for himself. 

Also On This Blog: What is Led Zeppelin's best acoustic song?
https://bangnzdrum.blogspot.com/2021/07/what-is-led-zeppelins-best-acoustic-song.html

Elton John and Rod Stewart at Watford FC, 1974

May 1974. Elton John was already an international star and had recently been appointed as a director of Watford Football Club, my home team.

These were the days before Watford were even close to getting into the top division (Division 1 as it was then) of the football league. They were in need of a boost financially, so Elton agreed to put on a benefit concert. Tickets were £1 and it was billed as Elton John and guests. 

Nazareth opened the concert. My mates and I were fans of their album 'Loud 'N Proud' which included the hit single version of Joni Mitchell's 'This Flight Tonight' as well as a  cover of the Little Feat song 'Teenage Nervous Breakdown'. 

We held back during Nazareth's set but then a couple of us moved right to the front of the stage for Elton's show. 

This was the classic EJ band, with Dee Murray, Nigel Ollson and Davey Johnstone, plus Ray Cooper on percussion.  

Watford are known as The Hornets and so Elton naturally arrived on stage in a hornet (well, more like a bee) costume. You can see from the footage of the concert here that Elton's colourful outfit was a contrast with the long hair and denim of most of us in the crowd (I'm down there at front centre). It was a good-natured crowd and I remember at least one streaker. There were a few glammed-up Rod-alikes and by the sound of the screaming, quite a few girls.   

Elton's set included recent classics like Candle In The Wind and Daniel. They also debuted a new single, a cover version of The Beatles' Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.  

Rod Stewart’s appearance certainly added an extra element of star quality. 

He strode on stage wearing a white silk suit and matching scarf and his trademark haircut - every inch the rock star. This was pre-Atlantic Crossing, the point at which he focussed on making it big in America. He sang a mix of Elton material that he had covered on his early solo albums. 

Melody Maker's front page about the Watford gig and rock's football fans

The second video clip shows Rod's entrance and the run-through of Country Comforts. It's just a shame the sound balance has his vocals way down. There are no official release clips from this concert, so this is all we have to go on. 

I remember the Elton John Band being really professional and excellent musicians. It was a treat to see them up-close. I remember thinking I had never seen a drummer wearing headphones on stage, the way Nigel Ollson did. 

The photo here, taken from the front page of the following week's Melody Maker, is pretty much the view I had down at the front. 

The article in the MM - 'How rock gets its kicks' was about how people like Elton, Rod, Ian Hunter, Rick Wakeman, Dave Gilmour and Roger Waters were "confirmed soccer freaks". 

This was 10 years before Watford had their period of success in the old first division under the management of Graham Taylor. At this point, they had made it up from the third to the second division and were holding their own without ever really looking like being promoted to the first division. They had a brief glory period in the 1969-70 season, beating Liverpool 1-0 in the FA cup quarter finals before being trounced 5-1 by Chelsea in the semis.

The Liverpool manager Bill Shankly said bitterly they had never lost to a worse team, but to judge from the clip below, Watford could have won three or four - nil. Anyway, Chelsea went on to win the cup that year, beating Leeds United in a replay at Old Trafford. Watford continued in lower league mediocrity for several years until Taylor was appointed and took them right up to the First Division.

Having stood on the terraces as a 12 year-old through my mid-teens, I drifted away in adulthood. And now I live overseas I don't get to the football much, but I keep track of the team's fortunes. 

The ground is looking much better now, enclosed on all sides. And for the past few seasons, despite a revolving door of managers, the team have held their own in the Premier League. (Edit: the current owners have lost the plot with this firing managers business and Watford now sit mid-table in the Championship (2nd division)).

Here's a photo of my son and I at a recent game.

Rod Stewart joins Elton on stage at Watford FC, May 1974

And to bring it all up to date (almost), here is Elton playing Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding at Watford FC in his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour in 2022. The tickets cost a bit more than £1!!

