Instead of pedantry over 'the Arrangement' why not simple enjoy, this film of such a preeminent artist captured here as early as 1967. For my part many thanks for posting this wonderful video.
The original version with Joni and her guitar is the best ever. In the ''Song to a Seagull' album version you can almost smell the salt air and the waves. The beauty of solitude with nature. How these others crowded in is tolerable but not pure Joni. She captured the true feel the first time. This version is like enjoying the solitude of the beach and finding others crowding in on your peace. Just an opinion.
I love her perfect album version, with just her and a bass. It's interesting to hear something different though. And this was broadcast 3 months before her album was released.
Joni's performance of The Dawntreader is so magical here. And that accompainment is ace! Although improbable, it even seems like a string arrangement done by the great late Clare Fischer, bless his soul!
Wow, this is mighty sophisticated for a 'folk singer' on a CBC entertainment spot. Must've surprised a lot of ears, at the time. Of course, everyone who saw her in the early days was transfixed by her looks & her style. All that intelligent, self-sufficient talent - music _and_ poetry - wasn't something folks associated with beautiful women, in those days. I'm glad Joni more than pulled her weight, in the rearranging of gender expectations of a generation.
@@robwad1 I recall reading Graham Nash writing that when they were together they would fight over who got time on the one piano because wile he was writing 1 song she wrote 5.
I remember seeing her retune her guitar on stage. She had two or three guitars. She would retune very quickly. I always wondered how she could do this without a piano. Always impeccably in tune. Perfect pitch.
Having these "accompanists" who are playing miles ahead of the beat is a damn tragedy. Joni needs no accompaniment. One of my favorite of her songs. It's a shame that someone thought other musicians would be a "good idea".
David Crosby said the one thing he did right, producing her first album, was keeping everybody else away from her, letting her present the songs the way she wanted to.
They say that it is Art when you gain some new meaning, some insight, some inspiration, each time you revisit the thing created. I feel that about each and every one of Joni Mitchell's creations - for they are more than just songs, but sung poetry! We are blessed to revisit!
Amazing song, didn't realise it was performed as early as this. Arrangement is perhaps not the best, but a good example of how musicians just did not know how to approach Joni's music. No wonder she turned to jazz!
According to David Crosby, “THE DAWNTREADER” & “THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY” reference the beginning and end, respectively, of their brief romance. After leaving the Byrds and before forming Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Crosby traveled to Miami with the intention of embarking on a sailing adventure. Instead, he encountered Mitchell performing in a Coconut Grove club and was smitten. He introduced her to the Los Angeles music scene and is listed as producer on her first album. The 20 Best Joni Mitchell Songs Written About Her Famous Friends and Ex-Lovers *AUGUST 9, 2019*Jim Farber
I love watching this performance, as she is mesmerizing. However, I can't help but be distracted by the orchestrated backup. They are guessing at the chord structure, and missing its complexities. They are playing notes that sound more like what "normal" transitions and chord structures "should" have, and it creates a divergence from the composition as I remember it in recordings, which was much more interesting musically. Nonetheless, I'm glad we have this! She was so beautiful, so much a master of her art, so young!
Yeah whether it was or not it sounds like they were trying to play along. Like that Van Morrison album. Another revelation to someone not familiar with much of her work. I really like this early stuff such strange sounding chords. Never so keen on her falsetto so both sides now is a bit much these days
I am in agreement with your analysis here. It's pleasant to listen to, great to watch, but doesn't satisfy my ears that were SO beguiled and haunted by the original rendition's guitar work. One of her most transporting songs imho.
I take back what I said about the orchestral arrangement. It's actually quite masterful, and as the musicians gain confidence towards the end of the second verse, it becomes almost transcendental.
Really terrible orchestral arrangement, entirety changing the dark beauty of the original. Glad to see Joni, but wish we could lose the elevator Muzak tone.
I found this arrangement to be an unexpected totally wonderful pleasant surprise. Sorry that Joni didn't get final approval but for me the strings and percussion give it a perspective that would otherwise not have ever been approached. I love it. Gives a kind of Led Zeppelin Kashmir type feel to it.
