Kakki referred us to a review with:
"I found this review from Rolling Stone on the JMDL articles
site amusing -http://www.jmdl.com/articles/docs/780309rs.cfm Janet Maslin
completely flicks it off (along with Hissing and Hejira, no less). I love
reading some of these old reviews and wonder if the authors ever
reconsidered their appraisals listening to the albums again years later."
Well, I confess again that I probably would have concurred with the reviewer
at that time, and I have certainly reconsidered my appraisal of DJRD, since I
currently listen to it as often as (if not more often than) any of her
others. And I like it a lot - or I wouldn't listen to it. Still, it is not a
bad review as reviews go - it is written with some intelligence - and it is
not entirely a negative review of Joni and her work, either. I would love to
pick apart all of the lines of the review (a reviewer puts oneself on the
line for posterity to critique and criticize, just as the artist does), but
here are most of the key ones (hopefully not too out of context):
In retrospect, Blue turns out to been the album that displayed Joni Mitchell
at her most buoyant and comfortable - with herself, with the nature of her
talents, and with the conventions of pop songwriting.
This may still be true. Of all the many things she has been very good or
great at, the conventional songwriting of Blue may still be (is imho) her
shining moment, in that she planted her flag at the top of a mountain that so
many others were trying to climb, and arguably have not since scaled. That
she then went on to try to climb less populous mountains, even if the
mountains were more difficult and the climbers more skilled technically, does
not make her achievements in those endeavors greater than the original. It
does evoke my admiration, however.
She has dabbled with jazz and African tribal music, ventured deep inside
herself and fled far away. But, always, the unpredictable caliber of her work
has been as exciting as it is frustrating. Now for once, she has gambled and
lost. The best that can be said for Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is that it
is an instructive failure.
As Kakki said, she pans it (tho that is not quite same as flicking it off, at
least to my east coast ears ;-) Note also the phrase "for once".
Since Blue, Mitchell has demonstrated an increasing fondness for formats that
don't suit her.
I would have agreed back then (but in retrospect, I would have modified the
above by adding "as well" at the end).
But increasingly, Mitchell's pretensions have shaped her appraisal of her own
gifts.......These days, Mitchell appears bent on repudiating her own flair
for popular songwriting, and on staking her claim to the kind of artistry
that, when it's real, doesn't need to announce itself so stridently.
Well, I think time has shown that it is real. However, I confess that back
then I was torn between (a) the suspicion of pretentiousness bravely (or
foolishly) posited above, and (b) a more forgiving reaction with the same
result - that even if Joni was a top artist in that arena as well, she had
lost me, since I did not get it. My love for her and her work led me to
settle on the latter interpretation, whereby I conceded that she had passed
me by. Twenty plus years later, I believe that I settled correctly, having
finally come to appreciate that work. There is a lot of pressure on a
reviewer when, under time constraints, she has to produce a review of a work
by a person of far greater talent, based on insufficient time to absorb, feel
and analyze.
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is a double album that should have been a single
album. It's sapped of emotion and full of ideas that should have remained
whims, melodies that should have been riffs, songs that should have been
fragments.
That is not so far from what has been discussed with rather more levity right
here on the list.
At its worst, it is a painful illustration of how different the standards
that govern poetry and song lyrics can be, and an indication that Joni
Mitchell's talents, stretched here to the breaking point, lend themselves
much more naturally to the latter form. Her writing works best when it's
compact, yet the record's expansive mood forces her to belabor, in the title
song, the precious contrast between a snake (or a train, as well as the
author's baser instincts) and an eagle (or an airplane, plus a longing for
"clarity") for nearly seven minutes.
Yes, I suspect Joni is a great lyricist rather than a great poet. But the
reviewer presumes that these two disciplines are mutually exclusive, and that
there can be no movement in lyricism toward poetry. Anyway, a darn good 7
minutes, imho. The reviewer may have only had a 3 minute attention span. ;-)
Mitchell's music has evolved into a kind of neutral background, rolling on
endlessly in either a languid spirit ("Jericho) or a nervous one
("Dreamland"). Somehow, she has chosen to abandon melody at a time when she
needs it urgently.
I thought the same then. I did not appreciate that the more tightly-knit
melodies of her HOSL, Hejira, DJRD era were very melodic nevertheless; if the
reviewer did not think so, perhaps she should have tried singing them.
Here (referring to 'Tenth World) and elsewhere, there seems to be the notion
that blacks and Third World people have more rhythm, more fun and a secret
mischievous viewpoint that the author, dressed as a black man in one of the
photos on the front jacket, presumes to share. On the numbing, sixteen-minute
"Paprika Plains" ,we also learn about Indians, who "cut off their braids/And
lost some link with nature."
There may be something to this, I suspect. Note the somewhat sarcastic use of
the word "learn".
"Talk to Me" is the LP's most enduring number: as a terribly embarrassing
song about feeling terribly embarrassed, it has a scary appropriateness.
I agree with this assessment. This song holds up very well, and will probably
continue to do so for a long time. Underrated. But I also love the title song
as an autobiographical portrait in verse.
But even though there are no real solutions to the album's mysteries or
explanations for its lapses, Joni Mitchell's resilience has been demonstrated
often enough to make speculation about such things appear superfluous. She's
bound to be back when the time is right and her mood is less drowsy, less
disengaged than it seems here. Until then, we're left with Don Juan's
Reckless Daughter, in all its recklessness.
The lyrics of DJRD are, in large part, disengaged, a far cry from Blue and
FTR. Yet the reviewer is confident to the point of certainty that "her
resilient Joni" will return ("bound to be back"). The reviewer did not like
the album then. Like Kakki, I wonder if Ms.Maslin has since changed her mind
(like I did). I bet she - hung up on conventional melodies - probably liked
Night Ride Home when it came out.
Really, the reaction in this review is probably typical of many - including
fans - who listened to DJRD. It was wrong, but for many of us it took some
time to figure that out. In the meantime, Joni's fan base was both shifting
and shrinking, I suspect. A pity. But the best of us (critics and fans) know
the truth, and the recognition and tributes did come eventually, albeit
belatedly.
Hope she realizes that the belated nature of the recognition was for a reason
- one that puts her in the highest artistic company, historically. :-)
Bob S
