The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975)

The Hissing of Summer Lawns is the seventh studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released in November 1975 on Asylum Records. It continues the jazz-rock influence of Mitchell's previous album, Court and Spark, with more unconventional and experimental material. It features backing from members of jazz-rock groups L.A. Express and The Crusaders, with additional contributions from James Taylor, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. It also introduced synthesizers (Moog and ARP) to Mitchell's work for the first time, as well as experimenting with sampling.

The lyrics focus on women's experiences with patriarchal norms, male dominance, and suburban life, as well as on culture and the music industry. As with many of her albums, Mitchell created the cover art. It depicts a painting of a group of men carrying a large snake superimposed over the Beverly Hills suburbs; Mitchell's house is shaded in blue.

While it did not spawn a major hit single like its predecessor, The Hissing of Summer Lawns reached number 4 in the US and remains Mitchell's last top-10 album. "In France They Kiss on Main Street", the only single, reached number 66 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The Hissing of Summer Lawns initially received negative reviews, with critics finding the jazz stylings a disservice to Mitchell's lyrics and comparing it negatively to Court and Spark. However, it later became one of her most acclaimed works. It appeared at number 258 in Rolling Stone's 2020 edition of its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and at number 217 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums in 2000.

Background

The slick jazz-pop sound Mitchell developed on Court and Spark (1974) would be pushed into more adventurous territory on The Hissing of Summer Lawns. Some tracks reflect a fusion of jazz and "shimmering avant-pop". The album also features an ARP synthesizer and African drums.

On "The Jungle Line", Mitchell is credited with the first commercially released song to include a sample, featuring a looped recording of percussion by the African ensemble The Drummers of Burundi. This interest in world music presaged the work of Peter Gabriel and Paul Simon in subsequent years. In a 1983 interview for Musician Magazine Mitchell was asked what prompted her to use the drums. Mitchell explained: "Because I loved that Burundi warriors passage. It had a Bo Diddley lick in it which I took out and made into a loop and then ran this black cultural poem under it. I thought I was black for about three years. I felt like there was a black poet trapped inside me, and that song was about Harlem—the primitive juxtaposed against the Frankenstein of modern industrialization; the wheels turning and the gears grinding and the beboppers with the junky spit running down their trumpets. All of that together with that Burundi tribal thing was perfect. But people just thought it was weird."

Songs

The first track, "In France They Kiss on Main Street", is a jazz-rock song about coming of age in a small town in the 1950s rock & roll era. (The song was released as the single from the album and reached number 66 on the Billboard charts.) "The Jungle Line" uses a field recording from Africa of the Drummers of Burundi (called 'warrior drums' in the credits), onto which are dubbed guitar, Moog synthesizer and the vocal line. The lyrics pay homage to the works of the French Post-Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau. Mitchell blends details of his works with imagery of modern city life, the music industry and the underground drug culture.

"Edith and the Kingpin" marks a return to jazz in a story of a gangster's new moll arriving in his home town. "Don't Interrupt the Sorrow" is an acoustic guitar-based song with stream-of-consciousness lyrics, focused on women standing up to male dominance and proclaiming their own existence as individuals. "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" is an orchestral-based piece about a modern southern belle basing her life and self-image on the stereotypes of the Scarlett O'Hara character from Gone with the Wind.