Don't Go Yet

 

Neil's Tonight's The Night-era backing band the Santa Monica Flyers, fronted by Joni Mitchell? It's only one out of many treasures on Neil's second Archives box... And talking abour archival releases, sweet Joni's own Early Years Archives set ain't too shabby either. If you were wondering what to put on your X-mas list, both are no-brainers of course.

Joni Mitchell & The Santa Monica Flyers - Raised On Robbery
Joni Mitchell - Little Green (live '67)

All That Lives

Got a fine Britfolk cover of a classic Joni Mitchell composition for you today, definitely grittier than the original but just as lovely. Find it on Claire Hamill's  recommended, unjustly forgotten One House Left Standing album ('71).

Claire Hamill - Urge For Going

No Club

Homo homini lupus and all that. Forget the pack, shed your sheep's clothing and be a lone wolf. Presenting a solitary ten pack. Howl awhile.

Howlin' Wolf - I'm The Wolf MP3

Le Loup - We Are Gods! We Are Wolves! MP3

Los Lobos - Will The Wolf Survive? MP3

Dennis Brown - Wolves And Leopards MP3

'Funny Papa' Smith - Hungry Wolf MP3

Dawn McCarthy & Bonnie Billy - The Signifying Wolf MP3

The Grateful Dead - Dire Wolf MP3

Woodpigeon - Chorus Of Wolves MP3

Joni Mitchell - The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey MP3

Lloyd & Devon - Wolf Out Deh MP3

Hats Off

"When Charlie speaks of Lester, you know someone great has gone...
The sweetest swingin´ music man, had a Porkie Pig hat on..."

Here´s three versions of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, the immortal ´59 tribute to recently deceased tenor great Lester ´Pres´ Young by ´angry man of jazz´ Charles Mingus. The bassist´s original, which became a jazz standard over the years, simply flows and flows.

In ´68 British folk experimentalists Pentangle - featuring the dual guitar wizardry of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn - tackled the song with a totally different, all-acoustic approach. It remained jazz somehow though.

And Joni Mitchell even set Goodbye Pork Pie Hat to words in ´78 when she was collaborating with Mingus in what proved to be the last months of his life. "We came up from the subway, on the music midnight makes, to Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone, in taxi horns and brakes..." Oh yes.

Charles Mingus - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

Pentangle - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

Joni Mitchell - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat MP3

And as a bonus, here´s Lester Young (1909-1959) himself. All dig the Pres.

Lester Young - Love Me Or Leave Me MP3

Lester Young - Red Boy Blues MP3

Lester Young - Gypsy In My Soul MP3

Just A Little Green

As it´s Joni Mitchell´s birthday today, let´s celebrate with a couple of nice live performances from my beloved Canadian soprano. The songs below were recorded at the Second Fret club in Philly back in ´67, when she was still ´a little green´.

Joni Mitchell - Little Green (live 12 Oct. ´67 Second Fret, Philadelphia) MP3

Joni Mitchell - Marcy (live 12 Oct. ´67 Second Fret, Philadelphia) MP3

Joni Mitchell - Go Tell The Drummer Man (live 12 Oct. ´67 Second Fret, Philadelphia) MP3

Seven!

Just a quick post tonight as it´s my daughter´s seventh birthday tomorrow and we still have to inflate tons of balloons, get streamers and decorations up, bake the cake and finetune the party. As my daughter´s name just happens to be Joni, tonight´s theme is easy though.

Let´s start with Sonic Youth and Hey Joni, from their classic Daydream Nation (´88). Guitars all over the place. "Tune out the past and just say yes." Lee Ranaldo once remarked the song "was some wry take on Hendrix´s Hey Joe, but I was definitely listening to a lot of Joni Mitchell at the time." For some reason Neil Young never recorded Sweet Joni, an obvious tribute to fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell. He played it live only once, in Bakersfield on March 11 1973. We can only hope a decent soundboard recording of this gem will show up on his Archives Collection sometime. And speaking of Joni Mitchell, here she is herself singing Coyote (from Hejira, ´76). Competition is tough, but this one would definitely make my personal Joni Mitchell top ten.

It may be just a little far-fetched to put up a song by The Birthday Party in this context, but what the heck. Big Jesus Trashcan comes from the Junkyard album (´82), so way before Nick Cave started to sport that silly moustache. Tracy Pew´s bass is amazing. Last up is Dutch pride Bettie Serveert with the classic Kid´s Alright from their debut Palomine (´92). Because she is. Happy birthday kiddo!

Sonic Youth - Hey Joni MP3

Neil Young - Sweet Joni (live 11-3-´73 Bakersfield) MP3

Joni Mitchell - Coyote MP3

The Birthday Party - Big Jesus Trashcan MP3

Bettie Serveert - Kid´s Allright MP3

33 1/3

Now I don´t know about you, but I always like to read about my favorite albums. And that´s exactly where the 33 1/3 series comes in. A few years ago Continuum Books started to publish these small, handsome books about classic albums, and until now they´ve released the staggering amount of 55 different tomes. No mean feat. I haven´t collected all of them yet, but I guess I´ll end up buying the lot (ok, except for the Abba, Celine Dion and Guns & Roses ones). Which probably means the publisher and I have slightly different opinions on the definition of what makes a classic album, but I´ve got a hunch these titles ultimately just shift more units than Beefheart´s Trout Mask Replica or Throbbing Gristle´s 20 Funk Jazz Greats.

From the ones I´ve read, most are illuminating, in-depth studies with loads of background info that can even make you listen to a long loved album in a different way. I can particularly recommend the books on Court And Spark (Joni Mitchell), Daydream Nation (Sonic Youth), Endtroducing..... (DJ Shadow), In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel), Exile On Main St. (Rolling Stones, written by Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom fame btw), Forever Changes (Love) and Double Nickels On The Dime (Minutemen). Only Sign ´O´ The Times (Prince) proved dissapointingly shallow, so avoid that one. London Calling (The Clash) and Horses (Patti Smith) are in the works, while the next installment in the series will be Mountain Goats´ mastermind John Darnielle dissecting none other than Master Of Reality by Black Sabbath.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea MP3

Rolling Stones - Hillside Blues (Exile On Main St. outtake) MP3

DJ Shadow - What Does Your Soul Look Like (Part 4) MP3

Joni Mitchell - Free Man In Paris MP3

Sonic Youth - Teenage Riot MP3

Minutemen - History Lesson - Part II MP3

Love - A House Is Not A Motel MP3