Project 1001: The Hissing of the Summer Lawns by Joni Mitchell
He gave her a roomful of Chippendale / That nobody sits in / Still she stays with a love of some kind / It's the lady's choice / The hissing of summer lawns
Joni Mitchell enjoys a sterling reputation and is a legend. One of Canada’s great cultural exports. I was unfamiliar with The Hissing of Summer Lawns before today. I’m glad that’s been rectified. It’s been said that Mitchell’s music can be difficult to listen to.1 And maybe that’s why she didn’t have all that many big hits on the singles charts. But I have to say this album, with its weaving of pop, folk, jazz, and world elements, is quite an achievement.
First things first: Mitchell’s voice sounds amazing. The variety of moods and emotions she conveys is remarkable. It sounds crisp and clear absent rigid formality. That’s not to say Mitchell is sloppy or undisciplined. Rather she is able to control and focus her wonderful voice without seeming like she is working hard, which is comforting to the listener.
As a lyricist, Mitchell is second to none. On this record she introduces us to a cast of richly drawn characters giving them vibrant shapes and agency, even if many of them are trapped in woeful circumstances. She gives them strong points of view with something important to say but we don’t feel smacked in the face with a two-by-four or righteousness. Which makes the listener more open to it all.
The title track explores the dullness of suburban housewife living of the seventies. A well-trod theme fifty years on, but at the time I imagine struck a chord with many women who felt their lives were less fulfilling than they had thought they would be. I know my own mom felt this way having sacrificed her professional career to raise her kids and support my dad’s endeavors. This was very common then and I’ve often wondered if my mom would have been happier if she’d been able to keep her teaching career going while my brother and I were very young. It just wasn’t an option for her at the time unfortunately.
Mitchell did not try to write top 40 hits. She once told an interviewer, “My music is not designed to grab instantly. It's designed to wear for a lifetime, to hold up like a fine cloth. If you're in the right place, these records are waiting to go off in your life.”2 In that vein, I find that while many of the characters on this record and their travails to be very much of the time, the Seventies, most of the themes of the human condition Mitchell explores are universal and timeless. In that respect the songs remain vibrant and relevant. Thank you, Joni, for the fine cloth that is The Hissing of the Summer Lawns!
My Rating:
Author Lucy O’Brien asserted, “The Hissing of the Summer Lawns, a complex, jazz-oriented album, was widely considered (Mitchell’s) best. On that she was scathing about California mores and commercialism, consolidating her role as the ‘difficult artist.’”3
Stephen Holden reviewed the album in Rolling Stone in 1987 offering plenty of criticism with praise. He found Hissing… “pseudo-avant-gardism” in places. He opined, “If The Hissing of Summer Lawns offers substantial literature, it is set to insubstantial music. There are no tunes to speak of.” Holden appreciated that, “Always Mitchell displays enough moral ambiguity in her lyrics to avoid condescension; her latent impulse to anger is consistently redeemed by a compassionate, seemingly genuine sorrow, as well as by a visual artist's impulse to perceive the beauty in all things.”4
AllMusic called The Hissing of Summer Lawns “radical” and, “an adventurous work that remains among her most difficult records” and that some of the songs employed “minor-key melodies and richly detailed lyrics to arrive at a strange and beautiful fusion of jazz and shimmering avant pop.”5
Pitchfork wrote that, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, “marks Mitchell's official departure from the mainstream, her embarking upon her jazzbo journey. It's the album of an artist absolutely assured of herself, and it's addressed to anyone who might not consider her a serious musician, who believed all she could do was confess her heartache. Though it doesn't have the rhapsodic rep as Blue, it's unquestionably one of Mitchell's finest albums, and it is certainly her most timeless.”6
In 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Louise Sugrue wrote:
As baffling as it is beautiful, Summer Lawns confirmed Mitchell as the “songwriter’s songwriter.” Fearlessly original, presaging the rock/pop world’s fascination for all things jazz and world by a decade, the artis pigeonholed as a confessional folk star dazzled with an eclectic collection of symphonic-style compositions.7
Enjoy and listen without prejudice. Cheers!
