The song begins again and the band plugs in. What at first seems meandering and rambling, has movement and direction like a river. It probably needed a good enough system as well. It took me a long time to properly understand and follow the movement of this piece, partly because I loved the beginning so much and partly because the end is so spectacular. The middle of the song is instrumental, with Joni Mitchell on piano and an orchestra. I would beat the drum like war.' The lyrics read like poetry. All in their beaded leathers I would tie on colored feathers. 'When I was three feet tall and wide eyed open to it all, with their tasselled teams they came to McGee's general store. It opens with just piano and words, which over the years I've grown to love. It has obvious jazz influences, as much of her music does, but there's so much more going on.
#The chicken jaco pastorius bass line how to#
I've spent years puzzling about how to talk about "Paprika Plains". Then there's the big moment, or to be more accurate, the big 16 minute moment. Track 2, "Talk to me" - there's a line in the song that goes 'I'm always talking, chicken squawking' and sure enough, there's Jaco Pastorius playing exactly the sound of a chicken squawking on his beaten but astonishing-sounding Fender fretless jazz bass. That way you get to hear the magic that obviously exists between the two musicians. You are though going to need a system that does timing. "Overture - Cotton Avenue", with its extraordinary fretless bass lines (fluid beyond reason) is almost enough justification for owning Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and the recording quality is outstanding. The nature of the songs and Joni Mitchell's open tuning guitar playing give him space to stretch but they also give him a clearly defined, melodic structure in which to work. That person is Jaco Pastorius, one of the greatest fretless bass players ever and on Don Juan's Reckless Daughter he just shines. Lots of reverb, lots of space, before the other musician (who really makes this album so special) comes in.
The opening track, "Overture - Cotton Avenue" begins with multiple tracks of acoustic guitar, typically in Joni Mitchell's altered tunings. On a good system it's astonishing in so many ways. I've been playing Don Juan's Reckless Daughter for the past couple of weeks. At some point though, it re-appeared and it re-appeared at a time when I knew a lot more and had a far greater understanding of music than I did in 1977. In a funny way, "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" was the most challenging and I think I probably played it a couple of times and then put it to one side. I was introduced to Joni Mitchell's music by my parents and grew up just assuming purchase of every album as it was released.
Why review a Joni Mitchell album originally released in 1977? Well in truth, it was one of those Tuned ARAY moments.