Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Studio album by
Joni Mitchell
ReleasedDecember 13, 1977[1]
Recorded1977
Studio
Genre
Length59:38
LabelAsylum
Producer
  • Joni Mitchell
  • Henry Lewy
  • Steve Katz
Joni Mitchell chronology
Hejira
(1976)		 Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
(1977)		 Mingus
(1979)
Singles from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
  1. "Jericho"
    Released: February 1978
  2. "Off Night Backstreet"
    Released: 3 March 1978 (UK)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]
Christgau's Record GuideB−[9]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[10]
The Great Rock Discography5/10[5]
MusicHound Rock[11]
Pitchfork6.1/10[12]
Rolling Stone(not rated)[13]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[14]

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is a 1977 double album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Her ninth album, it is unusual for its experimental style, expanding even further on the jazz-influenced sound of Mitchell's previous recordings. Mitchell has stated that, close to completing her contract with Asylum Records, she allowed this album to be looser than anything she had done previously.[15]

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was released in December 1977 to mixed reviews. It reached No. 25 on the Billboard charts and attained gold record status within three months.

Background and content

Much of the album is experimental: "Overture" is played with six simultaneous guitars, some in different tunings from others, with vocal echo effects; "The Tenth World" is an extended-length instrumental of Latin percussion; "Dreamland" features only percussion and voices (including that of Chaka Khan).

"Paprika Plains" is a 16-minute song played on improvised piano and arranged with a full orchestra; it takes up all of Side 2. In it, Mitchell narrates a first-person description of a late-night gathering in a bar frequented by Indigenous peoples of Canada, touching on themes of hopelessness and alcoholism. At one point in the narrative, the narrator leaves the setting to watch the rain and enters into a dreamstate, and the lyrics – printed in the liner notes but not sung – become a mixture of references to innocent childhood memories, a nuclear explosion and an expressionless tribe gazing upon the dreamer. The narrator returns inside after the rain passes. In speaking to Anthony Fawcett about working on "Paprika Plains", Mitchell said:

The Improvisational, the spontaneous aspect of this creative process – still as a poet – is to set words to the music, which is a hammer and chisel process. Sometimes it flows, but a lot of times it's blocked by concept. And if you're writing free consciousness – which I do once in a while just to remind myself that I can, you know, because I'm fitting little pieces of this puzzle together – the end result must flow as if it was spoken for the first time.[15]

"Off Night Backstreet" was released as a single backed with "Jericho", but did not chart.

Two of the album's songs had previously been released: "Jericho" by Mitchell on her 1974 live album Miles of Aisles and "Dreamland" by Roger McGuinn on his 1976 album Cardiff Rose.

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter featured contributions from prominent jazz musicians, including four members of Weather Report – Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Manolo Badrena, and Alex Acuña.

Artwork

The album jacket is a photomontage and includes three photographs of Mitchell. In the foreground she is in blackface as her "reputed alter ego, a black hipster named Art Nouveau".[16][17]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Joni Mitchell, except where noted

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Overture – Cotton Avenue"6:41
2."Talk to Me"3:45
3."Jericho"3:22
Side two
No.TitleLength
1."Paprika Plains"16:21
Side three
No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Otis and Marlena" 4:09
2."The Tenth World"Joni Mitchell, Don Alias, Manolo Badrena, Alex Acuña, Airto Moreira, Jaco Pastorius6:45
3."Dreamland" 4:38
Side four
No.TitleLength
1."Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"6:36
2."Off Night Backstreet"3:20
3."The Silky Veils of Ardor"4:01

Personnel

Musicians

Production

Charts

Chart performance for Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Chart (1977–1978) Peak
position
Australian Albums (Kent Music Report)[18] 39
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[19] 28
UK Albums (OCC)[20] 20
US Billboard 200[21] 25

References

  1. ↑ "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter". Rate Your Music. Retrieved May 27, 2011.
  2. ↑ Christopher, Currie (March 8, 1998). "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter". Tentative Reviews.
  3. ↑ Himes, Geoffrey (April 25, 2019). "Herbie Hancock and Joni Mitchell: Music & Lyrics". Jazz Times. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  4. ↑ "Joni Mitchell: The Studio Albums 1968–1979 | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. November 9, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  5. 1 2 Strong, Martin C. (2006). "Joni Mitchell". The Great Rock Discography. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. p. 712. ISBN 1-84195-860-3.
  6. ↑ Hoskyns, Barney (2002). "Back Catalog: Joni Mitchell". Blender. Retrieved August 27, 2023. A double album of oblique, angular jazz-rock, with Joni's cool nuances a underpinned by jungly percussion and Jaco Pastorius's alternately growly/plangent bass lines
  7. ↑ Zimmer, Dave (December 3, 1982). "Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast". BAM. Retrieved August 27, 2023.
  8. ↑ Ruhlmann, W. (2011). "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter – Joni Mitchell | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  9. ↑ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: M". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 8, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  10. ↑ Larkin, Colin (2011). "Mitchell, Joni". The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (5th concise ed.). London: Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-595-8.
  11. ↑ Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel, eds. (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 769. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  12. ↑ "Joni Mitchell: The Studio Albums 1968–1979 | Album Reviews". Pitchfork. November 9, 2012. Retrieved March 20, 2014.
  13. ↑ Maslin, Janet (2011). "Joni Mitchell: Don Juan's Reckless Daughter : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved July 19, 2011.
  14. ↑ Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). "Joni Mitchell". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. London: Fireside. pp. 547–548. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved September 8, 2009. Portions posted at "Joni Mitchell > Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  15. 1 2 Joni Mitchell Biography from jonimitchell.com Archived August 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved August 22, 2008
  16. ↑ Evelyn White, "Joni Mitchell", Herizons, June 2010. Reproduced on a fair-use basis in Joni Mitchell.com Library. Retrieved March 30, 2011.
  17. ↑ Larry David Smith, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and the torch song tradition (2004), Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 0-275-97392-1. p.64.
  18. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992: 23 years of hit singles & albums from the top 100 charts. St Ives, N.S.W, Australia: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
  19. ↑ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 5539a". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  20. ↑ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
  21. ↑ "Joni Mitchell Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved April 7, 2021.
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