Joni Mitchell - Paprika Plains

[@marciusnery4065]

This whole album is a complete MASTERPICE. The track Paprika Plains specially. Music and lyrics of a true musical genius. The work of a dream weaver and a Muse of inspirations for new generations. We'are ever so blessed to have Joni Mitchell's legacy for mankind. ❤️

[@nickmichael5494]

For sure her best LP.. people didn't get it at the time and many still don't,but for those who do,A Masterpiece!!!

[@KKoje]

And in case you didn't know, Don Juan was the Yaqui native who inspired the 12 book series by Carlos Castaneda starting with The Teachings Of Don Juan. This is a life read. If you leave the planet having never read it, you will have missed one of the essential keys to you exit from this world.

[@susanjohnson2068]

@@nickmichael5494 I’m

[@SusanJohnson-xl3ys]

@@susanjohnson206845 years ago and still love the whole album. All of her tunes still hit my heart and mind. 😊

[@SusanJohnson-xl3ys]

The song is great and the last 2.30 minutes are the greatest music I’ve ever heard and I m an old lady and still feel that way for almost 46 years!!!! 😊

[@kevinmurphy6382]

The best break ever at 13:41 "No matter what I do, I'm floating back, I'm floating back to you ..... " the Wayne Shorter and Jaco Pastorius solo gives me goose bumps. Wonderful piece of music.

[@KKoje]

The value of the liner notes. I miss liner notes. I learned more from liner notes than from the songs. We lost that.

[@susanjohnson2068]

That last few minutes you are referring to are just about the most perfect moments in music have to listen about every two months or so. Perfect.

[@susanjohnson2068]

Finally someone agrees with me! Thanks. Got the album as a Christmas present 5 days before my daughter was born. We had the bid old time head phones on my stomach. She could barely move but she did. She was born December 30. As a tween she adored Depech Mode!!!! I tried maybe she will come to appreciate good music eventually 😊.

[@yuvalshayel]

RIP Wayne

[@susanjohnson2068]

Vnnnn

[@judithslivinski3391]

I’m listening to this for the first time during the bleak days of COVID, and am uplifted by this piece’s beauty, complexity, soul. Joni had the guts and integrity to be completely true to herself and not pander to popular opinion of her work. I’m proud she is a fellow Canadian prairie girl!

[@Frederer59]

First time eh? We feasted on it over and over again since it was released in about 1978. I say "we" because that was the era, before video, of listening parties. Very weak pot and beer. Genesis,Yes, and Joni et. al. Precious memories.

[@susanjohnson761]

My first time listening to this was Christmas 77. I delivered my daughter on the 30th anyway we had the big old type headphones and she got to hear it also she didn’t have much room to move but somehow she did!! This album is hard to beat. The last few minutes with Wayne Shorter are sublime even after almost 45 years. The prairie girl is my favorite. No one else comes close ☺️

[@hivicar]

Jam with great drumming by John Guerin, Wayne & Jaco, and Joni on piano-can't beat it.

[@crotalusatrox7931]

Pure genius it is.

[@KKoje]

I was in 1st Infantry U.S. Army @ Ft. Riley Kansas when I bought this new from a used record bin in Junction City. Paid $1 for it. It's worth millions really but life being as it is nobody gets it. It IS an absolute masterpiece and while I was very familiar with her works, this was by far the album that showed me her immense talent as a musician, songwriter and producer. Kansas was the perfect backdrop for hearing Paprika Plains. My experience with this album was and remains otherworldly.

[@happydays2300]

Driving across Utah...I felt that way, listening to this. Many moons ago. Coming home to Colorado via U.S. 50. In a very nice rental car and this on tape.

[@susanjohnson2068]

You really told the reality of that album and of her.

[@sh230968]

Just listened to this one for the first time. I am going to see a doctor because my mind is blown. This woman can do magic.

[@sh230968]

Just came back from hospital where they put my blown mind back together somehow. I could not resist listening to this song. When Joan utters "stifling", my mind is blown again.

