From: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org (JMDL Digest) To: joni-digest@smoe.org Subject: JMDL Digest V2013 #1763 Reply-To: joni@smoe.org Sender: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-joni-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk Unsubscribe:mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe Website:http://jonimitchell.com JMDL Digest Thursday, December 5 2013 Volume 2013 : Number 1763 ========== TOPICS and authors in this Digest: -------- Re: Paprika Plains ["Randy Remote" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2013 16:55:28 -0800 From: "Randy Remote" Subject: Re: Paprika Plains Paprika Plains was indeed remixed for Songs of a Prairie Girl. As such, it is essential listening for Joniphiles. As Jim said, I wrote a rather exhaustive comparison of the two versions when SOAPG came out. It starts: This is only the second time an original catalog Joni song has been remixed (I think), the first being the Big Yellow Taxi version without the doo-wop vocals from the Big Yellow Taxi Remix EP (I'm not counting the espresso/taxi remixes since those were essentially new recordings). I consider Paprika Plains to be a religious experience. It is Joni's longest composition, and unique in it's conception. It started with 4 half hour piano improvisations recorded in LA at a time when Joni was feeling very 'in the groove' musically. These were edited to form one seven minute piece, then seven months after starting the project, she wrote a song inspired in part from a conversation with Bob Dylan, and inserted the original improv piece into the middle of this. Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter and John Guerin were added to the last section, recorded in London. The rest is here (scroll down to "comments"): http://jonimitchell.com/music/album.cfm?id=27.0&from=search Regarding dynamics of the original mix, another factor to consider in the LP days was that if you got the bass too loud, the needle would jump right out of the grooves.... RR > Jim, > Ah, Songs of a Prairie Girl is one of the few I dont have. > As to your point about Joni wanting the listener to get to the louder > section much later in PP, she could not have foreseen the modern > listeners attention span or the typical listening environments people > have now, far removed from the living room hi-fi of the 70s. There is also > a limit on how quiet a signal can be recorded before the tape hiss and > surface noise of an LP makes it unlistenable. The tone even thins out > considerably from the preamps not working at their optimum gain. I suspect > her artistic vision for the dynamic journey of PP, valid in itself, took > priority over these things if she considered them much at all. > Dave > On Dec 4, 2013, at 10:08 AM, jlhommedieu@insight.rr.com wrote: >> Randy Remote wrote an essay about PP when the SoAPG compilation was >> released. I'm pretty sure that Les added it to the Library. >> Joni paid to have the pitches fixed. There is a great back story about >> the piano parts and Charles Mingus. All of that is great reading and it >> is in the Library too. >> If I remember right, she hired a recording engineer who used digital >> tools like Pro Tools to fix the piano pitches. >> Jim ------------------------------ End of JMDL Digest V2013 #1763 ****************************** ------- To post messages to the list, sendtojoni@smoe.org. Unsubscribe by clicking here: mailto:joni-digest-request@smoe.org?body=unsubscribe -------