I wanted to really dig this arrangement as I love this song. I think it was almost there, but it felt sometimes like her melody/chord changes were somewhat unexpected the backing track, and had to get their bearings again to keep up. The strange thing about it, is the backing track was added later, and was not present during the actual performance. We have no one today that remotely holds a candle to Joni Mitchell. The majick of popular music gave up its last gasp of breath in the 90s and now we trudge in sonic darkness.
Joni was right when she said that her music is so complex, it's hard for the average musician to collaborate with her. She had to find a fleet of the best players in the business to tour with her.
@ Richard Smith- Yup, O.K., your're crazy. They're crawling all around behind her trying to catch up - musically- and they stink !!, They don't get it!! Which, to me, means they haven't practiced!
David Crosby composes beautiful love songs. Croz- this beautiful love song was written for you. 🎶He aches and he learns to live~ on a promise to be free~ i believe him when he tells of loving me~ ...he said and come to me~ run down till the rain delights you~ like a promise to be free dolphins playing in the sea all his seadreams come to me seabird~ i will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping~ a dream that you love someone🎶
🙇🏼David Crosby IS🎶a child of God 👼 🎶 His journey and angelic voice are AMAZING👼 God’s grace💜is AMAZING. God Bless🌹@thedavidcrosby + everyone. 🕊 Lord, Pour out Your Spirit upon artists, craftsmen, and musicians: may their work bring variety, joy, and inspiration to our lives. God Bless🌹 David Crosby + to all.
Just discovered this. Wow. The year I graduated high school. The year I discovered this goddess. Kept wanting to hear the backup shut up and let her shine alone as on the album. Beautiful.
I second the comment that the arranger did not understand the harmonic structure she made around the song that gives it a hypnotic, chant feel. I am glad to see her perform it live. This is my favorite song. Not just of hers, no qualification at all. My favorite song of all time. Want to know what HER favorite song is, BTW? Will you still love me Tomorrow by Goffin/King, if it hasn't changed. Almost all of her songs are in alternate tunings due to some degree to an impairment of her left hand from Polio. The tunings make playing easier. Her only major song in standard tuning I know of is Urge for Going.
The accompaniment gives this timeless song an unfortunate 60's TV feel, and the tempo sounds a little rushed, but her timing is impeccable even this early in her career. "And the dream of a baby" always gets me in this song. Love the mary janes and white tights, and the closeups of her amazing right hand. How did she create those patterns? Fortunately she recorded this one again in 2002, and that arrangement is superb.
On first listen, I kind of thought this was train wreck. I imagined some 60s TV producer saying, "Joni baby, we're gonna punch it up a little, give it some pizazz"! But on second listen, I heard some good things in there, the beat needs to be lowered a little and the flute not so ever-present, but it is an interesting take on an old favorite of mine. When the musicians are on pace with Joni, it actually sounds pretty good.
I think that arrangement was added afterward. I think I remember the story of this and Joni was upset that it was added on in post-production that way. It makes sense that it couldn't have been going on during her performance. It sounds totally our of sync with her performance. Can't at all see that she would have let them do that in real time.
This is the only live film of Joni performing this extraordinary song that I know of. Personally I prefer the recorded version without the orchestration (David Crosby who produced her first album once said the only good thing he did was to keep other people off the tracks). But it is quite fascinating to see how she is playing it. The fingerings seem to be consistent with the available tabs (apart from a couple of variations), and her tuning is DGDDAD. She appears to be playing with a medium gauge Gibson thumb pick.
First time I'm seeing this. I agree David Crosby must have been referring to this backing track we hear in this. I love the Eastern-like intonation going on near to the end in this backing track considering it was 1967 when Sgt Pepper was blowing us away with "Within You and Without You". And here she comes about to challenge the likes of Lennon & McCartney for most talented song writer/performer of all time.
She is in great form, and this is an amazing song. Sadly this arrangement is tone deaf to the delicate chord changes and Joni's voice. Congas are nice but the rest takes away so much. Listen to this version and the one with the orchestra arrangement on Travelogue and you see how this version hampers the melody.