See also on this blog:
From Pinner To L.A. - Elton's Big Breakthrough

Elton John playing '60 Years On' live in 1971 - rare clip

Elton John - Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding - Live at Watford FC, 2022

It's Frank Zappa Day

September 19th is officially designated as Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore, the city where Frank grew up, before his family moved to the west coast of the US and he eventually settled in Los Angeles.  Two years ago, I happened to be in Baltimore on business and as usual I checked to see what was on while I was there. The announcement of a statue unveiling grabbed my attention straight away:

"FREE Outdoor Festival and Tribute Concert Featuring DWEEZIL ZAPPA AND ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA.
On September 19th, the city of Baltimore will dedicate a monument to the memory and cultural impact of the legendary Frank Zappa". 

To me, Frank Zappa is a complete one-off; a man whose unique musical vision was formed by early exposure to obscure and, to most ears, impenetrable sounds at the extremes of classical and jazz - with a garnish of doo-wop.  

I'm pretty sure that from an early age he would have been seen, and seen himself, as an outsider. His family lived in a series of small towns and this sense of cultural isolation contributed to his singular vision. He remained a maverick throughout his life, which is why I think he deserves greater recognition for the enormous catalogue of music he created, even if I don't care for all of it. 

He did what he did and some of it was successful, artistically and commercially. Some of it was only successful artistically and, yes, some of it was un-PC and of questionable taste. But musically, the proof of his worth as a composer and his skills as a band leader are the sheer number of virtuoso musicians who have come through his ranks. Only Miles Davis could beat him in that regard.

Percussionist Ruth Underwood said of Frank, "there was always more music.." He never stopped working and writing out manuscripts for the band to work on. If you are a musician and you want a fuller appreciation of Frank's oeuvre, read 'The Real Frank Zappa Book', his autobiography. In it, he details the unusual inspiration he found in the music of modern classical composers such as Varese and Stravinsky and of the primitive early recordings he made with The Mothers.

Frank also writes about how the Mothers evolved their act, via a 6-month residency at the Garrick Club in New York's Greenwich Village. The book provides the context and a greater understanding of how Frank came to create those early Mothers records - the arrangements, the little filligree passages, the tape looping, the orchestral interludes. There is so much in there.

Here is Ruth explaining the richness of her relationship with Frank:

So anyway, on that sunny Sunday afternoon in Baltimore, I grabbed a cab out to the Highlandtown suburb. My driver was a lovely Nigerian guy who played Fela Kuti and explained the stories behind each of the songs.  

Highlandtown is an ordinary featureless suburb, but for this day at least it got a spruce-up. The sidewalk bushes had been fitted with larger than life dental floss containers. Pictures of FZ were hanging from all the lamp-posts, and best of all, the main street running through the town had been renamed 'Frank Zappa Way'. 

The official bit was mercifully short. Gail Zappa, Frank's wife, made a speech reminding everyone that Frank had stated ‘if you want to get laid, go to college, but if you want an education, go to the library’. So it was fitting that his bust would be unveiled outside the community library in the place of his birth.

Gail, Ahmet, Dweezil, Diva - and Frank

Baltimore's Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake made the official proclamation, then invited Gail to unveil the statue topped by a bust of FZ. Curiously, the bronze bust was donated by artists from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where apparently Zappa was a beacon of freedom of expression during the Soviet occupation.

Over by the denil floss bush

The other members of the Zappa clan included daughter Diva and son Ahmet. All were openly moved by the honour and respect being shown to Frank. Then Dweezil and the band paid their own respects with a two hour set of Frank's music that ran as follows:

Stinkfoot / Florentine Pogen / Broken Hearts Are For Assholes / Easy Meat / Keep It Greasy / City Of Tiny Lights / Echidna's Arf For You / Don't Eat The Yellow Snow / Blessed Relief / Big Swifty / Apostrophe / RDNZL / I'm The Slime / Dinah Moe Humm

