While hunting online for some of the more obscure Joni Mitchell tracks that seem to be floating all over the place, I came across an interesting little curio- an unauthorized “Companion” to Joni’s incredible (and one of my very, very favorite) 1975 album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
In France They Kiss On Main Street:
This collection, humorously entitled The Seeding of Summer Lawns, consisted of demoes and work-in-progress versions of songs that would eventually make it onto the actual album, and it was quite a thrill to experience the bare bones takes of songs like In France They Kiss on Main Street, Shades of Scarlett Conquering, and The Boho Dance, all before they would get transformed into the wonderful lite-jazz masterpieces that we know and love.
Shades of Scarlett Conquering:
One thing thing that I thought was pretty neat was that in these original demoes, Joni sings parts that would eventually be played by horns, and there’s no place more evident than in the demo of Edith and The Kingpin, where each verse is punctuated by an echo-ey chorus harmonizing to simulate the horns to come!
Edith and the Kingpin:
One song that was prepared and demoed for this album was a song called Dreamland, and while the song didn’t make it to the final stages of Hissing, a polished and very world-beat influenced version would later appear on the epic Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.
Now, I’ve always liked Dreamland (though I was never a big fan of the percussion laden Tenth Circle track that was connected to it) and I was excited to hear how this tune sounded in its original state… but WOW! NOTHING could have prepared me for what I heard upon clicking on that track- Just the most FUN, swingin’ and shufflin’ tune all set to the VERY “George of the Jungle”-esque bopping beat!
Dreamland:
The collection concludes with a cool piano-and-guitar take of the pretty “Sweet Bird”, a song that would have fit perfectly with most of Joni’s earlier folk catalog (especially Court and Spark!) , and a version of “Shadows and Light” that sounds just about identical to the album version (at least to MY unprofessional ears), a perfect little sampling of a GREAT album in progress!
Sweet Bird:
