#258 Joni Mitchell, 'The Hissing of Summer Lawns' (1975)

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Following ‘Court and Spark,’ the most successful album of Joni Mitchell’s career, she started work on her next body of work, which came to be ‘The Hissing Of Summer Lawns,’ her seventh album. Mitchell decided to completely shake things up and explored more of a Jazz-inspired sound. Mitchell, as a musician, was always unconventional. Her innovative guitar playing saw her using multiple open tunings; almost a completely different one on each song. She’s never been a conventional artist. She’s the songwriter that the great songwriters wanted to be.

The album opens with the only single from the record, ‘In France They Kiss On The Street,’ a song that’s set in the ‘50s around the time Rock ‘n Roll was becoming popular. A coming of age story in a small town. We get to the chorus and suddenly, like a hug from an old friend, we’re greeted by the warm harmonies of David Crosby and Graham Nash (with whom Mitchell had had a relationship). ‘The Jungle Line’ is a very early example of sampling in music; Mitchell sampled a field recording of the Drummers of Burundi. ‘Edith and the Kingpin’ is a gangster love story. ‘Don’t Interrupt The Sorrow’ is almost Beat Poetry set to an acoustic guitar. The title track is about a woman who is treated as a possession, dressed in diamonds and locked behind barbed wire fence. The album was poorly received on release but has grown in appreciation over the years. Prince was a big fan on this record and the album landed up getting a Grammy nomination for ‘Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.’ It really is a great vocal performance.

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