JONI MITCHELL – DOG EAT DOG LP – Nr MINT A1/B1mtrx UK

Joni Mitchell – Dog Eat Dog
(Geffen Records  1985  GEF26455)
Matrix No’s: A1/B1 – UK Pressing

Gatefold Sleeve in Nr MINT condition
– a little wear to edges – a couple of small scuffs near top of spine edge

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition

Roberta Joan “Joni” Mitchell, CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and painter. Rolling Stone called her “one of the greatest songwriters ever”, and AllMusic has stated, “When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century”.

Drawing from folk, pop, rock and jazz, Mitchell’s songs often reflect social and environmental ideals as well as her feelings about romance, confusion, disillusionment and joy.

Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatchewan and western Canada before busking in the streets and shoddy nightclubs of Toronto. In 1965, she moved to the United States and began touring. Some of her original songs (“Urge for Going”, “Chelsea Morning”, “Both Sides, Now”, “The Circle Game”) were covered by folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell, with popular songs like “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock”, helped define an era and a generation. Her 1971 recording Blue was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone‘s list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time”, the highest entry by a female artist. Mitchell switched labels and began moving toward jazz rhythms by way of lush pop textures on 1974’s Court and Spark, her best-selling LP, featuring the radio hits “Help Me” and “Free Man in Paris”.

Around 1975 her vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto. Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she explored jazz, melding it with influences of rock and roll, R&B, classical music, and non-western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working closely with noted jazz musicians, among them Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings. She turned again toward pop, embraced electronic music, and engaged in political protest.

She is the sole producer credited on most of her albums, including all her work in the 1970s. A blunt critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th, and reportedly last, album of original songs in 2007.

With roots in visual art, Mitchell designed her own album covers. She describes herself as a “painter derailed by circumstance”.

Dog Eat Dog is the twelfth album by Joni Mitchell, released in 1985. It was her second album for Geffen Records. The album was a departure for Mitchell due to its synthetic sound (featuring production work by British synthesiser musician Thomas Dolby). Lyrically, the album dealt with prominent issues in mid 1980s society, such as televangelists, consumerism and famine in Ethiopia. One of Mitchell’s more unusual songs, “Smokin’ (Empty, Try Another)” was recorded by sampling the sound of the cigarette machine in the hall of the studio where Wild Things Run Fast was recorded. “Good Friends” was recorded as a duet with Michael McDonald; a video was produced for the song using film animation by Jim Blashfield. “Shiny Toys” and “Good Friends” were released as singles; “Shiny Toys” was also released in a 12″ Extended Dance Single format, remix by François Kevorkian, and had a more complete lyric than the album version, featuring spoken voice by Thomas Dolby ( “I LOVE being out on the golf course!”).

Track listing

All tracks written by Joni Mitchell, except where indicated.

1. “Good Friends” – 4:25
2. “Fiction”– 4:14 (Mitchell, Larry Klein)
3. “The Three Great Stimulants”– 6:11
4. “Tax Free”– 4:19 (Mitchell, Larry Klein)
5. “Smokin’ (Empty, Try Another)”– 1:43
6. “Dog Eat Dog”– 4:41
7. “Shiny Toys”– 3:27
8. “Ethiopia”– 5:53
9. “Impossible Dreamer”– 4:30
10. “Lucky Girl”– 4:02

Personnel

• Joni Mitchell – vocals, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, sound effects
• Michael McDonald – vocals on “Good Friends”, background vocals on “Tax Free”
• Larry Klein – keyboards, synthesizers, bass, programming; spoken vocals on “Fiction”
• Thomas Dolby – keyboards, synthesizers, programming; spoken vocals on “Fiction”, “Shiny Toys”
• Joe Smith – spoken vocals on “Fiction”
• Rod Steiger – spoken vocals on “Tax Free”
• Zyg Winard – spoken vocals on “Shiny Toys”
• Michael Landau – guitar
• Steve Lukather – guitar on “Smokin’ (Empty, Try Another)”
• Larry Williams – flute, tenor saxophone on “Shiny Toys”
• Kazu Matsui – shakahachi [sic] on “Ethiopia”
• Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone on “Impossible Dreamer”, tenor saxophone on “Lucky Girl”
• Jerry Hey – trumpet, flugelhorn, horn arrangement on “Shiny Toys”
• Gary Grant – trumpet, flugelhorn on “Shiny Toys”
• Vinnie Colaiuta – drums, samples
• Alex Acuña – bata drum on “Impossible Dreamer”
• Michael Fisher – percussion samples
• Don Henley – background vocals on “Tax Free”, “Dog Eat Dog”, “Shiny Toys”
• James Taylor – background vocals on “Tax Free”, “Dog Eat Dog”, “Shiny Toys”
• Amy Holland – background vocals on “Tax Free”