Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody
2. Wild Things Run Fast
3. Ladies' Man
4. Moon at the Window
5. Solid Love
6. Be Cool
7. (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care
8. You Dream Flat Tires
9. Man to Man
10. Underneath the Streetlight
11. Love (Corinthians 11:13)
12. Two Grey Rooms [Unreleased Demo Version][*]

Disc 2:

1. Good Friends
2. Fiction
3. Three Great Stimulants
4. Tax Free
5. Smokin' (Empty, Try Another)
6. Dog Eat Dog
7. Shiny Toys
8. Ethiopia
9. Impossible Dreamer
10. Lucky Girl
11. Good Friends [Unfinished Demo Version][#][*]

Disc 3:

1. My Secret Place
2. Number One
3. Lakota
4. Tea Leaf Prophecy
5. Dancin' Clown
6. Cool Water
7. Beat of Black Wings
8. Snakes and Ladders
9. Reoccurring Dream
10. Bird That Whistles

Disc 4:

1. Night Ride Home
2. Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free)
3. Cherokee Louise
4. Windfall (Everything for Nothing)
5. Slouching Towards Bethlehem
6. Come in from the Cold
7. Nothing Can Be Done
8. Only Joy in Town
9. Ray's Dad's Cadillac
10. Two Grey Rooms
11. It's All over Now, Baby Blue [#][*][Demo Version]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #48616 in Music
• Published on: 2003
• Released on: 2003-09-23
• Number of discs: 4
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .57 pounds

Album Description
Four CDs sporting Joni's complete recordings for Geffen during the '80s, including all four albums, Wild Things Run Fast (1982), Dog Eat Dog (1985), Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm (1988), & Night Ride Home (1991), that she recorded for the label plus some tasty rarities! Like a couple of demos, 'Two Grey Rooms' & 'Good Friends', & a cover of Bob Dylan's 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue' that was recorded for the Night Ride Home sessions. & perhaps even more intriguingly for this elusive artist, Joni has provided a personal introduction & in-depth descriptions for each track. Rare photos, original artwork & 24-bit mastering complete the first of what we hope will be several Joni Mitchell boxed sets to come! 44 tracks packaged in a clamshell box. Geffen. 2003.

Customer Reviews

Mitchell's most adventurous and overlooked period
Joni Mitchell is, in my opinion, the finest songwriter of the last 40 years. No one except Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and perhaps, occasionally. Kurt Cobain, can touch her as a poet--and no one at all has left a richer legacy of gorgeous melodies and totally original instrumental settings. Unfortunately, most of her best work has been done since her early commercial (and critical) peak in the first half of the 1970s, and hasn't reached the audience it deserves.

The Complete Geffen Recordings collects four records dating from 1982 to 1991 which, between them, contain at least 8 or 9 of the best songs you'll ever hear in your life. I was never crazy about the first of these records, "Wild Things Run Fast"--the playing is a bit too slick, and the songwriting standard is low for a Mitchell record--but "Chinese Cafe" and "Moon at the Window" are absolute classics. "Dog Eat Dog" has a very 80s synths & drum machines vibe, but Mitchell twists the New Wave tendencies into a unique sonic landscape that suits her brittle songs bemoaning a decade of greed & intolerance (a decade which, from the perspective of 2003, seems positively benign). "Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm" is almost as sonically adventurous, and contains the brilliant songs "My Secret Place" and "The Beat of Black Wings." Finally, "Night Ride Home" was billed as a return to form--by people who never bothered listening to her 80s records. It does return to a more acoustic vibe, showcasing Mitchell's unique guitar style. The title song and "Come in From the Cold," among others, are thrilling.

The box set includes 3 unreleased tracks. Joni's glorious cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" is worth the $50 all by itself. The wordless demo version of "Two Grey Rooms" is beautiful, but interesting primarily as a window into Mitchell's writing process, and a voice-&-piano demo of "Good Friends" from "Dog Eat Dog"--one of the most elaborately-produced tracks on an elaborately-produced record--is a refreshing alternative version.

NOT REMASTERED !!!
The Geffen era is the least liked period of Joni's music. Her early 70s folk fans and late 70s jazz fans (to put it bluntly) found these albums too commercial and overproduced. I'm not one of them! Being a teenager in the 80s, I totally soaked up this kind of sound. Conversely, I struggle with some of her early albums...

"Wild Things" and "Dog Eat Dog" are two of my favourite (Joni) albums. "Chalk Mark" has a few great gems but it is a bit uneven. "Night Ride Home" has more spacious, organic sound and it won back most of the fans. Overall, this is a batch of four very good albums. Still, I only give it three stars out of five.

Here is why. Most of Joni's albums have been re-released recently in glorious remastered HDCD sound and with fully restored artwork. Unfortunately, that proven recipe has not been used when reissuing these four albums. Instead, we get the Geffen box set.

The other re-releases didn't have bonus tracks, these have (except "Chalk Mark"). But that is hardly worth the hefty price of the box though, not even for a Joni fan. Where is the "Shiny Toys" remix, for example? The CD's come in very basic card wallets, neat but a bit cheap. There is a thick 86-page book(let), but is also a bit of a let-down. There is a spread of the unused art for "Dog Eat Dog", very nice. Joni has provided quaint comments for most of the tracks, but it almost seems she had better things to do, the further she got in the process. Only half of "Night Ride Home" apparently is worthy of commentary. Nothing to say about "Slouching Towards Bethlehem"? Astonishing.

My biggest complaint is sound quality. These CD's are NOT remastered (like it says on the top of this page). Nowhere on the box it actually claims this. 'Mastered from the original master tapes' simply means re-using the LP masters. Actual remastering would involve going back to the original multi-tracks and making a brand new mix, with digital playback in mind. That might sound like nitpicking, but the fact is that apart from raised sound level, there is practically no difference in sound - compared to the original CD's. They sound a bit tinny and thin and so do these. There is possibly a bit more bass on the first albums but no difference at all on the last two. I actually fooled myself a couple of times, thinking I was hearing an improvement in sound, when I was actually listening to the original 80s CD...

The Geffen box is one way to get these four albums - in case you're in the market to get them all on CD. But if you already have one of them, I would recommend getting the rest as the original CD's. You won't lose in sound quality and will get the albums the way they were meant to be released in, probably cheaper. If you own the original LP's: hold on to them! With no remastered CD's around - this box probably kills any chance of that happening - the best sound is still in the vinyls.

Intriguing, challenging, beautiful - the Geffen years
The 4-cd Geffen set presents, repackaged and remastered, Joni Mitchell's post-jazz, return-to-pop period, from 1982 to 1991. True, Mitchell's 80s period is jazzier and more daring than conventional pop music, but these CDs nonetheless mark a major shift from the wordy and impressionistic jazz-rock fusion of her late 70s work to a simpler and perhaps more accessible pop-rock. By nearly anyone's measure these albums do not stand up to her finest work, the masterpieces Blue, Court and Spark, and Hejira. But their extraordinary production value (very appreciated by this fan if not by all), accompanied by some remarkable songs (Moon at the Window, Impossible Dreamer, My Secret Place and Cherokee Louise are the respective highlights, among others) make for intriguing, challenging and beautiful listening. Another highlight: the bonus demo of Two Grey Rooms, a track demonstrating better than any other found here (or perhaps before or since) what for me is the essence of Joni Mitchell's work: sensuality, desire, sophistication, love. I can't respond to another reviewer's claim that this set isn't adequately remastered. I detect a richer, fuller sound than the original CDs, and I'll have to leave it at that. The booklet contains extensive comments by the artist, some insightful, some spiteful, some amusing, all Joni.