You want some more? Well here's some more.....The following clip starts with the unveiling of the statue and continues with highlights from the set by Zappa Plays Zappa

See also on this blog:

There's a lot to like in the 'Zappa' movie

Zappa's album One Size Fits All reviewed in 1975

Unveiling a Frank Zappa statue in Baltimore - Dweezil plays live, 2010

Frank Zappa and Lowell George together, 1969

Spooky - Frank's ghost appears front centre

 

 

If you want to see more from Zappa's early days, there is this Day In The Life clip available on Youtube

Steve Vai talks about the Zappa movie

Audio - The Mothers at The Garrick Theatre, New York, 1967

Mothers - Live at the Fillmore, San Francisco, 1970 

Frank Zappa & The Mothers - Montana, Live at the Roxy, LA, 1973

 

The Tubes - how they conquered London, 1977

Without doubt, the most spell-binding rock show I have ever seen was staged by The Tubes at the Hammersmith Odeon in November 1977.  The group were not all that well known in the UK, having never played there before. But they caused a sensation by booking a run of shows over a week at the famous London theatre and putting on an outrageous, hilarious and sexually explicit show that blew everyone’s mind. 

The review of the show written by the NME’s Paul Rambali said, “If you saw them, you will probably feel conned next time you hand over the notes to watch some other group merely stand there and play.  The Tubes are a spectacle unlike any other. They present a relentless onslaught of humour, outrage, parody, idiocy, music and costume – a feast for the senses.”

How does a band that has never played in the UK, and doesn’t have a hit record, create enough of a buzz to sell out in London?  They had also made plans to record a live album. They must have been damn sure of themselves.  The pre-show hype was a testament to the power of the NME in the 1970s, because without any other publicity, save for a few plays by Capital Radio's Nicky Horne, there was no other way for them to spread the word in those days. The NME was still the bible for rock fans and their coverage of the US scene had always been first-rate.

Here was a good example - the NME writer Mick Farren spent time with The Tubes at their rehearsal studios in Los Angeles. He described their act as “satiric mania choreographed with split-second timing".

"The Tubes may play for laughs but the laughs are delivered according to a spot-on orchestration. They don’t amble into a rehearsal studio, down a few beers, blow a joint and then put down an hour and half of lackluster boogie and call it a day. Both musicians and dancers work out under the uncompromising direction of choreographer Kenny Ortega.”

On the Columbia Studios soundstage, the show was going though its full dress run-through and Farren observed:  “It’s nothing short of magnificent. The only words you can use are ones like sensory overkill. The act doesn’t leave you alone. One moment it’s the band in white intern coats playing straight techno-rock. Then it’s a dance troupe on the lam from Star Wars, and then there’s the punk pastiche. Except, pastiche or not, The Tubes can cut harder and deeper than 90%s of the new wave.”

The band’s first two albums in the mid-70s established the template for satirical pieces about show business, consumerism and sex, with titles like White Punks On Dope, What Do You Want From Life, Don’t Touch Me There and Mondo Bondage. 

Good as those records were, the songs really came alive on the stage, where The Tubes could put their creativity and art skills to work.  Not only that, they could really go to town on the outrage, with bondage, simulated sex, exploding TVs, live chainsaws and a cascade of semi-nude dancers.  Naturally, they were banned from several of the more conservative states of America.

And with a group that contained eight musicians and several dancers, this was never going to be a commercially viable operation unless they could take the show to the big venues.  So there was a lot riding on the European tour.

Lead singer Fee Waybill acknowledged that The Tubes needed to make it as a headline rock act, to cover the cost of their large touring group: “I think we’re primarily a rock and roll band. We have to establish ourselves as that. We have to convince these promoters that we are not just a visual act – that we can kick ass.”

Well they did that alright. In common with everyone who saw it, the NME’s Paul Rambali was blown away by the London show: “The stage exists in a continual chorus of activity that veers from anarchic chaos to precision orchestration with virtually no breathing space. The band continually assail the senses with extremes of spectacle. After doing their duet Don’t Touch Me There from a motorbike, Fee Waybill strapped backing singer Re Styles between two video monitors for Mondo Bondage."              