Adore her. (Edit added one year of my original comment: I am not a fan of instruments used on this version of an otherwise great classic song from Joni Mitchell.)
a slightly flatter key than normal, and what a difference that makes...(not that I know anything about music....it just sounds different, and I love it.)
The orchestrations sound Egyptian. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page did a tour / album in 1994 with an Egyptian orchestra that had very similar sounding arrangements.
interesting orchestration. I'm used to the version of just herself as the whole "Song for a Seagull" was. David Crosby didn't want anyone to ruin her purity.
This is one of my favorite Joni songs. The supporting instruments and arrangement, though, are majorly detracting from it. Whoever wrote the arrangements did not understand the chords, modulations, and harmonic structure of the song. The bongos are also annoying as hell. The thing about Joni’s music is that, while it might sound simple to the average listener, it’s actually very sophisticated and harmonically complex, so very few people, even with arranging and composing backgrounds, can contribute without souring it.
Excellent post; agreed. Very strange that actual chords should have been altered and I wonder why/how she went along with that. (One example: compare 3:50 "gray sea" and "crazy" to the original.) The good thing is being able to see this vid thanks to the intertubes. Pre-web, I learned all my Joni covers by ear from records and one concert at which I was able to figure out her dulcimer tuning and playing.
I love these chords: the only drawback is that I'm piano centric, & may just be unable to do this kind of thing justice. Songs that use 4ths, sustaining chords: Strange Boy, 4ths. Song for Sharon: based on her beautiful sustain chords. An artist needs to select what works, Joni is impossible to replicate for some. I've seen people cover Steve Winwood's 'Can't find my way back home'. Same diff.
It reminds of when Tom Wilson produced Nico's first album 'Chelsea Girl' and added that annoying flute and strings to it. No wonder Joni never let antone produce her records.
Hat's off to Joni Mitchell. She's the genuine article. There's no one else quite like her. So truly gifted, I'm grateful to have lived in her times, to have known and enjoyed her great talant.
as good as some of her later stuff is,to me it s this era of her music,that like with so many artists, their early work is their best. I got into her at this time,and her purest inspirational poetic songs,like this, are there. the orchestation has a kind of middle eastern feel to it,and is a good variation
Obviously whoever wrote this string arrangement had little idea of what the actual chords were to this song. This is kind of a cool version except for when the strings are playing wrong goddamn chords!!!!
![ทุกครั้งที่หลับตา (Lucid Dream) - AYLA's [ Official MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/4i1OBAQyv58/mqdefault.jpg)
She is beyond an artist, she’s a portal to a beautiful, mysterious world of sight and sound we would never know, but for Joni. Transcendent.
No one since has ever come close to Joni. She's far above all the rest, to this very day.
Can't agree more.
She and Laura Nyro....the brilliance of their times....
Joan Baez, Judy Collins and Sandy Denny.
Truth!
Except for Sam Brown, and Kate Bush, who run her a close second and third . In my opinion .
Joni Mitchell has been part of the soundtrack of my life since 1968, something I am so grateful for. The world will not again see the likes of her.
Instead of pedantry over 'the Arrangement' why not simple enjoy, this film of such a preeminent artist captured here as early as 1967. For my part many thanks for posting this wonderful video.
Joni is Canada’s best gift to all of us. Priceless perfection.
The original version with Joni and her guitar is the best ever. In the ''Song to a Seagull' album version you can almost smell the salt air and the waves. The beauty of solitude with nature. How these others crowded in is tolerable but not pure Joni. She captured the true feel the first time. This version is like enjoying the solitude of the beach and finding others crowding in on your peace. Just an opinion.
thank God David Crosby "produced" it by not diluting Joni
This is the most truthful: th-cam.com/video/g-lyx5aW1EU/w-d-xo.html. Jimi Hendrix recorded it live.
I agree with you! Yes, the beauty of solitude with nature.
I love her perfect album version, with just her and a bass. It's interesting to hear something different though. And this was broadcast 3 months before her album was released.
I totally agree with you.
Have always liked her music, particularly her 60s and 70s stuff.....
Glad to hear she is recovering from her brain aneurysm.....