[@bgfd1]

Work of a pure genius. Way way ahead of it's time. The way she distills the imagery is stunning.

[@frannieo1707]

Yes, isn't it beyond wonderful? Joni's music is so life affirming, How lucky we are to have had her songs in our lives.

[@marciv2964]

In these days of 3 minute gratification artists wouldn't dare to produce such magnificent music. This is a beautifully painted picture with so many details one can't experience the scene in a mere glance. Slow down and take the journey

[@PeterLunowPL]

well said ,my friend

[@jackiegeis9693]

I would love to hear your comment on my abstract painting of this song while listening...go to jackiegeis.artspan.com, she's my artistic mentor. It's called Turquoise River Snaking. peace.

[@2earache]

@@jackiegeis9693……perhaps you might, or already have, contacted Joni Mitchell and presented to her your own visual representation of this song. As we all know, her very close second love was indeed the brush and canvas and she might be absolutely thrilled to see your portrayal! I love your range of colours, the movement of the deep blue river which in its determination through the passage of the driving rain and coursing through the hilly channels of reds and browns, will finally see its way to the calmer waters as all rivers are destined.

[@zimerframe9]

I dream Paprika Plains vast & bleak & god forsaken...a turquoise river snaking. Joni is so artistic. I love this song.

[@jackiegeis9693]

I felt that also. It inspired my abstract painting of this song titled Turquoise River Snaking. you may view it here: jackiegeis.artspan.com. Would love to hear your comment. Peace.

[@Elomere]

"the rain retreats, like troops to fall on other fields and streets" ... this is such a creative song.

[@BenSchillaci]

Those last notes from Jaco really sweep you away, like someone calling your name from an unknown space...

[@aileenscurato4806]

Joni was always a dream weaver. She is always my go to for reflection.

[@culheath]

She taught me what art is.

[@oldtimerman59]

Its hard to describe just how totally mind-blowing Paprika Plains is , for me my favorite track.... 16 minutes and 21 seconds of pure genius and inspiration

[@Niels596]

In my last teen years I was listening to this song liyng in my bed before sleep in the dark.

[@jeffreypresley2204]

Awesome :)

[@michaelhawkins3624]

Me, too. Blissful memories, memories of bliss.

[@3243_]

This piece of music is wonderful. It sounds like something that could only exist in a dream.

[@leesyrjanen3947]

The instrumental ending to this masterpiece is just awesome.

[@pommelhorsepommelhorse8731]

its like God. walking.

[@jackiegeis9693]

I felt that also. It inspired my abstract painting of this song titled Turquoise River Snaking. you may view it here: jackiegeis.artspan.com. Would love to hear your comment. Peace.

[@smf1494]

@@pommelhorsepommelhorse8731 amen

[@denisniedringhaus236]

Oh where, oh where is my soul? Was it lost in my childhood? Did it slip away when I tore myself away from the land? I see the lyrics here as an attempt to scratch through the layers of consumer culture in search of something authentic. 12:16 "I spot you through the smoke, with your eyes on fire from J&B and Coke!" The piano chords are hypnotic and her vocals are amazing! Thank you, Joni...for letting us float back with you in this dream!

[@alaingiguere9197]

Dreamland Joni

[@DeanWatsonMusic]

An absolute hidden gem. Not enough is said about this piece. By Joni herself, or her fans. Too bad. I must learn more about this one ...

[@ulpana]