The finale was the appearance of Quay Lewd, Waybill’s obnoxious glammed-up rock star with ludicrously high platform shoes.

Rambali wrote: “Quay sang a song, fell over, insulted at least half the audience, fell over, did ‘Stand Up And Shout’, fell over, then told us, “this is the audience participation bit. When I say ‘stand up and shout’ you lot all shout…erh…’go down on me you bitch!

“Eventually he settled for having the whole audience shout 'you bleedin' wankers' on cue, fell over and finally was buried beneath a toppling 50-foot speaker column.”

Rambali concluded his review thus: “I have never witnessed anything remotely like The Tubes. Neither, to judge from the rapturous response and conversations afterwards, had anyone else. Amazing”

It really was, musically and visually remarkable. I saw them again in 1978, at the Knebworth Festival on the bill with Frank Zappa and Peter Gabriel. And again in 1979 at Hammersmith, on the ‘Remote Control’ tour, where they were supported by Squeeze (that’s another story…). But that first time in 1977 was shockingly good.

'White Punks On Dope' performed by The Tubes on the BBC 1977

The NME's review of the Tubes, published on 19th November 1977

• Also on this blog:
• Memories of seeing The Sex Pistols and The Clash in 1977 

• Why 'The Velvet Underground & Nico' is such a classic album 

• Peter Gabriel at Knebworth in 1978

Frank Zappa and Lowell George together

For a brief period in late 1968, early 1969, Lowell George was a member of The Mothers. He can be heard on the album 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh' and the first disc of 'You Can't Do That on Stage Anymore, Vol. 5', which included a version of "Here Lies Love" with Lowell as lead vocalist. 

Whether he jumped or was pushed, there's not a lot known about why he didn't last very long working alongside Frank Zappa. I imagine he was ambitious enough to think he might be able to get some of his tunes included in the set. But of course, this was Frank's band and Frank's music. George said he was fired from the Mothers because he "wrote a song about dope". Anyway, for whatever reason, Frank suggested Lowell should go and form his own band. So thanks to Frank, we got Little Feat.

There isn't much photographic evidence of Lowell with Frank, but this photo has just been released by a member of Lowell's family.

And here's another that's recently surfaced, from early 1969. From left to right: Jimmy Carl Black, Bunk Gardner, FZ and Lowell

Here's a Reprise Records promotional photo, probably the only to feature Lowell.

Also on this blog:

When Lowell George Was The Future of Rock 'n Roll 

Little Feat at the Warner Bros. Music Show, 1975

There's a lot to like in the ZAPPA movie

It's Frank Zappa Day in Baltimore
 

Joni Mitchell in the 1970s - the Bill Graham archive

Here's a treat for Joni Mitchell fans. The amazing audio archive collected by legendary promoter Bill Graham, made available at the 'Wolfgang's Vault' website, has released a bunch of performances featuring Joni and other artists performing her songs.

There's some rare and fairly unique material in there, including Joni playing solo at the 1969 Newport Folk Festival, and the showcase performance during Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue show in 1975. In the Dylan show, Joni would perform songs from her current album 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns'. The archive here includes 'Woman of Heart and Mind', 'Coyote', 'Don't Interrupt the Sorrow' and 'Edith and the Kingpin'.

Also available is a version of 'Shadows & Light' performed with The Band in 1976 that I've never heard before, together with a version of 'Furry Sings The Blues'. The cover versions include Bonnie Raitt singing beautifully on 'That Song About The Midway', Judy Collins doing 'Chelsea Morning' and Don Henley covering 'River'.

There's a free 14 day trial on the archive, so check it out at http://www.wolfgangsvault.com/playlists/joni-mitchell-vault-digging/playlist-325236.html?