What a talent. I have been in her thrall since I first heard her in the sixties, and this is perhaps my favorite of her many beautiful songs.
ya me 2!
Brilliant Joni,Bless you❤
She's so beautiful so graceful
Prolific genius There is none like her
She says what is important and what is beautiful..Like a promise to be free.
Screw the backup music. I'm here for Joni, God's music angel.
Yes, I don't care for some of the background orchestration and strings.
I always play this song while visiting the sea for us both to enjoy
Love Joni. Listened to her music since Blue. Saw her at an Isle of Wight Festival, she cried.
mesmerizing
What a gift to humanity.
A very contemporary arrangement. Sounds very current and timeless, too! Beautiful song.
The arrangement becomes a bit busy, but percussion and flute are wonderful, so interesting to hear this in a somewhat more pop setting. Hypnotic Joni!
Joni's performance of The Dawntreader is so magical here. And that accompainment is ace! Although improbable, it even seems like a string arrangement done by the great late Clare Fischer, bless his soul!
Wow, this is mighty sophisticated for a 'folk singer' on a CBC entertainment spot. Must've surprised a lot of ears, at the time. Of course, everyone who saw her in the early days was transfixed by her looks & her style. All that intelligent, self-sufficient talent - music _and_ poetry - wasn't something folks associated with beautiful women, in those days. I'm glad Joni more than pulled her weight, in the rearranging of gender expectations of a generation.
Yeah...without even trying.
She is a rocket-ship of musical/poetic genius. She remindes us to be "busy being born".
@@robwad1 I recall reading Graham Nash writing that when they were together they would fight over who got time on the one piano because wile he was writing 1 song she wrote 5.
I remember seeing her retune her guitar on stage. She had two or three guitars. She would retune very quickly. I always wondered how she could do this without a piano. Always impeccably in tune. Perfect pitch.
David Mayhew some people can do it by ear. I can do it too
wow, genius, Joni Mitchell is in a league of her own
Having these "accompanists" who are playing miles ahead of the beat is a damn tragedy. Joni needs no accompaniment. One of my favorite of her songs. It's a shame that someone thought other musicians would be a "good idea".
David Crosby said the one thing he did right, producing her first album, was keeping everybody else away from her, letting her present the songs the way she wanted to.
@@liblit is this song about him?
They say that it is Art when you gain some new meaning, some insight, some inspiration, each time you revisit the thing created. I feel that about each and every one of Joni Mitchell's creations - for they are more than just songs, but sung poetry! We are blessed to revisit!
wow whata gift she s so great amazing voice I love her !!
"Fold your fleet wings, I have brought some dreams to share..."
Amazing song, didn't realise it was performed as early as this. Arrangement is perhaps not the best, but a good example of how musicians just did not know how to approach Joni's music. No wonder she turned to jazz!
Thank you so much for this...she always makes me cry happy tears
Her poetic stories are mesmerizing ❤
Unmatched
Beautiful and genuine artist shes amazing
Love the strings and flute with her, lovely
Timeless! Breathtaking!
Just found this obscure video of an early Joni song. I have fallen in love.
For me, it happened in 1972 when I was 14. But its never too late and we all do in the end.
Nice guitar 🎸 work as well ❤️🩹‼️
According to David Crosby, “THE DAWNTREADER” & “THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY” reference the beginning and end, respectively, of their brief romance. After leaving the Byrds and before forming Crosby, Stills & Nash, David Crosby traveled to Miami with the intention of embarking on a sailing adventure. Instead, he encountered Mitchell performing in a Coconut Grove club and was smitten. He introduced her to the Los Angeles music scene and is listed as producer on her first album. The 20 Best Joni Mitchell Songs Written About Her Famous Friends and Ex-Lovers *AUGUST 9, 2019*Jim Farber
This version is pretty nice, added more music then the original song..I like the flute added in and more, love this song...I love Joni!
never heard this song. it's beautiful
You should hear the proper version without all that accompanying crap.
Joni's Best. En-Compresses the brilliance
of 50 years. Voice of the 21st Century
I love watching this performance, as she is mesmerizing. However, I can't help but be distracted by the orchestrated backup. They are guessing at the chord structure, and missing its complexities. They are playing notes that sound more like what "normal" transitions and chord structures "should" have, and it creates a divergence from the composition as I remember it in recordings, which was much more interesting musically.
