Song To A Seagull

Artist: Joni Mitchell
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 075992744126
EAN: 0075992744126
ASIN: B000002KOE

Release Date: 1990-10-25

Song To A Seagull

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Tracks:

I Had A King
Michael From Mountains
Night In The City
Marcie
Nathan La Franeer
Sisotowbell Lane
The Dawntreader
The Pirate Of Penance
Song To A Seagull
Cactus Tree

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Amazon.com

Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell debuted in 1968 with this impressionistic and slightly overwrought album. Produced by David Crosby, the album uses very sparse instrumentation--mostly Mitchell on acoustic guitar with Stephen Stills on bass--to back Mitchell's incredibly complex lyrical forays. (The original LP's sides were subtitled.) But despite her grand plans, the disc is most successful in its humblest moments. "Michael from Mountains" (successfully covered by Judy Collins), "Night in the City," and "Marcie" all contain the seeds of Mitchell's best work, her melodic explorations, and observant eye. Tracks such as "The Dawntreader" and "The Pirates of Penance" are too close to creative-writing exercises to succeed. Nonetheless, a tantalizing debut. <I>--Rob O'Connor</I>

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful, fragile and seriously under-rated..........2007-05-08

As a long time Joni Mitchell fan how did I miss this one? Well, like many others who got into her music after her first rush of success her debut, devoid of any "hits" and rarely played on the radio, then & now, somehow just passed me by. My loss... because, it's a fragile, haunting and impeccably played & sung album. David Crosby's production extracts the best from what was, as time has shown, an incredibly talented artist putting everything into her first release and its pared-down, at times almost sparse arrangements are a huge credit to both artists in capturing "singer/songwriter folk music" at its very highest levels.

A lot of what of what was to follow was better and justifiably more successful but "Song To A Seagull" has that rarest of things - a level of purity and sincerity in its lyrics and execution that makes it absolutely timeless. So much so that its most successful track, "Night in the City", with its excellent, folk/rock orientated delivery ends up as an almost uncomfortable distraction from the spellbinding simplicity of what surrounds it. A seriously under-rated and quite beautiful record.

Places to come from, places to go.......2007-04-18

I like this album a lot (yes, this is another favourable review) but I can say that, now I have listened to it a good few times. It's not an instant fix say as Court & Spark, which came much later, but `Seagull isn't that record and in time you wouldn't want it to be. My guess is Joni was going for something artsy here, putting to one-side early signature songs such as `Chelsea Morning' and `Both Sides Now' (though they certainly have their merits) for the likes of the intrepid `Pirate of Penance' and `The Dawntreader' which can evoke the most haunting of daydreams. `I Had A King' works like an unhappily ever after fairytale which could depress the hell out of you, if it were not for its perfect execution. Her complex chords manage to sound angry, yet sad and beautiful and this in part is where her talent lies. The guitar work really is interesting as with most Mitchell albums, but here definitely. It's almost as if she wanted to prove herself to the masses by setting a standard - thankfully of course she did go on to make a lot more good music throughout the 70's. Unlike the later albums, `Seagull sounds audibly different with an echo type resonance throughout; whether this was purely down to dated production or a technical fault I'm not sure, but I actually feel it adds something - albeit intentional or not. `Seagull is faultless with ten good songs, though I can appreciate it not being to everyone's liking; even with Joni's clear accented playing and poetic story telling imagery the album plays like a daydream. The only anomaly is the bouncy `Night in The City' which adds bass and piano to a mostly guitar soundscape. I am pleased for the fact she did choose these songs, even if she had included early-unreleased greats like `Eastern Rain' this would be a very different album.

Timeless, fabulous, evocative, purest Joni Mitchell.......2007-01-31

I fell through a maze of hyperlinks, NPR playing Mark O'Connor to O'Connor collaborating with Jane Monheit to Monheit singing Judy Collins songs to Collins singing "Chelsea Morning" -- and suddenly the voice of a young Joni Mitchell flooded my mind's ear. I HAD TO HEAR "MICHAEL FROM MOUNTAINS." And so, after decades away from this wonderful recording (I have it on LP or 8-track... somewhere...), I rediscovered "Song To A Seagull," and I knew every note, every bar, every phrase, every breath, every word. And it is still as pristine and haunting and mischievous and sad and glorious as the very first day I heard it. How can I pick Joni Mitchell's "best" recording? Impossible. But this is one of the best of all of her many bests, still a perfect treasure after all almost 40 years.

A superb entry..... .......2007-01-23

Joni Mitchell greeted the mass public for the first time in 1968 with the David Crosby produced " Song to a Seagull". Legend has it that Crosby didn't really do much to the production of the record except to maintain the integrity of Joni's music by disallowing production stunts of the time. He insisted on her voice and guitar standing alone; that was a great contribution.

The distilling of complex emotions is present from the start. " I Had a King" details the inevitability of Mitchell's first marriage coming apart. It's stark, it's poetic. It's lyrical.