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For details about this project, read this: Project 1001 Albums
Charts
• Peak on Billboard 200 album chart: #48
• Singles on Billboard Hot 100 chart: “In France They Kiss On Main Street”, #669
• RIAA certification: Gold | December 4, 197510
Released in November 1975. Here’s what else was happening:
Pop Culture
• Number one song: “Island Girl” by Elton John11
• Number one album: Rock of the Westies by Elton John12
• Number one movie: Three Days of the Condor by Sydney Pollack13
• Most watched TV programs: All in the Family, Laverne & Shirley, Rich Man, Poor Man, Maude, The Bionic Woman, Phyllis, The Six Million Dollar Man, Sanford & Son, Rhoda14
• NYT bestseller, fiction: Ragtime by E.L. Doctrow15
• NYT bestseller, non-fiction: Sylvia Porter’s Money Book by Sylvia Porter16
Some other albums released that month
• Dolly: The Seeker/We Used To by Dolly Parton
• Come Taste the Band by Deep Purple
• Zuma by Neil Young & Crazy Horse
• Gratitude by Earth, Wind & Fire
• Schoolboys in Disgrace by The Kinks
• A Night at the Opera by Queen
• Nightrider by Charlie Daniels
• Numbers by Cat Stevens
• Radio-Activity by Kraftwerk
• Northern Lights – Southern Cross by The Band
• Discreet Music by Brian Eno
• Family Reunion by The O'Jays
• Hot Chocolate by Hot Chocolate
• If the Shoe Fits by Pure Prairie League
• It's Only Love by Rita Coolidge
• The Last Record Album by Little Feat
• Rufus featuring Chaka Khan by Rufus
• Strung Up by Sweet
• Together by Anne Murray
• Track of the Cat by Dionne Warwick
• Who's to Bless and Who's to Blame by Kris Kristofferson17
Sport
• Nov 3 Chris Evert becomes first tennis player to achieve the No. 1 ranking as the WTA Tour rankings debut; Evert holds top spot for first 26 weeks.
• Nov 12 25th NASCAR Sprint Cup: Richard Petty wins his sixth Cup.
• Nov 23 CFL Grey Cup, McMahon Field, Calgary: Edmonton Eskimos defeat Montreal Alouettes, 9-8; just the 3rd Grey Cup in which no TDs scored; game-time temperature -15 degrees Celsius (five degrees F), with a 25-kph wind.18
Notable Births
• Nov 2 Chris Walla, American guitarist, songwriter, and record producer (Death Cab for Cutie, 1997-2014 - "You Are A Tourist"), born in Bothell, Washington.
• Nov 14 Travis Barker, American drummer (Blink-182 - "All the Small Things"; +44), born in Fontana, California.
• Nov 26 DJ Khaled(49 years old), American DJ, record producer and rapper ("I'm the One", "Higher"), born in New Orleans, Louisiana.19
Historical Events
• Nov 04 Castro Sends Troops to Angola: Cuban leader Fidel Castro dispatched 650 troops to Angola to support the Marxist MPLA government in its ongoing conflict against UNITA and South African forces. This military intervention was a significant moment in Cold War-era geopolitics, demonstrating Cuba's commitment to supporting socialist movements in Africa.
• Nov 15 Group of Six (G6) Industrialized Nations Formed: The Group of Six (G6) industrialized nations was established, marking a significant milestone in international economic cooperation. This group would later evolve into the G7 and G20, becoming a crucial forum for global economic policy discussions.
• Nov 22 Juan Carlos Becomes King of Spain: Juan Carlos I was officially proclaimed King of Spain following the death of General Francisco Franco, marking the end of Franco's authoritarian regime and the beginning of Spain's transition to democracy. This moment represented a critical turning point in Spanish political history, as Juan Carlos played a pivotal role in guiding the country towards constitutional monarchy and democratic governance.20
Notable Deaths
• Nov 1 Philip James, American composer, conductor (New Jersey Symphony, 1922-29; Bamberger Little Symphony, 1929-36), and educator (NYU, 1934-56), dies at 85.
• Nov 20 Francisco Franco(1892-1975), Spanish general and dictator (1936-75), dies at 82.
• Nov 29 Graham Hill(1929-1975), English auto racer (Formula One World Champion 1962, 68; Indianapolis 500 1966; 24 Hours of Le Mans 1972), dies while trying to land a plane in fog near London at 46.21
O’Brien, Lucy, She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Popular Music, 3rd ed., 2012, p. 141.
O’Brien, p. 141.
Sugrue, Louise, 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Fifth printing, ed. by Robert Dimmery p. 344.
Ibid.
Ibid.