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Rating: "Dog Eat Dog". Dog eat dog. Perfect expression to represent the eighties. An increasingly aggressive international policy, the rise of neoliberalism, rampant consumerism. Elsewhere, however, there are the Third World, flies on the eyes of starving children, burning oil wells, attacks, and weak alliances. The music becomes plastic, boosted by synthesizers, vocoders, and prefab sounds. The innocence that had already begun to fade in the seventies is now definitively lost in a whirlpool of latex, teased hairstyles, and carnival makeup.
It's 1985 and Joni is going through a rough patch. You can imagine her in her living room, chain-smoking, swearing, and crashing things. The eighties really aren't for her, an ecological and sentimental poetess, in a time when love is the last thing on people's minds and the ozone hole hasn't yet been heard of. Between medical misadventures and various frustrations, Joni decides to work to pour out her feelings. What emerges from this process are a series of rather aggressive texts, so direct as to border on brazenness. In Joni Mitchell's discography, "Dog Eat Dog" is considered the most detested album both by fans and critics. Some who have listened to it wonder, “Is this really Joni?”. Yes, it's her. Like everyone in that period, even the Lady fell into the electronic trap, obtaining a result barely acceptable. The power of Mitchell's music lies in being out of the laws of time."Dog Eat Dog", instead, at times appears embarrassingly dated and not up to Joni's very high standards. If you manage to bypass the cold barrier of electronic sound and reach directly to the heart of the compositions, you will discover remarkable gems ("The Three Great Stimulants", "Ethiopia", "Dog Eat Dog") and equally as many banalities ("Lucky Girl", "Shiny Toys"). However, it is wrong, as many unfortunately do, to discard it completely.
In the crosshairs of Mitchell's fiery pen are many targets, including TV evangelists, the Church, Reaganites, individuals suffering from consumerist fever, bigots, and so on. Like with "The Hissing of Summer Lawns", the album opens with an out-of-context song, in its own way calm (Good Friends, in collaboration with Michael McDonald) whose purpose is perhaps to introduce us to Joni's new sound shift. It promptly resumes with the first vitriolic song, "Fiction". This syncopated track, loaded with sound effects and distorted guitars, shows us the discontent for the rules of the capitalist world (Buy me! Watch me! Listen to me!), but it focuses mainly on the frustration for unreal models and the unnatural life rhythms that this system imposes on us. The chorus is a long list of everything false circulating around. It then moves to "The Three Great Stimulants" which offers a clear example of why not to discard this record. The song is the best of the album and is built on a repetitive base that has the strange power to transport us into a dimension of distress and obsession, while Joni sings about how we never tire of wars, how we've become sad automatons, and the probable fate of the Earth. Once again, we must acknowledge the foresight of this artist (While madmen sit up building bombs / And making laws and bars / They’re gonna slam free choice behind us). Tax Free is instead a liberating snarl against religious preachers: “Fuck it! / Tonight I'll dance / With the drag queens and the punks / Let the rhythm free me from this vile hypocrite / We are not damned angels / And he is not a heaven-sent messenger.” Until 1985, no one had ever heard the elegant Lady of the Canyon utter expressions like fuck it! This indicates her anger and what a vent music represents for her.
"Dog Eat Dog" is certainly not one of the best albums of Joni's long career, but in my opinion, not even the worst. Only three years later, "Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm" would see the light, an unlikely jumble of collaborations always marked by a synthesized sound that doesn't suit Mitchell's sensitivity and style. "Dog Eat Dog" has the merit of containing some of the most biting and sharp texts of the Canadian poetess. In conclusion, this is an album worth revisiting, if not out of curiosity, at least to recognize its few but very valid merits and also to observe how, in one of the dark moments of her career, Joni Mitchell managed to maintain her critical spirit intact.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Fiction (04:10)
I can't decide
I don't know
Which way to go?
The options multiply
The choices grow
Which way to go?
What should I buy?
What should I be?
Which way to go?
(Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief)
So much comes at you
Too much for me
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by golden boys
In ad empires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of the boob tube
Fiction of the papers
Fiction of the image and the image makers
Fiction of the magazines
Fiction of the movies
Fiction of the "Buy me," "Watch me," "Listen to me"
I can't decide
I'm so confused
Which way to go?
I'm being useful here
I'm being used
Which way to go?
