Hissing Of Summer Lawns Acoustic Demos
Unreleased Studio Recordings
Lineage: Unknown, believed to be a bootleg LP pressing or sourced from a low gen cassette tape copy > DL'ed FLAC files > WaveLab 5 (fixed a few very small pops (skips) in a couple of tracks, smoothed and evened out the lead-in between a couple of tracks) > WAV > FLAC (level 8, align on sector boundaries) > TLH > Upload
Tracklist:
1. Harry's House
2. Edith And The Kingpin
3. In France They Kiss On Main Street
4. Sweet Bird
5. Shades Of Scarlett Conquering
6. Shadows And Light
7. Dreamland
8. The Boho Dance
9. Hunter (The Good Samaritan)
From jmdl site:
Joni went into the studio in the spring of 1975 to record acoustic demos of some songs she'd written. These tapes included an early version of "Dreamland," a song that 2 years later would appear on the album 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter'.
A few months later she recorded band versions of the tunes with most of the same musicians she employed on 'Court And Spark'. This song cycle was released in November 1975 as the album 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns'. The LP was a big seller and peaked at #4 on the Billboard album
charts.
"He bought her a diamond for her throat
He put her in a ranch house on a hill
She could see the valley barbecues
From her window sill
See the blue pools in the squinting sun
And hear the hissing of summer lawns..."
But, generally, the album was greeted less than enthusiastically. The fact that Joni had ceased being the confessional sin-eater, and had turned her razor sharp observations outwards to society, was not what fans and critics expected or wanted from her. This was probably the first time that an musical direction of Joni's had been questioned, and it really wounded her. She still talks today of the sting she felt at those bad reviews. But. in reality, there were also quite a few good notices for the album.
"Sweet bird you are
Briefer than a falling star
All these vain promises on beauty jars
Somewhere with your wings on time
You must be laughing
Up on your feathers laughing..."
Joni joined up with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review as it traveled thru North America, and she performed at a few shows in late November and early December including stops in Boston and Toronto.
Before Christmas 1975, plans began for a tour to promote 'The Hissing Of Summer Lawns', which was selling briskly. The L.A. Express were grabbed up and convinced to embark on a second tour with Mitchell to begin in January 1976.
"You read those books where luxury
Comes as a guest to take a slave
Books where artists in noble poverty
Go like virgins to the grave
Don't you get sensitive on me
'Cause I know you're just too proud
You couldn't step outside the Boho dance now
Even if good fortune allowed..."
Often packaged with filler on bootleg versions, these are the demos only and they sound wonderful. I have included as a bonus the song "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)" originally scheduled for 'Blue' here, because it is the only track from "The Original Blue" that was never released. "Dreamland" later appeared on 'Don Juan's Reckless Daughter' in a studio version, but the stripped down version here is expecially appealing. The official album is one of Joni's underrated gems. Buy it and give it a second chance.
----- Hunter (The Good Samaritan) -----
I was alone and sickly
It was a quarter of a moonlit night
I heard him cry through my window shade
And it filled me so full of fright
But I could not turn my back on him
I put on the back porch light
"Can I help you," said the Good Samaritan
"Can I help you," said the Good Samaritan.
I brought him bread and a blanket
But I told him, "You can't come in"
You can sleep outside in the tool shed
Though a little rain comes in
Oh, I don't know you, you're a stranger
I don't know where you've been
"You can't come in here," said the keeper of the inn
"I don't want you in here," said the keeper of the inn.
But I couldn't sleep for the thinking
You know my night got so insane
I thought, maybe he was an angel
And I left him out in the rain
And what if he was the devil
He'd be coming after me again
But when I woke in the weary morning he was gone
When I woke in the weary morning he was gone.
I thought maybe he was an angel
And I left him out in the rain
And what if he was the devil
He'd be coming after me again
When I woke in the weary morning he was gone
When I woke in the weary morning, Lord, he was gone.
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