Nonetheless, I'm glad we have this! She was so beautiful, so much a master of her art, so young!
Valentine Smith Totally! What is up with this terrible reharmonisation...
Yeah whether it was or not it sounds like they were trying to play along. Like that Van Morrison album. Another revelation to someone not familiar with much of her work. I really like this early stuff such strange sounding chords. Never so keen on her falsetto so both sides now is a bit much these days
I am in agreement with your analysis here. It's pleasant to listen to, great to watch, but doesn't satisfy my ears that were SO beguiled and haunted by the original rendition's guitar work. One of her most transporting songs imho.
Perhaps not the best arrangement, however, this performance is, in my opinion, without equal and an absolute treasure.
I take back what I said about the orchestral arrangement. It's actually quite masterful, and as the musicians gain confidence towards the end of the second verse, it becomes almost transcendental.
The orchestration was dubbed in after her performance was recorded and without her permission. She didn't hear it till the show was aired on TV
Really terrible orchestral arrangement, entirety changing the dark beauty of the original. Glad to see Joni, but wish we could lose the elevator Muzak tone.
I found this arrangement to be an unexpected totally wonderful pleasant surprise. Sorry that Joni didn't get final approval but for me the strings and percussion give it a perspective that would otherwise not have ever been approached. I love it. Gives a kind of Led Zeppelin Kashmir type feel to it.
I wanted to really dig this arrangement as I love this song. I think it was almost there, but it felt sometimes like her melody/chord changes were somewhat unexpected the backing track, and had to get their bearings again to keep up. The strange thing about it, is the backing track was added later, and was not present during the actual performance. We have no one today that remotely holds a candle to Joni Mitchell. The majick of popular music gave up its last gasp of breath in the 90s and now we trudge in sonic darkness.
I bet Joni was mortified.
Thank you!!!!!!
She is the queen of all time..👸🏼⭐️❤️
Joni was right when she said that her music is so complex, it's hard for the average musician to collaborate with her. She had to find a fleet of the best players in the business to tour with her.
Joan takes to me to another hemisphere.
Call me crazy, but I actually like this arrangement.
me too ...
@ Richard Smith- Yup, O.K., your're crazy. They're crawling all around behind her trying to catch up - musically- and they stink !!, They don't get it!! Which, to me,
means they haven't practiced!
Hi, Crazy 👋🏼
You're not crazy, the arrangement is wonderful :-)
I think it's kinda groovy
Sounds a bit like nick drake
I don't feel that the other musicians add anything meaningful, but it's always interesting to hear another take. Thanks for sharing, SC.
Exquisite. . . .
Perfection 😍
Skin white by skin golden. My very favorite Joni song.
The Dawntreader
Joni Mitchell
Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor
Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where
Never mind their questions there's no answer for
The roll of the harbor wake
The songs that the rigging makes
The taste of the spray he takes
And he learns to give
He aches and he learns to live
He stakes all his silver
On a promise to be free
Mermaids live in colonies
All his sea dreams come to me
City satins left at home I will not need them
I believe him when he tells of loving me
Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you
Leave behind your streets he said and come to me
Come down from the neon nights
Come down from the tourist sights
Run down till the rain delights you
You do not hide
Sunlight will renew your pride
Skin white by skin golden
Like a promise to be free
Dolphins playing in the sea
All his sea dreams come to me
Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings
I am smiling at your circles in the air
I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping
Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share
A dream that you love someone
A dream that the wars are done
A dream that you tell no one but the gray sea
They'll say that you're crazy
And a dream of a baby
Like a promise to be free
Children laughing out to sea
All his sea dreams come to me
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Joni Mitchell
The Dawntreader lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Isn't it 'paradox' and periwinkle?
This yet another exquisite example of Joni's genius and superb artistry.
Written for David Crosby, who produced her first album, ''Song to a Seagull".
Prob the best debut album of all time just buy it songs for a seagull
David Crosby composes beautiful love songs.
Croz- this beautiful love song was written for you.