Dear Dean Watson, It has been 8 years since you posted this comment and regrettably it is all too true (in general). However, there have been some recent in-the-weeds appreciations of Joni Mitchell musical and lyrical (as well as painting and graphic arts) content. I was blessed with a gift of a bio of Joni that is heavier on content analysis than most bios, while not skimping too much on the details of her childhood out beyond Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and her well-spent yoot and early marriages in those all-the-more formative years as the well-formed works began issuing through the various art forms and inter-personal artistry she engaged with and engaged in. Check this out Dean: I'd never heard of this biographer, David Yaffe, from Dallas, Tx and now teaching at Syracuse U. in upstate NY: www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/books/2018/01/18/how-dallas-david-yaffe-got-to-know-joni-mitchell-and-was-trusted-with-telling-her-life-story/ Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell (Sarah Crichton Books, $28) is winning accolades far and wide. The New Republic calls it "a vivid and dramatic book." The New Yorker compliments Yaffe for being "a brilliant analyst of how Mitchell's songs are made." USA Today proclaims it "a celebration worthy of the artist and her music." The book is the result of the river of time Yaffe spent with Mitchell, a 74-year-old Canadian prairie girl whose famous reclusiveness, he says, was offset by her being "a marathon talker." She was, she told him, "a painter derailed by circumstances." Instead, she became a 1960s folk icon, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s. An adoring Kris Kristofferson once compared her songwriting to Shakespeare. (C) Michael Granberry, Dallas Morning News 1-18-18 book review of David Yaffe's "Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell" Mitch Ritter\Paradigm Sifters, Code Shifters and PsalmSong Chasers Lay-Low Studios, Ore-Wa (Refuge of Atonement Seekers) Media Discussion List and Looksee

[@susanjohnson2068]

Thanks I’ll have some good reads in my spare time being a retired Art teacher.

[@susanjohnson2068]

You can’t go wrong with this album(showing my age) you’ll never be bored with it. 45 years and I still listen to it !!

[@sh230968]

Well, I am full of opinion about this masterpiece but words do not exist to describe the kind or intensity of emotions I have. Strange, unusual, genius, brilliant, evocative, etc. are huge understatements. I feel dumb to be honest.

[@actien9098]

Masterpiece! Genius!

[@christopherdamien2248]

Genius. (Joni, your artistry saved me at a very difficult moment in my life. Thank you, endlessly.)

[@timkjazz]

Absolutely brilliant, a colossal talent.

[@jrw344]

Joni's dream which she went into in extraordinary detail at the Luminato festival, so she wrote this piano concerto & left pop music in the dust.

[@erflingnot]

Another masterpiece painted with beautiful words and vibration from instruments and people sharing a dream

[@crotalusatrox7931]

1977 and Joni comes out with an astonishing beautiful album. Paprika Plains, a modern day symphony that Beethoven would appreciate. I still beat the drum for you Joni, sweet Joni, now I'm floating off in dreams.

[@dr.zelles]

It's so beautiful - the whole song, and the late Wayne Shorter - such a talent; a giant.

[@SimonMackUK77]

Astonishing piece of music. Troubadour meets classical meets supreme solos . Absolutely breathtaking extended piece of music by Joni

[@frannieo1707]

DJRD is my favourite Joni album. And this track is beyond genius. i will never forget the day I brought the LP home and played it for the first time. I cried and cried throughout, every track was so beautiful, and the lyrics touched me so deeply concerning my own life. I had always loved Joni's music, but this marked the apotheosis of her career, IMHO.

[@davidhall8339]

amazing piece of music

[@TheTomvaliente]

Listen to this straight through with no interruptions! Love how this picks up towards the end!

[@sh230968]

I love it equally from start to end.

[@tylerwareham940]

She is truly a genius. This piece always floors me. It’s brilliant. One either gets it or they don’t.

[@davidcirillo1954]

Right!!!! You can't have one foot in and one foot out!!!! It's both feet in or nothing!!!!!

[@sh230968]

The best thing about Joan is her complete independence from, well everything. She can write and compose fearlessly. She makes her own rules and follows or ignores them at her free will. Her art of independence is at its peak in Don Juan's album. Great piece of art.