Some have gone, and some remain

Here's a strange magazine cover from February 1970. These people are approaching 30 (no age to be a rock star back then). So would they survive the next decade? For Circus to be asking the question, it must have been clear that the rock and roll lifestyle of the 1960s was going to result in more casualties, following the death of Brian Jones in 1969. What's surprising is not that some of these 20 rock stars died (three of them - Jimi, Janis and Jim in little over a year)  but that 13 of them are still with us.

It's interesting to see Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts are featured, but Keith Richards is not. Apart from Keef, who by any normal measure of abuse, should be dead by now, the most notable survivor here is golden-voiced hippie David Crosby.  Crosby, whose favourite pastime for many years was freebasing cocaine,  has come close to death on numerous occasions.  The catalogue of drug busts, car accidents, guns and overdoses make Keith Richards' story seem tame in comparison.

Here's just one of many stories: On March 7, 2004, Crosby was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, illegal possession of a hunting knife, illegal possession of ammunition and illegal possession of about 1 ounce of marijuana. Crosby left said items behind in his hotel room. Authorities said a hotel employee searched the suitcase for identification and found about an ounce of marijuana, rolling papers, two knives and a .45-caliber pistol. Crosby was arrested when he returned to the hotel to pick up his bag.

In the prologue to his autobiography, Long Time Gone, Crosby, when asked if he was ever stoned onstage, replied, “The answer to that is that never once, until I got out of prison, did I ever record, perform, or do anything any way except stoned. I did it all stoned.”

He's still with us and singing as beautifully as ever.

Joni Mitchell in the 70s (4) - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Assessing this stage of Joni Mitchell’s career, the making of the double album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, I should first of all say that this is one of my personal favourites, maybe my very favourite. Certainly, I listen to this record as much as any of her others.

In a recent documentary on his life, Bruce Lee is seen talking about the importance of expressing himself honestly - of not lying to himself. That purity of expression is what all artists are striving for in their different ways; to follow the muse wherever it leads and never have to go over old ground. Those who achieve this will invariably start to confuse or alienate their fanbase at some point. 

By the time she released Don Juan's Reckless Daughter  in late 1977, that was certainly the case for Joni Mitchell. Attitudes towards Joni had hardened. Some of the fans who had been turned off by the new jazzier direction of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns may actually have given Joni another chance after Hejira, where the instrumentation was much sparser. 

However, most casual fans would have baulked at a double album of (mostly) new material with elements of jazz, classical and what later became known as 'world' music. So Don Juan's Reckless Daughter  never stood much of a chance. As such, it remains under-appreciated in comparison to her previous albums.

Don Juan could have been the natural follow-up to Hissing. The use of jazz players and the exotic instrumentation of tracks like 'The Tenth World' and 'Dreamland' have their origins on Hissing (Dreamland was demo'ed for that album). 

The biggest surprise, for those who bought Don Juan, would have been the side-long track Paprika Plains, with its moody strings and Keith Jarrett-like piano passages. It is a sophisticated piece with a variety of moods; it requires that you listen to it - for 16 minutes! What was she thinking?   

Of course, she was doing what all the best artists do - testing the boundaries. A double album allows an artist to stretch themselves musically. Joni's generation had grown up with Bob Dylan leading the way, with his 12 minute Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands taking up side four of Blonde On Blonde.

So Joni would have relished the idea of taking a large canvas and using some broad brush strokes. Mitchell said of the composition: "The improvisational, the spontaneous aspect of this creative process is to set words to the music, which is a hammer and chisel process. Sometimes it flows, but a lot of times it's blocked by concept. 

"And if you're writing free consciousness - which I do once in a while just to remind myself that I can, you know, because I'm fitting little pieces of this puzzle together - the end result must flow as if it was spoken for the first time."

But there was a critical consensus that Joni was over-reaching. While some of us were happy to hear the more extended pieces, especially complemented by such wonderful players, most did not have the patience. However,  the very fact that she could cover so much musical ground, and hold her own in the company of virtuoso players, suggests that actually Joni was right where she belonged.  