🎶He aches and he learns to live~
on a promise to be free~
i believe him when he tells of loving me~
...he said and come to me~
run down till the rain delights you~
like a promise to be free
dolphins playing in the sea
all his seadreams come to me
seabird~ i will come and sit by you
while he lies sleeping~
a dream that you love someone🎶
The best thing he did was to stop other deadheads like these screwing it up.
🙇🏼David Crosby IS🎶a child of God 👼 🎶
His journey and angelic voice are AMAZING👼
God’s grace💜is AMAZING. God Bless🌹@thedavidcrosby + everyone.
🕊 Lord, Pour out Your Spirit upon artists, craftsmen, and musicians:
may their work bring variety, joy, and inspiration to our lives.
God Bless🌹 David Crosby + to all.
Just discovered this. Wow. The year I graduated high school. The year I discovered this goddess. Kept wanting to hear the backup shut up and let her shine alone as on the album. Beautiful.
I second the comment that the arranger did not understand the harmonic structure she made around the song that gives it a hypnotic, chant feel. I am glad to see her perform it live. This is my favorite song. Not just of hers, no qualification at all. My favorite song of all time. Want to know what HER favorite song is, BTW? Will you still love me Tomorrow by Goffin/King, if it hasn't changed. Almost all of her songs are in alternate tunings due to some degree to an impairment of her left hand from Polio. The tunings make playing easier. Her only major song in standard tuning I know of is Urge for Going.
Who are the 4 who voted thumbs down? Dead men walking?
Mini skirt! Does not take away from the greatest singer songwriter of the 20th century
When fashion dictated what everyone wore.
Groovy
Great legs!! Can we not take a time machine back 50 years and start again.
Not this time, just pay more attention the next time.
The accompaniment gives this timeless song an unfortunate 60's TV feel, and the tempo sounds a little rushed, but her timing is impeccable even this early in her career. "And the dream of a baby" always gets me in this song. Love the mary janes and white tights, and the closeups of her amazing right hand. How did she create those patterns? Fortunately she recorded this one again in 2002, and that arrangement is superb.
These songwriters are always looking for something they do not have!
Una genia
Wow never heard so nick drake almost
On first listen, I kind of thought this was train wreck. I imagined some 60s TV producer saying, "Joni baby, we're gonna punch it up a little, give it some pizazz"! But on second listen, I heard some good things in there, the beat needs to be lowered a little and the flute not so ever-present, but it is an interesting take on an old favorite of mine. When the musicians are on pace with Joni, it actually sounds pretty good.
Pity they drown her beautiful guitar. I cant bear to listen to it again.
You listen to her..everything stops..you sit in that moment
I think that arrangement was added afterward. I think I remember the story of this and Joni was upset that it was added on in post-production that way. It makes sense that it couldn't have been going on during her performance. It sounds totally our of sync with her performance. Can't at all see that she would have let them do that in real time.
This is the only live film of Joni performing this extraordinary song that I know of. Personally I prefer the recorded version without the orchestration (David Crosby who produced her first album once said the only good thing he did was to keep other people off the tracks). But it is quite fascinating to see how she is playing it. The fingerings seem to be consistent with the available tabs (apart from a couple of variations), and her tuning is DGDDAD. She appears to be playing with a medium gauge Gibson thumb pick.
First time I'm seeing this. I agree David Crosby must have been referring to this backing track we hear in this. I love the Eastern-like intonation going on near to the end in this backing track considering it was 1967 when Sgt Pepper was blowing us away with "Within You and Without You". And here she comes about to challenge the likes of Lennon & McCartney for most talented song writer/performer of all time.
I am pretty sure the audio is an overdub of the original video. Not sure who did or why.
@@annode Donovans Gift from a Flower to a Garden
@@alanoneill3065 That Donovan album is a pop show-tune album. Not at all relevant to what I was saying.
@@annode I have no wish to demean Joni. but I hink that ws a bit of an exaggeration
Tied for the greatest!
Car crash arrangement of this beautiful song. I don't think either the percusionist or the flute player were listening.
