(Jazz-Rock, Experimental, World Fusion) Joni Mitchell - Don Juan`s Reckless Daughter - 1977, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is a 1977 double album by the folk/pop/rock musician Joni Mitchell. It is unusual for its experimental style, expanding even further on the jazz fusion sound of Mitchell's Hejira from the year before. Mitchell has stated that, close to completing her contract with Asylum Records, she allowed this album to be looser than anything she'd done previously.

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was released in December 1977 to mixed reviews, but managed to peak at #25 on the Billboard charts and attained gold record status within three months.

Experimentation

Much of the album is experimental, but especially so are: "Overture," played with six simultaneous guitars, some in different tunings from others, with vocal echo effects; "The Tenth World," an extended-length instrumental of fiery Latin percussion; and "Dreamland," which features only percussion and voices, many of which are provided by Chaka Khan.

Most experimental of all is "Paprika Plains," a 16-minute song played on improvised piano and arranged with a full orchestra; it takes up all of Side 2. In it, Mitchell narrates a first-person description of a late-night gathering in a bar frequented by American Indians, touching on themes of hoplessness and alcoholism. At one point in the narrative, the narrator leaves the setting and enters into a dreamstate, and the lyrics become a mixture of references to innocent childhood memories, a nuclear explosion and an expressionless tribe gazing upon the dreamer. In speaking to Anthony Fawcett about working on "Paprika Plains," Mitchell said:

"The Improvisational, the spontaneous aspect of this creative process - still as a poet - 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."

A big chunk of the pop audience Joni Mitchell had earned with Court and Spark in 1974 deserted her in 1975 and 1976 when the follow-ups, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, proved more difficult works. With the pretentious double album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell lost many of the loyal fans who'd stuck with her from the beginning, but who, upon hearing her here as she spread her obscure poetic observations and thin melodies across whole sides of the album, found her disengaged from the close, personal observations that filled her best songs. This was Mitchell's last album to go gold.

William Ruhlmann

In retrospect, Blue turns out to have 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. From that happy juncture, she has moved on to more graceful and sober self-scrutiny (For the Roses and Court and Spark), to dramatic musical experimentation mixed with failed social commentary (The Hissing of Summer Lawns), to ever-more-seductive singing (Miles of Aisles) and to rambling, hypnotic flights of fancy (Hejira). 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.

Since Blue, Mitchell has demonstrated an increasing fondness for formats that don't suit her. Not that this awkwardness can't be occasionally successful: on Hejira, she clung so resolutely to even the stray flat notes that the impression was an attractive one of stubbornness and strength. But, increasingly, Mitchell's pretensions have shaped her appraisal of her own gifts. At her best, she is a keen observer but not a particularly original one, and she has never been an interesting chronicler of experience other than her own, though the new LP finds her trying. Instead, she has been inexplicably inclined to let her music become shapeless as she tries to incorporate jazz and calypso rhythms that eventually overpower her. Her most resonant lyrics have been simple and concise, spinning out images rather than overburdening them, but lately the endearing modesty of "California" or "Just like This Train" seems far behind her. 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.

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. 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. 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.

The painful banality of Mitchell's lyrics—there is nothing said here that she hasn't said better before, except those things she should have kept to herself—is almost the least of her problems. Behind a treacly title like "The Silky Veils of Ardor" lurks an even treaclier notion: that the romantic visions of love put forth by certain folk songs are one thing, that reality is another, and that the singer apparently yearns for both. "It's just in my dreams we fly," the song concludes, with a reference to "The Water Is Wide." Or, as a dialogue balloon on one of the inner sleeves puts it, "In my dweems we fwy." The album offers what is, one can only hope, the ultimate in cute cover art.

It also offers the ultimate in potshots: "Otis and Marlena," a facile, snidely sung song about tourists who come to Miami "for fun and sun While Muslims stick up Washington." This leads into "The Tenth World," a mostly instrumental percussion track featuring Jaco Pastorius (who plays on a majority of the record with distinction, but without much helpful influence), Airto and Chaka Khan (who hums). Here 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."

"Talk to Me" is the LP's most enduring number: as a terrible, embarrassing song about feeling terribly embarrassed, it has a scary appropriateness. 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.