[@charliejervis1097]

It fell from midnight skies It drummed on the galvanized In the washroom, women tracked the rain Up to the make-up mirror Liquid soap and grass And Jungle Gardenia crash On Pine-Sol and beer It's stifling in here I've got to get some air I'm going outside to get some air Back in my hometown They would have cleared the floor Just to watch the rain come down They're such sky-oriented people Geared to changing weather I'm floating off in time I'm floating off I'm floating off in time When I was three feet tall And wide-eyed open to it all With their tasseled teams they came To McGee's General Store All in their beaded leathers I would tie on colored feathers And I'd beat the drum like war I would beat the drum like war I'd beat the drum I'd beat the drum like war But when the church got through They traded their beads for bottles Smashed on Railway Avenue And they cut off their braids And lost some link with nature I'm floating into dreams I'm floating off I'm floating into my dreams I dream paprika plains Vast and bleak and God forsaken Paprika plains And a turquoise river snaking The rain retreats Like troops to fall on other fields and streets Meanwhile, they're sweet talking and name calling And brawling on the fringes of the floor I spot you through the smoke With your eyes on fire From J&B and coke As I'm coming through the door I'm coming back I'm coming back for more The band plugs in again You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights And spin Dizzy on the dancers Geared to changing rhythms No matter what you do I'm floating back I'm floating back to you

[@barbararenton8009]

Wow! Just wow, so trippy!

[@SusanJohnson-xl3ys]

And she keeps kicking but after all she’s been through. I absolutely love the 3 or 4 minutes of this song with Wayne Shorter and Jaco et all. I hope she’s treasured in Canada as much as the USA.

[@SusanJohnson-xl3ys]

That should have been Last 3-4 minutes of this song!!!!

[@SusanJohnson-xl3ys]

And you are correct. When you’re as old as I am my struggle to tap these keys doesn’t always keep up with my brain. 😉

[@pierremaes5453]

The ABSOLUTE marvel ... Now I may DIE with no regrets ... having heard and enjoyed this instant CLASSIC, in my short time, here, among the ' living ' ... Respect and (?) regards !

[@billschemmel3125]

This is all of Joni in one exquisite piece of music.

[@easong2148]

I played the grooves of this record into canyons as a college radio jazz DJ round about 1978. Still one of my favorite Joni albums, the piano mix, Jaco, Shorter, Airto, what a crew.

[@1thaleb]

13:40 - my ring tone - absolutely wonderful music

[@hivicar]

That jam with Shorter, Jaco, Joni on piano and John Guerin on drums, is a gem!

[@claudineluypaerts6169]

One of my favourites❤️👍🏻💋🎶✨

[@annemiesegers441]

Absolute masterpiece. thank you Joni. You move me, make me dance

[@ledivo59]

... of breathtaking beauty, this essential œuvre seems like "Court & Spark", "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" and Hejira" all rolled into one! Thank you, Joan!

[@sh230968]

This song is unlike anything anyone did before or can ever do. Genius is not an adequate word to describe the brilliance of this song. Joan knows. She really does.

[@bradgrimm8648]

So GOOD........!!!!

[@Aramanth]

Joni managed to compose a work that is epic and yet so subdued at the same time... *Brilliant!* _"I'm floating off in time."_ 🍁

[@joaquimluz7539]

Paprika Plains... uma obra de arte. Obrigado Joni Mitchell

[@pierremaes5453]

My (very) OWN obituary selected TUNE of my temporary knowledgeable presence on/with THIS existence ! ... What a wonderful ride ... !

[@docnelson2008]

Joni is a very creative person, not only a charismatic singer/composer but a fine musician in her own right. Mike Gibbs had a lot to do with this music and he, like Joni, does not get anything like the critical acclaim they deserve although I realize that Joni has had great commercial success.

[@seanwayman635]

This album was the end of Joni Mitchell's great phase. This 16-minute epic is her final word on 1970s piano rock epics.

[@davidkeith9015]

This is in my humble opinion is music we need to.listen to in the period of Covid 19,music that means something to the artist and something that people can indulge in musically and intelectually.

[@dorianhorton6805]

Wonderful piece of jazz work.😘

[@chrysthompson9717]

Listening to this symphonic masterpiece for the first time in a while, incredible!

[@susanjohnson2068]

And then the most perfect ending to any song I’ve ever heard😍

[@JBinOtown]

This album sort of killed her record sales but I absolutely love it

[@Jorisvanderkamp]

dean b my favourite Joni album, period.