The songs are divided into a concept; " I Came to the City" and " Out of the City and Down By the Seaside." " Night in the City" is such a fun song, great for listening to in prep for going out with no particular plan. " Cactus Tree" is a font of wisdom. When is love a command to relinquish freedom? What does a free spirit leave behind?

Mitchell never preaches or claims to have answers to her questions, but she poses them in a way that grabs from this very first release onward. Her voice was a force to be reckoned with, but the musicianship and the song writing are unmatched as well. This is a great introduction to a catalog that has some loops and swoops, all of them being worth the ride.

Never Was There Such An Untarnished, Loving Soul In Music.......2006-08-19

Joni Mitchell's debut album was released in 1968. Called "Song To A Seagull," it is one of Joni's most underrated accomplishments, as well as one of her lesser known. The album is divided into two parts, I Came To The City and Out Of The City And Down To The Seaside, with five songs on each side. I bought this album a few months ago, and was instantly impressed with it from the first time I heard it. The simplicity of the music and the sound, along with Joni's beautifully harmonious vocal delivery is truly a powerful thing to treasure. This album is almost forty years old and it still sounds amazing. With all the rubbish around in today's charts, it's incredibly refreshing to go back to basics with something like this album.

This album is filled with so many beautiful hooks that just grab you right from the moment you hear them. It's an album to listen to in isolation. I could get lost for days in the middle of nowhere with this album and fall in love with Joni over and over again. This woman was a legend in the making, and the rate of her output in the Seventies confirmed her true talents. It all began here. On this album everything's not quite fully formed. Joni is still unaware of her true capabilities, but it's so wonderful to hear the potential in her voice, her words and her melodies.

The album opens with the stunning "I Had A King." This song deals with a failing relationship, with lyrics such as "I can't go back there anymore, you know my keys won't fit the door, you know my thoughts don't fit the man, they never can." I love the vocal emphasis in the verses, it makes me want to wail along. Incredibly healing, almost liberating. "Michael From Mountains" is a more mid-tempo song with lush guitar sections interspersed with Joni's hearty delivery. There's not as much melody to this song, which means it will take longer to grow on you, but it's one of the best on offer here. The imagery is truly stunning, this song is a painting in audio form. "Night In The City" is one of the more upbeat songs here, and it's incredibly beautiful. On a recent trip to the Greek island of Zakynthos, I listened to this song when I was taking a taxi ride through back roads and little villages. The song just seemed to fit what I was seeing, and I listened to it on repeat for about an hour. It's about two and a half minutes long, very simplistic in style and has a wonderful melody. Joni's voice is incredible, it rises higher and higher to the sun where it becomes truly sunlit. I love the chorus, "Night in the city looks pretty to me, night in the city looks fine, music comes spilling out into the street, colors go flashing in time," and especially where she provides her own backing vocals which repeat the chorus a moment after she first began to sing it. "Marcie" is another incredible song about a woman waiting for love to come knocking at her door, in the form of a letter from her love interest. The words here are poetry. Beautiful poetry. Joni is a true literature-genius and lines such as "Marcie's faucet needs a plumber, Marcie's sorrow needs a man" reveal such depth when put into context with the subject matter. "Nathan La Franeer" shocked me when I first heard it. The sirens used in this song are so evocative and rather scary in their brash and jarring appearance. This song ends side one with the true account of a bitter citydwelling taxi driver Joni once encountered.

Side two begins with the sublime "Sisotowbell Lane," a slow and relaxing song that reminds me a slow lullaby. Joni's luminous vocals rise and fall when she sings, "We have a rocking chair, sometimes we rock and stare." The guitar work almost puts me in a trance because it has this repetitious nature to it that makes me want fall asleep - in the good way! "The Dawntreader" is yet another incredible song. The lyrics are just pure, lush poetry, gem after gem, I mean, just get a load of this: "Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions, gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor." She just sings! There's no pretence here, no awkward, big-headed ego that you get with a lot of singers from that time. Joni was far ahead of her time, and this album proves it. "The Pirate Of Penance" is notable for the arrangement of the vocals, which suddenly speed up when she sings, for example, "She dances for the sailors in a smoky cabaret bar underground." The song is sung from the perspective of Penance Crane, The Dancer and Penance. The backing vocals are also some of the main lyrics, quite weird to describe, but I'm pretty sure Alanis Morissette got her idea for "Front Row" from something like this! "Song To A Seagull," the album's title track is another beautiful song. This is incredibly simple and slow, and stunning because Joni's vocals rise and fall on every other line. It makes the melody quite predictable, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing. The album closes with "Cactus Tree," an astonishing song which has become a Joni-standard. Joni sings, "There's a man who's climbed a mountain and he's calling out her name, and he hopes her heart can hear three thousand miles, he calls again. He can think her there besides him, he can miss her just the same." The imagery is representative of life down by the sea.

OVERALL GRADE: 10/10

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