JANET MASLIN, March 9, 1978

Don Juan's Reckless Slaughter

Um ... We're in the punk and new wave era now. So why are you releasing this freaking double album that's nearly an hour long and contains a bloody 16-minute classical music piece on it. Wasn't that why all these musicians went nuts in 1977? To get away from the 16-minute tracks?

Anyway, I listened to this album *a lot* before reviewing it. There wasn't a good reason for it really, but when I was scoring all the tracks, I would sort of lose my attention and let the album continue to play while not keeping up with the track paragraphs. Granted, the track reviews in this review are *longer* than I usually make them, but ... I don't know what was keeping me from reviewing these properly (i.e. in as little time as possible). I don't know why I just told you that, actually.

Well, this is a solid Mitchell album. All of her albums are solid, and this one is SOLID. Unfortunately, it's just not exceptional. Her previous album, Hejira was so fantastic that it could've been called Hejthisisanawesomealbum. This album is probably more closely related to the one she released before that, Hissing of Summer Lawns, but this album isn't as fascinating as that! (The reason they're related is because Mitchell is doing a lot of experimentation here, too ... what with a bloody 16-minute classical music excursion in the middle and a couple of African-tribal-sounding songs.)

The big complaint I have here is that Mitchell just didn't seem to be focusing herself like she used to. This album doesn't seem like one great big whopping definitive statement ... just a collection of moments. This isn't a bad album at all (not nearly as crappy as described by the All Music Guide), but it's disconcerting. It's the beginning of the end of Joni Mitchell! GHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Good album, though. Must stress that. As long as you're not expecting another "Hejira," then you won't be too disappointed. If you like Joni Mitchell you should still purchase this. If you also like classical music, then consider it a plus.

Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 (Clearly, people who liked earlier Mitchell albums should eventually pick this one up. This is a crappy place to start, though.)

Average Song Score: 8.8 (Solid songs altogether from Joni! She has a handful of great tunes in here and ... even the classical music thing in the middle of this is very much worth hearing.)

Album Tilt: 8.5 (This isn't Mitchell's greatest artistic statement although she experiments with a few things, notably classical music. It has a rather weak ending.)

Artist Rating: 8.5 (She's experimenting ... I'm not sure how much she believed in this album, though.)

Track Reviews

Overture - Cotton Avenue 9/10

HOLY FREAKING HECK, WHAT IS THIS???????????? Hey, Joni! I said I liked your weirdness on The Hissing of Summer Lawns, but you didn't have to be bloody freaky. The instrumentation at the beginning of this track is very sparse indeed. It contains some distant, quiet acoustic guitar noodling and then we occasionally hear Joni Mitchell's voice (sounding pretty spooky). Anyway, the intro to this album is artistic and respectful but bloody boring! This goes on for about a minute and a half and then we get a nice ole regular Joni Mitchell song. She's still in her jazzy phase, so she's singing kind of like a jazzy nightclub singer. The melody is pretty catchy and it picks up dynamics as it goes along. Very nice!

Talk to Me 9/10

Some fast paced electric guitar strumming keeps this song flowing nicely ... and then there's some of that weird slide-bass thing. (Again, I re-iterate, I have no idea what these instruments are. I never do.) Of course, Joni Mitchell rules and this song is fantastic. It's not particularly hooky, but ... hell, I guess this is music where you're actually supposed to pay closer attention to the lyrics than anything else. The instrumentation is done well enough, however, that I enjoy paying attention to the lyrics! ... Crap, it was like this with Joni Mitchell all along. (And this also features Mitchell squawking like a chicken. Cool.)

Jericho 10/10

Geez, Joni Mitchell sure loves that bass. That thing was all over Hejira, too! ... Excuse me if I'm mistaken, but I do believe that this song almost has a real rhythm section! ... Whoah! JONI MITCHELL IS GOING POPPPPPYYYYYYY!!!!!! ... Not quite, though. Anyway, I really enjoy this song because the melody is totally Joni Mitchell and the instrumentation (containing not only a light rhythm section but also some nice sax) is fantastic. This is also one of her strongest melodies.