She is in great form, and this is an amazing song. Sadly this arrangement is tone deaf to the delicate chord changes and Joni's voice. Congas are nice but the rest takes away so much. Listen to this version and the one with the orchestra arrangement on Travelogue and you see how this version hampers the melody.
the gift
Adore her. (Edit added one year of my original comment: I am not a fan of instruments used on this version of an otherwise great classic song from Joni Mitchell.)
a slightly flatter key than normal, and what a difference that makes...(not that I know anything about music....it just sounds different, and I love it.)
Viking queen.
The orchestrations sound Egyptian. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page did a tour / album in 1994 with an Egyptian orchestra that had very similar sounding arrangements.
a warning about what might have happened to her first album!
Thank God Beauty and sensitivity survived.
love, love, love....this
I love the added instrumentation!!
I've never heard so many background musicians simultaneously try to murder a song.
interesting orchestration. I'm used to the version of just herself as the whole "Song for a Seagull" was. David Crosby didn't want anyone to ruin her purity.
Of course this was a live song I guess before the album. Nice
Ouch on the added sappy instrumentation. She is perfect as is.
This is one of my favorite Joni songs. The supporting instruments and arrangement, though, are majorly detracting from it. Whoever wrote the arrangements did not understand the chords, modulations, and harmonic structure of the song. The bongos are also annoying as hell. The thing about Joni’s music is that, while it might sound simple to the average listener, it’s actually very sophisticated and harmonically complex, so very few people, even with arranging and composing backgrounds, can contribute without souring it.
Excellent post; agreed. Very strange that actual chords should have been altered and I wonder why/how she went along with that. (One example: compare 3:50 "gray sea" and "crazy" to the original.) The good thing is being able to see this vid thanks to the intertubes. Pre-web, I learned all my Joni covers by ear from records and one concert at which I was able to figure out her dulcimer tuning and playing.
I'll say very frankly the overlay is horrible. Joni does all the song needs. It adds nothing.
Absolutely couldn’t agree more. Just totally drowned an original and beautiful song in late 60s chamber schlock
@@marcc.3513 Listen to her first album, "Song to a Seagull." That version of "The Dawntreader" is spare and crystalline, just Joni and her guitar.
@@lemorab1 there is a second guitar; was it stephen stills? but you're right, it was clear and crystalline is the perfect word for it.
Over elaborate orchestration but Joni Mitchell is a genius...
That's putting it mildly. I' more inclined to describe it as disrepectful Bollocks!
One of the great regrets of my life is not having seen Joni Mitchell in a coffee house.
Genius!!
I love these chords: the only drawback is that I'm piano centric, & may just be unable to do this kind of thing justice. Songs that use 4ths, sustaining chords: Strange Boy, 4ths. Song for Sharon: based on her beautiful sustain chords.
An artist needs to select what works, Joni is impossible to replicate for some. I've seen people cover Steve Winwood's 'Can't find my way back home'. Same diff.
I love it and sure Joni does too!!
CS Lewis would have been proud.
It reminds of when Tom Wilson produced Nico's first album 'Chelsea Girl' and added that annoying flute and strings to it. No wonder Joni never let antone produce her records.
Hat's off to Joni Mitchell.
She's the genuine article.
There's no one else quite like her. So truly gifted, I'm grateful to have lived in her times, to have known and enjoyed her great talant.
Too bad this tape is overdubbed with music that blocks out Joni’s amazing guitar work.
Anybody knows the tuning for this song??
as good as some of her later stuff is,to me it s this era of her music,that like with so many artists, their early work is their best. I got into her at this time,and her purest inspirational poetic songs,like this, are there. the orchestation has a kind of middle eastern feel to it,and is a good variation
Is it even the same song 😂 seems like the percussion and the rest are just having fun
Obviously whoever wrote this string arrangement had little idea of what the actual chords were to this song. This is kind of a cool version except for when the strings are playing wrong goddamn chords!!!!
Is the gig that Jimi Hendrix recorded with some simple audio recording gear?
I don't think so, I recall reading that his recording was in a Toronto night club, without video.
One of my very favorites I was with since 1968 but this production needs to let her play solo without the added schmaltzy instruments
Viet Nam War in full swing at the time.