Joni Mitchell ‘Turbulent Indigo’

 

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Magdalene Laundries” by Joni Mitchell –

Turbulent Indigo was Joni Mitchell’s last great album. That’s not to say that all that followed wasn’t any good, it’s just that Indigo was her last consistently good album from beginning to end.

Coming in on the heels of a trio of experimental records on the Geffen label — Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Marks In a Rainstorm and Night Ride Home – that featured electronic textures and somewhat dated layered production, Turbulent Indigo returned Mitchell to Reprise records with a more stripped down straight-ahead sound that peeled back the atmospheric electronics of the previous records in favor of more organic instrumentation akin to records like Hejira.

Thematically, the album was her state of the world circa 1994, and her world was not a pretty place to live in. Once again, Larry Klein played bass and produced, but the couple’s marriage came to an end during the sessions resulting in their divorce after twelve years of marriage.

To match the title, Mitchell delivered her most turbulent set of songs in a long time including “Sex Kills” which dealt with such social injustices as violence, global warming, sexuality in consumerism and AIDS with its repeating chorus, “And the gas leaks, and the oil spills…And sex sells everything, and sex kills.”

The song, “Not To Blame” speaks about domestic violence with its harrowing opening couplet “The story hit the news from coast to coast/They say you beat the girl you loved the most.” Although Mitchell has denied it, the song was supposedly about Jackson Browne and Darryl Hannah’s tumultuous relationship.

The album’s opening track “Sunny Sunday” dealt with the topic of suicide, and today’s Song Of the Day is the gut-wrenching “Magdalene Laundries” dealing with the suffering and abuse of “fallen” women who were sent to the Magdalen Asylums at the hands of the Roman Catholic Church for being promiscuous or pregnant out of wedlock.

“Yvette In English” was co-written by David Crosby and features the soprano sax of Wayne Shorter as does several other songs on the record. And Seal sings with Mitchell on the James Brown cover “How Do You Stop.” The record may seem like a depressing affair by my description, but this two-time Grammy winner was one of her most inspiring records in many years, and like I said before, her last consistently great record.

— Eric Berman

 

Track listing

All tracks composed by Joni Mitchell; except where indicated

1. “Sunny Sunday” – 2:21
2. “Sex Kills” – 3:56
3. “How Do You Stop” – 4:09 (Charlie Midnight, Dan Hartman)
4. “Turbulent Indigo” – 3:34
5. “Last Chance Lost” – 3:14
6. “The Magdalene Laundries” – 4:02
7. “Not to Blame” – 4:18
8. “Borderline” – 4:48
9. “Yvette in English” – 5:16 (Mitchell, David Crosby)
10. “The Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)” – 7:08

Personnel

• Joni Mitchell – vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards
• Larry Klein – organ, bass
• Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone on tracks: 1, 4, 7, 8, 10
• Jim Keltner – drums on “Sunny Sunday”
• Carlos Vega – drums on tracks: 3, 4, 7
• Michael Landau – electric guitar on tracks: 2, 3
• Greg Leisz – pedal steel guitar on tracks: 7, 8
• Stewart Smith – guitar on “How Do You Stop”
• Seal – vocals on “How Do You Stop”
• Bill Dillon – synthesizer on “Yvette in English”
• Charles Valentino – backing vocals on “Yvette in English”
• Kris Kello – backing vocals on “Yvette in English”

Here’s Eric Berman’s Song of the Day “The Magdalene Laundries”

Here is the album in its entirety.

Here are more Eric Berman’s Song of the Day pieces.

[jcarousel source=”cat=6808″ link=”permalink” size=”100×100″ limit=”100″ items=”4″ speed=”400″ margin=”10″]