Album: Court & Spark
Recorded: 1973
Released: January 1974
Highlights: Help Me, Free Man In Paris, People's Parties, Down To You, Raised On Robbery
Album rating: A
Recorded: 1973
Released: January 1974
Songs / length: 11 / 36:58
Court & Spark is peak Joni commercially – the album sold 2mn copies in its first year and reached No.2 in the charts, a huge leap forward compared to her previous albums. It also marks the start of a new artistic phase for Joni, cutting all ties with folk music and embracing jazz more fully, backed by a new band, L.A. Express. This novel approach produced 3 Top 40 singles – Raised On Robbery, Help Me and Free Man In Paris – the latter two reaching No.1 and No.2 in the US charts respectively.
Joni had a long-standing interest in jazz, and hearing jazz-rock crossover albums like Miles Davis' Bitches Brew helped to influence her new sound. Changes on a personal level also contributed to the new direction. After sealing herself off for a year from one moody singer-songwriter to write For The Roses, Joni was then forced by her label to go on tour with another, Jackson Browne, and this made her want to quit that crazy scene. Her new lover, drummer John Guerin, had a lower profile and shared her love of jazz. He was also part of L.A. Express, along with saxophonist Tom Scott, Max Bennett on bass, Larry Carlton (later of Steely Dan fame) on guitar and Joe Sample on keyboards.
The band were seasoned session musicians and professionals, able to keep up with Joni's complex arrangements and improvise where necessary. There were also contributions from guitarists Jose Feliciano and The Band's Robbie Robertson, trumpet player Chuck Findley and backing vocals from Crosby, Nash and Cheech & Chong. There's a light breeziness to the album that masks its lyrical and musical depth, and listening it to either casually on a Sunday morning or closely on headphones is an equally rewarding experience. Musically, the record is a heady mix of fusion jazz, blues, orchestral swirls (notably Debussy) and stacked vocals, but it retains a pop sensibility and gift for melody.
Help Me, the record's No.1 single, is the perfect example of this. Prince describes listening to this song on the radio in Ballad Of Dorothy Parker by referencing that wonderful sung opening line – "Help me, I think I'm falling" – and making it the favourite song of the cool waitress he's chasing. Listening intently to Help Me is like being caught up in a 3-minute short story, about a fun relationship not built to last. There's a sense in the lyrics of how things have moved on since the free love era of the 60s – "We love our lovin', but not like we love our freedom" – and a battle-scarred reluctance, "I've seen some hot hot blazes, come down to smoke and ash".
Joni had a long-standing interest in jazz, and hearing jazz-rock crossover albums like Miles Davis' Bitches Brew helped to influence her new sound. Changes on a personal level also contributed to the new direction. After sealing herself off for a year from one moody singer-songwriter to write For The Roses, Joni was then forced by her label to go on tour with another, Jackson Browne, and this made her want to quit that crazy scene. Her new lover, drummer John Guerin, had a lower profile and shared her love of jazz. He was also part of L.A. Express, along with saxophonist Tom Scott, Max Bennett on bass, Larry Carlton (later of Steely Dan fame) on guitar and Joe Sample on keyboards.
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| Picture of Joni in Court & Spark's gatefold sleeve |
Help Me, the record's No.1 single, is the perfect example of this. Prince describes listening to this song on the radio in Ballad Of Dorothy Parker by referencing that wonderful sung opening line – "Help me, I think I'm falling" – and making it the favourite song of the cool waitress he's chasing. Listening intently to Help Me is like being caught up in a 3-minute short story, about a fun relationship not built to last. There's a sense in the lyrics of how things have moved on since the free love era of the 60s – "We love our lovin', but not like we love our freedom" – and a battle-scarred reluctance, "I've seen some hot hot blazes, come down to smoke and ash".
This maturity in Joni's songwriting also extends to her ability to see life from other people's perspectives, even that of the boss of her own label, Asylum Records. Free Man In Paris is about David Geffen, described as going from cafe to cafe, free from his everyday working pressures which mostly involve "stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song", and just simply looking for love. The light, jazzy sound fits the lyrics of the song perfectly. Peoples Parties is also about the entertainment industry, a reflection on life among the glitterati, and the insecurity felt about the need to perform among all these confident people. The multi-tracked swell of Joni singing "laughing it all away" at the end of the song sounds like a cathartic moment.
Car On A Hill, with its cascades of harmonies, is equally ambitious. The song is ostensibly about being stood up for a date, but the effect of the music as Joni songs, "climbing, climbing, climbing the hill", completely transports the listener away. The Same Situation is about loneliness and vulnerability – Warren Beatty was likely the inspiration for the man “weighing the beauty and the imperfections” – while Just Like This Train is also about loneliness but finds Joni in a more resilient mood, "I used to count lovers like railroad cars ... Lately I don't count on nothing". One of my favourite tracks on the LP is the more rocking Raised On Robbery, which finds Joni in a carefree, confident mood and at her wittiest lyrically. This version below was recorded for the Old Grey Whistle Test in April 1974 at the New Victoria Theatre in London, and broadcast on the BBC in November 1974.
Car On A Hill, with its cascades of harmonies, is equally ambitious. The song is ostensibly about being stood up for a date, but the effect of the music as Joni songs, "climbing, climbing, climbing the hill", completely transports the listener away. The Same Situation is about loneliness and vulnerability – Warren Beatty was likely the inspiration for the man “weighing the beauty and the imperfections” – while Just Like This Train is also about loneliness but finds Joni in a more resilient mood, "I used to count lovers like railroad cars ... Lately I don't count on nothing". One of my favourite tracks on the LP is the more rocking Raised On Robbery, which finds Joni in a carefree, confident mood and at her wittiest lyrically. This version below was recorded for the Old Grey Whistle Test in April 1974 at the New Victoria Theatre in London, and broadcast on the BBC in November 1974.
Another highlight is Down To You, a song about sometimes settling for lust instead of love, and about how life can change in a heartbeat. The song also challenges the listener (literally, it's "down to you") to think about how to navigate the maze of life, and the track's labyrinthine arrangement mirrors the sense of complexity. My only criticism of the album is that, while opening track Court & Spark sets the scene perfectly both musically and lyrically ("city of the fallen angels"), the closing track Twisted sounds like a painfully weak parody of jazz and scat singing. Joni chose to cover Twisted as a clever commentary on her fans who overanalyse her songs, and as a trailer for more jazz-heavy future albums, but it's a shame that such a great record ends on a bum note.
On the plus side, Court & Spark is grown-up pop music, mixing ambitious arrangements with world-weary but witty lyrics about how to navigate relationships when love's young dream has faded. What's also remarkable about the album, looking back at it 45 years later, is that music this inventive and intricate could have once been so successful commercially and critically. That's largely because, for all the music's complexity, Joni never dispenses with great pop melodies.
On the plus side, Court & Spark is grown-up pop music, mixing ambitious arrangements with world-weary but witty lyrics about how to navigate relationships when love's young dream has faded. What's also remarkable about the album, looking back at it 45 years later, is that music this inventive and intricate could have once been so successful commercially and critically. That's largely because, for all the music's complexity, Joni never dispenses with great pop melodies.
Highlights: Help Me, Free Man In Paris, People's Parties, Down To You, Raised On Robbery
Album rating: A
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