Album: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Recorded: 1977
Released: December 1977
Recorded: 1977
Released: December 1977
Songs / length: 10 / 59:38
In today's social media cancel culture, I'm surprised Joni hasn't yet been called out and forced into a grovelling apology for appearing in blackface on one of her album covers, but back in the late 70s when Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was released there was barely a whimper. To my mind, it's a well-intentioned but slightly clumsy gesture that Joni seems to have got away with because few people even realised it was her on the LP cover dressed like a pimp.
At a time when The Band were marking the end of a musical era with Scorsese's legendary concert film The Last Waltz, Joni was continuing to break new ground and this album is arguably her most experimental. Recovering from the pain of abscessed ovaries, Joni had spent some time away from music until one day in 1977 when she sat down at her piano and started playing what would become Paprika Plains, an improvised orchestral piece inspired by a dream and conversation she had with Dylan while on tour with the Rolling Thunder Revue.
Paprika Plains was originally almost half an hour long, but arranger Michael Gibbs managed to reduce it down to around half that time from various long takes and assembled a first-class roster of jazz musicians, including Jaco Pastorius and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, to record it at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York. Joni's piano is out of tune with the orchestra, and this plus the length (especially the tortuous mid-section) can make the track exhausting and disorientating to listen to at times, but the emotion of the music and the impressionistic lyrics can still sweep you away. Personally, I'd be happy just listening to the last 4-5 minutes as the fever dream ends in a rapture ("I'm floating back to you!").
Paprika Plains takes up the whole of side 2 on this double album consisting of 4 sides. Sides 2 and 3 are the most ambitious and dreamlike, though the latter is arguably the weakest of all four, with Otis and Marlena one of Joni's more forgettable songs and The Tenth World an unconvincing attempt at Latin music that goes on much too long. Dreamland has a more enjoyable groove and tempo, involving just percussion and vocals (including those of Chaka Khan) and the impressionistic lyrics about colonialism and Canada somehow gel to create one of the album's stronger cuts.
Opener Overture - Cotton Avenue is another favourite and sounds great on my stereo-paired Sonos speakers; it's also the perfect taster of what's to come on the album. Talk To Me is a more conventional pop song, though with wonderful bass lines from Jaco, and details Joni's attempts to communicate with an aloof and Delphic Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Jericho is a reinvention of a song that first appeared on Joni's 1974 live album Miles of Aisles and it's great musical vibe mixes well with the witty lyrics.
Side 4 is probably my favourite on the record, with the title track dating back to the Hejira-era and worthy of that fine album. I particularly like the lyrics, inspired by Lord Byron, and the intense way Joni sings them. Off Night Backstreet is another of the album's stronger cuts, featuring great harmonising from Glenn Frey (of The Eagles) and J. D. Souther, and biting lyrics about the end of Joni's relationship with John Guerin.
Closing track The Silky Veils Of Ardor finds Joni in a gentle, reflective mood as she plays out the album with just her guitar for accompaniment, and it's one of the more focused songs on an album that can be rightly criticised for being overly expansive and indulgent, and generally hit & miss. That's not to say DJRD is only for the completists and Joni diehards (unsurprisingly, it's Bjork's favourite Joni album) but it is a record best appreciated within the context of Joni's gradual move away from folk and pop in the 70s into jazz and classical.
Highlights: Overture - Cotton Avenue, Paprika Plains, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, The Silky Veils Of Ardor
Album rating: B+
In today's social media cancel culture, I'm surprised Joni hasn't yet been called out and forced into a grovelling apology for appearing in blackface on one of her album covers, but back in the late 70s when Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was released there was barely a whimper. To my mind, it's a well-intentioned but slightly clumsy gesture that Joni seems to have got away with because few people even realised it was her on the LP cover dressed like a pimp.
At a time when The Band were marking the end of a musical era with Scorsese's legendary concert film The Last Waltz, Joni was continuing to break new ground and this album is arguably her most experimental. Recovering from the pain of abscessed ovaries, Joni had spent some time away from music until one day in 1977 when she sat down at her piano and started playing what would become Paprika Plains, an improvised orchestral piece inspired by a dream and conversation she had with Dylan while on tour with the Rolling Thunder Revue.
Paprika Plains was originally almost half an hour long, but arranger Michael Gibbs managed to reduce it down to around half that time from various long takes and assembled a first-class roster of jazz musicians, including Jaco Pastorius and saxophonist Wayne Shorter, to record it at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York. Joni's piano is out of tune with the orchestra, and this plus the length (especially the tortuous mid-section) can make the track exhausting and disorientating to listen to at times, but the emotion of the music and the impressionistic lyrics can still sweep you away. Personally, I'd be happy just listening to the last 4-5 minutes as the fever dream ends in a rapture ("I'm floating back to you!").
Paprika Plains takes up the whole of side 2 on this double album consisting of 4 sides. Sides 2 and 3 are the most ambitious and dreamlike, though the latter is arguably the weakest of all four, with Otis and Marlena one of Joni's more forgettable songs and The Tenth World an unconvincing attempt at Latin music that goes on much too long. Dreamland has a more enjoyable groove and tempo, involving just percussion and vocals (including those of Chaka Khan) and the impressionistic lyrics about colonialism and Canada somehow gel to create one of the album's stronger cuts.
Opener Overture - Cotton Avenue is another favourite and sounds great on my stereo-paired Sonos speakers; it's also the perfect taster of what's to come on the album. Talk To Me is a more conventional pop song, though with wonderful bass lines from Jaco, and details Joni's attempts to communicate with an aloof and Delphic Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Jericho is a reinvention of a song that first appeared on Joni's 1974 live album Miles of Aisles and it's great musical vibe mixes well with the witty lyrics.
Side 4 is probably my favourite on the record, with the title track dating back to the Hejira-era and worthy of that fine album. I particularly like the lyrics, inspired by Lord Byron, and the intense way Joni sings them. Off Night Backstreet is another of the album's stronger cuts, featuring great harmonising from Glenn Frey (of The Eagles) and J. D. Souther, and biting lyrics about the end of Joni's relationship with John Guerin.
Closing track The Silky Veils Of Ardor finds Joni in a gentle, reflective mood as she plays out the album with just her guitar for accompaniment, and it's one of the more focused songs on an album that can be rightly criticised for being overly expansive and indulgent, and generally hit & miss. That's not to say DJRD is only for the completists and Joni diehards (unsurprisingly, it's Bjork's favourite Joni album) but it is a record best appreciated within the context of Joni's gradual move away from folk and pop in the 70s into jazz and classical.
Highlights: Overture - Cotton Avenue, Paprika Plains, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, The Silky Veils Of Ardor
Album rating: B+
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