The playing and arrangements on 'Hissing' had been as confident and accomplished as you could ever hear, largely because of the assured way the band handled Joni's material. On 'Don Juan' she brought the musicians further forward and again gave a prominent role to bassist Jaco Pastorius, together with his Weather Report bandmate, veteran saxophonist Wayne Shorter.  

Joni seemed to have reached a point where she felt fully in control in the studio. On the 'Overture' that preceded the track 'Cotton Avenue', she created waves of sound with her voice and guitar. The virtuoso players helped Joni produce many of her most complex yet engaging arrangements. Pastorius is particularly inspired here; Don Juan contains several of the most sublime bass parts he ever committed to tape.

Joni on stage with one of the all-time greats of the bass guitar, Jaco Pastorius

At the time, Joni commented on her collaboration with Pastorius:

"I was trying to find a certain sound on the bottom end, going against the vogue at the time. He had this wide, fat swathe of a sound. I know he stretched me. I stretched him some too, inadvertently, on things like ‘Don Juan's Reckless Daughter’. 

"That was Alejandro Acuna, Don Alias, myself and Jaco. Alex's background is in Latin music, so that track was getting a very Latin percussion sound on the bottom. I said, "No, this is more North American Indian, a more limited palette of drum sounds." 

"So Jaco got an idea. I don't know if he detuned his bass, but he started striking the end of the strings, up by the bridge, and he'd slide with the palm of his palm all the way down to the head. He set up this pattern: du du du doom, du du du doom. 

"Well, it's a five minute song, and three minutes into it his hand started to bleed. He shredded it making it slide the full length of his bass strings. They turned into a grater. 

"So we stopped taping and he changed to his Venus mound, below the thumb. And when we finished the take, that was bleeding, too. So his whole hand was bleeding. But the music was magnificent, and he was so excited because he'd discovered a new thing. Later he built up calluses and you'd always see him doing those slides. But then he was mad with me because I had copped his new shit for my record"

Sonically, Don Juan is easily the best record Joni made in the 70s and her voice never sounded better. There is a clarity to the vocals that provides a heightened level of intimacy on some tracks. Listen closely to the sensuous syncopation as she sings over her guitar on 'Otis and Marlena'. I think it’s nothing short of genius the way she does that.

Now that people are more attuned to jazz and world music in a mainstream ‘rock’ context, this album doesn’t seem all that radical. That it alienated people shouldn’t detract from the evidence of its sophistication and beauty. Very few of her contemporaries, if any, were stretching themselves across such a range of different music, and with such emotional honesty. 

Along with the long form and the exotic, there are also the signature soulful and bitter-sweet love songs such as 'Jericho', 'Off-night Backstreet' and especially 'The Silky Veils of Ardour'. 

The title track is, along with 'Song For Sharon', probably the most lyrics she ever wrote in one song; and they are great lyrics too:

I'm Don Juan's reckless daughter
I came out two days on your tail
Those two bald-headed days in November
Before the first snowflakes sail
Out on the vast and subtle plains of mystery
A split tongue spirit talks
Noble as a nickel chief
Striking up an old juke box
And he says:
"Snakes along the railroad tracks."
He says, "Eagles in jet trails ..."
He says, "Coils around feathers and talons on scales ...
Gravel under the belly plates ..."
He says, "Wind in the Wings ..."
He says, "Big bird dragging its tail in the dust ...
Snake kite flying on a string."

I come from open prairie
Given some wisdom and a lot of jive!
Last night the ghosts of my old ideas
Reran on channel five
And it howled so spooky for its eagle soul
I nearly broke down and cried
But the split tongue spirit laughed at me
He says, "Your serpent cannot be denied."
Our serpents love the whisky bars
They love the romance of the crime
But didn't I see a neon sign
Fester on your hotel blind
And a country road come off the wall
And swoop down at the crowd at the bar
And put me at the top of your danger list
Just for being so much like you are!