Some line gets drawn
What line is this?
Which way to go?
Could be a threshold or a precipice
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by sexy boys
In flaming T.V. fires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of obedience
Fiction of rebellion
Fiction of the goody-goody and the hellion
Fiction of destroyers
Fiction of preservers
Fiction of peacemakers and shit disturbers
Fiction of the moralist
Fiction of the nihilist
Fiction of the innovator and the stylist
Fiction of the killjoy
Fiction of the charmer
Fiction of the clay feet and the shining armour
Fiction of the declaimers
Fiction of the rebukers
Fiction of the pro and the no nukers
Fiction of the gizmo
Fiction of the data
Fiction of the this is this and that is that -- Ahh!
I can't decide
I don't know
Which way to go?
The more you learn
The less you know
Which way to go?
Some follow blind
And never know
Which way to go?
To lead you need some place to go
Which way to go?
Elusive dreams and vague desires
Fanned to fiery needs by deadly deeds
In falling empires
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Truth
Fiction
Fiction of the diplomat
Fiction of the critic
Fiction of the Pollyanna and the cynic
Fiction of the coward
Fiction of the hero
Fiction of the monuments reduced to zero ........
03 The Three Great Stimulants (06:15)
I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets
and the drone of planes at night has never frightened me
I keep the hours and the company that I please
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh and deep in the night
Our appetites find us
Release us and bind us
Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They'd like to slam free choice behind us
I saw a little lawyer on the tube
He said, "It's so easy now, anyone can sue."
"Let me show you how your petty aggravations can profit you!"
Call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh and deep in the night
Appetites find us
Release us and blind us
Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They're gonna slam free choice behind us
Last night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker
Great forests fell like buffalo
Everything got sicker
And to the bitter end
Big business bickered
And they call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence
Oh these times, these times
Oh these changing times
Change in the heart of all mankind
Oh these troubled times
06 Dog Eat Dog (04:41)
DOG EAT DOG
It's dog eat dog--I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love
Dog Eat Dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
DOG EAT DOG
On prime time crime the victim begs
Money is the road to justice
And power walks it on crooked legs
Prime--Time--Crime
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Where the wealth's displayed
Thieves and sycophants parade
And where it's made--
the slaves will be taken
Some are treated well
In these games of buy and sell
And some like poor beast
Are burdened down to breaking
DOG EAT DOG
It's dog eat dog, ain't it Flim Flam man
Dog eat dog, you can lie, cheat, skim, scam
Beat'em any way you can
Dog eat Dog
You'll do well in this land of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
You could get to be
A big wig financier
Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savored
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that is genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
Dog eat dog
People looking, seeing nothing
Dog eat dog
People listening, hearing nothing
Dog eat dog
People lusting, loving nothing
Dog eat dog
People stroking, touching nothing
Dog eat dog
Knowing nothing
Dog eat dog
08 Ethiopia (05:51)
Hot winds and hunger cries--Ethiopia
Flies in your babies' eyes--Ethiopia
Walking sticks on burning plains
Betrayed by politics
Abandoned by the rains
On and on--the human need
On and on--the human greed profanes
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Your top soil flies away--Ethiopia
We pump ours full of poison spray--Ethiopia
Between the brown skies and sprinkling lawns
I hear the whine of chain saws
Hacking rain forests down
On and on--insanities
On and on--Short sighted greed abounds
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Little garden planet-oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand it
Famine phantoms at the garden gates
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Every Sunday on T.V.--Ethiopia
You suffer with such dignity--Ethiopia
A T.V. star with a P.R. smile
Calls your baby "it" while strolling
Through your tragic trials
On and on--stupidity
On and on--the basic needs are defiled
Good air--good water--good earth
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
Little garden planet--oasis in space
Some hearts hurt--they can hardly stand the waste
Ethiopia--Ethiopia--Ethiopia
09 Impossible Dreamer (04:31)
The street was loud From an angry crowd and I thought of you, I thought of you Dreamer Land of the free No hungry bellies Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And in the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do The moon was bright Like day for night And I thought of you I thought of you Dreamer No acid rain Love without pain Impossible Impossible Dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And at the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do The room was dark And full of sharks and I thought of you I thought of you Dreamer Give peace a chance Don't think just dance Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure you And at the brightest height of the daylight Sometimes I blink 'cause I think I see you Dreaming like you do
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