Don Juan's Reckless Daughter

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Studio album by Joni Mitchell
Released	December 13, 1977
Recorded	1977
Studio	A&M, Hollywood Columbia Studio C, New York City Basing Street Studios, London
Genre	Folk-jazz[1][2] jazz fusion[3][4] jazz-rock[5] experimental jazz[6]
Length	59:38
Label	Asylum
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
"Jericho" Released: February 1978 "Off Night Backstreet" Released: 3 March 1978 (UK)

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.^[7]

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.^[7]

"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".^[8][9]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Christgau's Record Guide	B−[11]
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[12]
The Great Rock Discography	5/10[4]
MusicHound Rock	[13]
Pitchfork	6.1/10[14]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[15]

Rolling Stone opined that "the best that can be said for Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is that it is an instructive failure," writing that "it's sapped of emotion and full of ideas that should have remained whims, melodies that should have been riffs, songs that should have been fragments."^[16] The Globe and Mail concluded that "many of the novel sounds that marked her shift to the fully electric, pop-oriented sound have gone bland for lack of detailed attention."^[17]

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

• Joni Mitchell – vocals, guitars; piano on "Paprika Plains"
• Jaco Pastorius – bass guitar; bongos on "The Tenth World"; cowbells on "Dreamland"
• John Guerin – drums
• Wayne Shorter – soprano saxophone on "Jericho" and "Paprika Plains"
• Alex Acuña – congas, cowbell & backing vocals on "The Tenth World"; shakers on "Dreamland"; ankle bells on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"
• Don Alias – bongos on "Jericho"; congas, claves & backing vocals on "The Tenth World"; snare drum & sandpaper blocks on "Dreamland"; shakers on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"
• Manolo Badrena – congas, coffee cans & lead vocal on "The Tenth World"; congas on "Dreamland"; credited "in spirit" on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"
• Airto Moreira – surdo on "The Tenth World" and "Dreamland"
• Larry Carlton – electric guitar on "Otis And Marlena"
• Michel Colombier – piano on "Otis And Marlena"
• Chaka Khan – backing vocals on "The Tenth World" and "Dreamland"
• Glenn Frey, J. D. Souther – backing vocals on "Off Night Backstreet"
• Michael Gibbs – orchestral arrangements and conductor on "Paprika Plains" and "Off Night Backstreet"
• Bobbye Hall – credited "in spirit" on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"
• El Bwyd – "the split-tongued spirit" vocals on "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter"

Production

• Henry Lewy, Steve Katz – production, mixing
• Robert Ash – assistant engineer
• Frank Laico – orchestra recording
• Glen Christensen – art direction
• Les Krims – artwork on Ms. Mitchell's dress
• Norman Seeff – photography
• Keith Williamson – photoprints

Charts

References

This page was last edited on 18 March 2024, at 19:35