[@stevebeck3863]

Most people are stupid shits. This is a fantastic album!

[@robertnapora4106]

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, preceded her work with Charles Mingus, but remember Joni Mitchell is also a painter, and her painting Mingus

[@ktiffy9213]

Joni reminds me of Martha Graham's work, a colossal wooly mammoth of possiblity and humanity, yes we are human all too human

[@robertnapora4106]

'when I was three feet tall, and wide eyes open to it all," is a beautiful lyric, of "floating back, floating back, in time,. in jazz

[@EnoVarma]

This wasn't well-received when it came out, and I understand why; it wasn't at all what was expected from Mitchell. But I like "Paprika Plains", and it grows on me more and more with each listening. Very rewarding.

[@jackiegeis9693]

I felt that also. It inspired my abstract painting of this song titled Turquoise River Snaking. you may view it here: jackiegeis.artspan.com. Would love to hear your comment. Peace.

[@stevenhaywood1195]

I love this song and whole album personally. Everyone has different tastes I guess. Ioved it all from first hearing. 😛cttgaegoaktd

[@stevebeck3863]

They missed the forest for the trees!

[@stevebartley8902]

Came as no surprise to me all those years ago just absolute delight.

[@stevenhaywood1195]

@@stevebartley8902, oh yes! After all these years I find this album absutely wonderful still. A true masterpiece. 😛cttgaegoaktd

[@herbalhaze]

I still got the original vinyl. :)

[@fransheirbaut6881]

So do I; since about early 70's I bought her albums starting with Blue and still owe most of them in very good condition. Roberta Joan Anderson was a perfect songwriter and singer.

[@mkozlowski5013]

@@fransheirbaut6881 I am proud to say that I have all of them (aging myself, also).

[@victoriaviola143]

idem. and hejira, !!

[@caznrod]

great stuff indeed... thanx for sharing

[@pierremaes5453]

THE Masterpiece .... !

[@lotusalivelight24]

A big favorite song, of that day, & ever. ty♡

[@mox888]

She talks about it here in an interview from last week...it's a long but fascinating insight. It won't let me post a link here but if you search KZbin for "Luminato interview with Joni and Brian Blade" it will appear.

[@shaunwilson2537]

This is clear but tiny on mp4. Hear this on record. One of the best.

[@michaelmckean5223]

As with many artists, 'super fans' hang on to every word, every note; not for the shallow at heart.

[@frankscott927]

This is my monthly go to listen when the fears of life get overwhelming and somehow they melt away with the piano

[@kirchenaechter]

soooo goooood!

[@kennyraicherter1264]

In 1977 this would take me to a different plain looking at the snow scape out of my window ,my favorite album at the time

[@lotusalivelight24]

The Wyoming ‘Snake River,’ is deep-canyon-dark-winding-Turquoise... There was standing, a 5’ tall porcupine... perfectly STILL, & looking back...

[@pierremaes5453]

My sole and ONLY shared MUSICAL experience, since 1967, until my return to ... oblivion ! ... Born in 1949 and ... soon despairing to "hear/listen" to such MARVELS ... !!

[@ktiffy9213]

raw and primitive, of gifts unfathomable, from the natives to the takers

[@zipkeen8339]

Took me back to weird old movies and weird little dance halls fun

[@mnemonyxx]

Thanks for the memories. :)

[@annquinn6780]

I wait for that tempo change every time and get so high .

[@picklevalentine]

I bought the original LP when it first was released. It is an orchestral masterpiece. Rolling Stone was the rock bible and we would share our copies. It was printed on newsprint. I learned from Rolling Stone that all three characters on the front cover are Joni.

[@chrismstens]

it's one of her best in my opinion, with Shorter's passing not long ago it feels very fresh.

[@seanwayman635]

This was really her final statement on the whole 'piano folk' thing which she began exploring on the 'Ladies of the Canyon' album in 1970. My favorite song of hers in this style is 'Down to You' from 'Court and Spark', but this is one of the best of her piano tunes and is incredibly under-rated.