Paprika Plains 19/20

Alright, if Joni Mitchell wanted to make a normal album, she would've just had to cut this song by 10 minutes. It woulda been easy! ... So the big question on your mind about this 16-minute Joni Mitchell song should be: Will I enjoy this 16-minute Joni Mitchell song? The best way I can answer this is to ask you a question in return: Do you think you would enjoy a 16-minute Joni Mitchell song? ... If you answered yes, then that's my answer, too. ... But chances are, if you have this album, you're pretty much a bloody Joni Mitchell fan anyway. Casual fans will just own Blue and call it a night. ... Well, I guess I should talk about the song now. I like it of course, because I tend to like boring music for old bastards. I also tend to enjoy classical music. That's really what this is. Joni Mitchell's contribution to classical music. It probably would have fit pretty well in the early 20th century. There's a lot of piano on here, which is fantastic for me, because that's my favorite instrument. A lot of modern-classical-music pounding on there, and it's all quite accessible. Joni Mitchell does sing in spots, but mostly this is just good classical music. It's a moody piece that doesn't get boring ... for classical music. Oh, I'm sure many people disagree with me about the song, but ... they don't matter!! This is my stupid Web site, and I can love classical music if I bloody well want. The final three or four minutes of the song gets significantly jazzier and it features summa that fantastic saxophone. (Really, the saxophone is vastly under-utilized in rock ... I think that every time I hear it used this well.)

Otis and Marlena 8/10

So, Joni Mitchell is here ... strumming the guitar and singing a song. This ain't one of her best ones, but ... this is far, far from being a bomb. I kind of like some of the instrumentation (notably a calmer bit in the middle after Joni sings "And Muslims stick up Washington"). This one isn't very memorable, however. So I'll give it an 8. An 8 is always safe.

The Tenth World 7/10

A good old tribal beat starts this song up! ... Yup, a lot of drums start playing ... for a very long time. And we actually start hearing tribal people sing. You know, chanting and stuff. If you would bring this album in a time machine and show it to Joni Mitchell's hippie fan base, they'd think you were lying. (Oh, don't bring a CD, the hippie will try to put it on a turntable and scratch it.) There's really nothing wrong with this song. I like hearing drums for nearly seven straight minutes. But this is seriously less than what Mitchell is capable of. This song is disappointing for Mitchell because there are a lot of drums playing and, apart from a bit of speeding up at the end, there is nothing really compelling about it. (OK, granted the monkey calls at the tail end of this are interesting in the same way that Escape From the Planet of the Apes was interesting, because it featured monkeys in space suits.)

Dreamland 8/10

Mitchell is still in the tribal mode here, but this one actually contains some real SINGING for a change. This is either an African-folk style song or a Caribbean-style song ... or something else. I don't know and I don't care. (Seriously, all you people who e-mail me to say that I haven't a brain cell in my head because I mislabelled a song should ... go re-colorcode their wardrobe.) Anyway, this Mitchell song is respectable because it's something she hasn't tried before and ... you know, I always like to triumph artists who actually think out of their little box. Mitchell could *easily* have released an album full of dull folky singer-songwriter songs instead of this and probably cleaned up in album sales. But ... I honestly don't see anything so spectacular about this track. It doesn't seem like I'm missing anything if I space out and not pay attention to it.

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter 10/10

But I really like this song. It's bolder, better, and more memorable. The guitar strummin's are good and, an interesting bit in the rhythm section, a sliding bass guitar that sounds like a bullfrog with a good singing voice. She even incorporates a few bits of the Star Spangled Banner in here, which was a nice idea considering the lyrical subject matter. This song is more than six minutes long and I am never even somewhat bored through it. This is one of Mitchell's best.

Off Night Backstreet 9/10

This is another totally solid and enjoyable Mitchell tune. It's quite a bit average for her, but ... ya know ... Mitchell's average is EXCELLENT, so this is definitely a good one. It's Mitchell's voice, her guitar and a bit of instrumentation. There's no gimmick here or anything, which is sure to please the big fans of Mitchell who would rather she not do anything totally weird.

Silky Veils of Ardor 8/10

As always, my opinon on this site is stated humbly (***gives smarmy self-laugh***) and I humbly state that this is a boring song and not Mitchell's best choice for an album closer. Why not just end with "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter?" I mean ... seriously ... if an album ends as boring as this I'm not really going to want to keep listening to this! ... Granted, I did listen to this album *a lot* before reviewing it, but still.