You're a coward against the altitude-
You're a coward against the flesh-
Coward-caught between yes and no
Reckless this time on the line for yes, yes, yes!
Reckless brazen in the play
Of your changing traffic lights
Coward-slinking down the hall
to another restless night
As we center behind the eight ball
As we rock between the sheets
As we siphon the colored language
Off the farms and the streets

Here in Good-Old-God-Save-America
the home of the brave and the free
We are all hopelessly oppressed cowards
Of some duality
Of restless multiplicity
(Oh say can you see)

Restless for streets and honky tonks
Restless for home and routine
Restless for country-safety-and her
Restless for the likes of reckless me
Restless sweeps like fire and rain
Over virgin wilderness
It prowls like hookers and thieves
Through bolt locked tenements
Behind my bolt locked door
The eagle and the serpent are at war in me
The serpent fighting for blind desire
The eagle for clarity

What strange prizes these battles bring
These hectic joys-these weary blues
Puffed up and strutting when I think I win
Down and shaken when I think I lose
There are rivets up here in this eagle
There are box cars down there on your snake
And we are twins of spirit
No matter which route home we take
Or what we forsake

We're going to come up to the eyes of clarity
And we'll go down to the beads of guile
There is danger and education
In living out such a reckless life style
I touched you on the central plains
It was plane to train my twin
It was just plane shadow to train shadow
But to me it was skin to skin
The spirit talks in spectrums
He talks to mother earth to father sky
Self indulgence to self denial
Man to woman
Scales to feathers
You and I
Eagles in the sky
You and I
Snakes in the grass
You and I
Crawl and fly
You and I

Similarities with Coyote are not accidental, as Joni had written DJRD at around the same time as Hejira's lead-off track. She even played the two songs together as one on her 1976 tour. 

 

In the interview she did with Rolling Stone in 1979, around the time of the release of Mingus, Joni talked about the frustration of releasing her previous album, Don Juan... to another critical panning by the press. 

"If I experience any frustration, it’s the frustration of being misunderstood. But that’s what stardom is – a glamorous misunderstanding. All the way along, I know that some of these projects are eccentric. I know that there are parts that are experimental, and some of them are half-baked. I certainly have been pushing the limits and – even for myself – not all of my experiments are completely successful. But they lay the groundwork for further developments. 

"Sooner or later, some of those experiments will come to fruition. So I have to lay out a certain amount of my growing pains in public. I like the idea that annually there is a place where I can distribute the art that I have collected for the year. That’s the only thing that I feel I want to protect, really. And that means having a certain amount of commercial success.

"It’s a credit to the people that have supported me in spite of the bad publicity of the last four years – the out-and-out panning of a lot of fine and unusual projects – that at least they felt this work had some moments of accessible beauty."

"I feel bitterness, but I’m not embittered. Feelings pass. A lot of the humour in the music is missed. They insist on painting me as this tragic . . . well not even tragic, because in this town people don’t understand tragedy. All they understand is drama. You have to be moral to understand tragedy [laughs]."

Much as I love her other albums, it’s this one I keep coming back to. If you’ve never listened to Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, or you haven’t listened to it for years, dig it out and discover the missing link between the Hissing/Hejira era and the Mingus record. 

This, for me, is where she struck the perfect balance between the songwriter, the jazz musician, the singer and the lyricist.

Video: 'Overture / Cotton Avenue' from the album 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter', 1978
That bass run at the 2 minute mark, wow!

See also on the blog:

Joni Mitchell in the 1970s - Court and Spark

Joni Mitchell in the 70s (2) - The Hissing of Summer Lawns

JoniMitchell in the 70s - Hejira

Joni Mitchell tames the tiger at the Isle of Wight 1970

Joni Mitchell's Dog Eat Dog and a chance meeting with Thomas Dolby

Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan's artistic peak in the 1960s