[@laurencefoshee7698]

I'm a sucker for Hissing... and Hejira--the title track of the latter especially--finest carpe diem poem of the 1970's, in my estimation.

[@micheleyoung5816]

Yes yes yes !!

[@felinorampante8]

Joni Mi amada inmortal ❤️

[@stretch54]

Some of the people commenting see this as self indulgent but I just hear beautiful orchestrations by Michael Gibbs and great mood music by a transcendent musical artist.

[@KKoje]

If you don't indulge self who DO you indulge. It to me was her sharing the typically unshareable. Impressions of her life. Her genius here is that she paints the colors, the rain, the times, her history artfully in this piece. I know how vast prairies can inspire music like this. The expansiveness gives your brain that amount of space to compose and did she ever do that.

[@pierremaes5453]

Among the Splendor of HER "works" ..., maybe, MY most cherished ... !

[@MrMisa1952]

ful extra tnx

[@MarsX69]

Under the Cherry Moon...

[@MrIndiJan]

I´m floating back to you,Taaksaya - should I be sorry?

[@anthonycrook1987]

I'm floating back, I'm floating back to you, I like it when time make love better

[@seancahalane1839]

Vast and bleak and god forsaken. Brilliant

[@Frederer59]

Joni's Appalachian Spring. Naive art at its very best.

[@sammym3028]

So maybe just listen stop thinking

[@kevinjoseph517]

album cover--that man is joni.

[@christopherbowman7799]

Mum would play the piano in the front room...

[@peterorr999]

I’m sent to dreamland from 14:40 to the end

[@lastrada52]

According to what I read the album art of Joni dressed like a black man & this song is what caught Charles Mingus' attention. He thought it took guts for a woman to dress blackface as a pimp. Then while listening to Paprika Plains (because parts had been spliced together) Mingus heard the piano playing and suddenly noticed something strange about the piano playing. It was out of tune. Apparently, two different pianos in two different studios at different times were used to complete the track. The pianos couldn't match up perfectly when they spliced the epic together. Joni decided to let it go. Who'd notice? Mingus did. But Charles, a difficult man to know, thought it was a gutsy creative move. And he had his people contact Joni -- he wanted to meet this woman & he wanted to work with her. The rest is music history. And a musical friendship developed between unlikely personalities. Jazz purists didn't like the Mingus album by Joni Mitchell but... Over the years it's noticeably excellent. Instead of focusing on the purity of the music, they should focus on the purity of the partnership. This is what makes music a neutral territory in race relations. More like this -- and maybe we'll learn something.

[@philipcolbert2069]

A little Canadian girl from the prairies... Never again.

[@Christiiine13]

I can think of few better ways to spend 16 minutes and 21 seconds.

[@JsRf13]

I can also think of a few better ways to spend my time other than writing a comment but here we are.

[@sh230968]

I myself cannot. (taken from the Silence of the Lambs movie)

[@sh230968]

You don't know how dumb you appear to say what you said.

[@user-pp1on4fk7d]

Yeah looking at you your 16 minutes probably spent hooking on a street corner listening to Taylor Swift.... go away, this is for real deep music listeners not trash that doesn't have a clue about music. I see the garbage you like on your page.

[@deedeetee17]

I pity the fool that hasn’t experienced the imagery Joni paints with this masterpiece

[@sh230968]

I pity those who failed to take time to appreciate the beauty of this piece of genius. Joan knows.

[@stephanodsilva]

Mike Gibbs" orchestrations...fabulous. He seldom gets a mention for this. The whole album, by the way.

[@moinsbete3525]

I'm here because of Loretto Heights College, Denver CO and a Carolina Wren

[@stevebeck3863]

13:42

[@MarkGrindell]

Is this real? Where did the world just go?

[@LohPro]

Mistabishi?

[@stevenhaywood1195]

Great to hear this 16. 22 masterpiece. Iove it. 😛cttgaegoaktd

[@ruthdixon7807]

inspired bass player charlie mingus to approach the artist with a proposal.