The album Joni Mitchell said the world wasn’t ready for: “The record company dumped it”
All the projects Joni Mitchell ever made didn’t have to necessarily go along with the trends of the time.
There might have been a few times in history when her music was considered uncool or out of touch with what the kids were listening to, but even then, it’s hard not to admire the pure craftsmanship on display whenever she made new tunes. And when a handful of critics started to take issue with her records, she knew to always take their word with multiple grains of salt every time she played.
Because, really, it’s hard to analyse Mitchell’s music from a critical point of view. A handful of critics might go into her music looking for flaws, but when you listen to her ventures into jazz or even her folksy side, everything from the production to the lyrics to the strange harmonies are damn near perfect for every tune that she’s working on.
It might not be to everyone’s taste, but no one could deny that Mitchell was quoting her own heart whenever she played. Half of her tunes felt like personal diary entries that she’s sharing with her audience, and even when she’s showing off her stellar musicians on her fusion-adjacent albums, music legends like Jaco Pastorius seem to be playing second fiddle to her lyrics half the time.
That might have worked throughout the 1970s, but like all great singer-songwriters, the 1980s were bound to be unkind to Mitchell every now and again. She could still write the best lyrics that anyone had ever heard and take her fans on a journey, but by the time that MTV kicked in, no one was looking for that kind of approach anymore. Everyone was now focused on being over-the-top, and while Mitchell could reach that level, Dog Eat Dog was the first time people felt she made a genuine misfire.
Granted, it’s not like the album cycle was her favourite by any stretch, either. She had begun working with artists like Thomas Dolby trying to get the project off the ground, but even the songs themselves sounded fine, getting the synthesisers into the mix was bound to either sound incredibly forward-thinking or an absolute disaster depending on your tolerance for 1980s-heavy production.
While Mitchell did have a lot to say regarding the state of the world, she wasn’t exactly shocked that it fell on deaf ears, saying, “That was kind of my political awakening and people weren’t ready for it, so there was a lot of negativity in the air, a lot of stupid press. It was called sophomoric in Newsweek even though it contained themes for their cover stories for the next couple of years. So there was a lot of reneging that went on about that record, but in the meantime, the record company dumped it.”
It’s not like she doesn’t have biting commentary on here as well. As much as Neil Young was trying to blend in with the flavours of the day, Mitchell does a far better job at it on this record and manages to sneak in a few jabs at Reaganomics along the way and the ongoing issues with everything from televangelism to the ongoing outreach from pop stars to the struggles happening half a world away.
Call it trendy if you want to, but even if Dog Eat Dog stands as one of Mitchell’s weakest records, it’s far from bad by any stretch. She had the potential to make phenomenal music no matter what decade she was in, but it came down to whether the world was actually willing to listen to what was on her mind.
