''Wild Things Run Fast'' is the 11th

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

by Canadian singer-songwriter

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

. Her first of four releases for Geffen Records, it was released in 1982 and represents her departure from jazz to a more

1980s pop : ''For music from a year in the 1980s, go to 1980 in music, 80 , 1981 in music, 81 , 1982 in music, 82 , 1983 in music, 83 , 1984 in music, 84 , 1985 in music, 85 , 1986 in music, 86 , 1987 in music, 87 , 1988 in music, 88 , 1989 in musi ...

sound. This was her first album to work with bassist Larry Klein, whom she married in 1982. Klein would play bass on and co-produce her next four albums. The resulting world tour took Mitchell through the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia. A video of the tour was released in 1983, entitled ''Refuge of the Roads''. The recorded performances were not performed in front of a live audience, but rather recorded live in a studio once the tour had been completed, with applause dubbed-in during

post-production Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments. The ...

. There was also some

Super 8 Super 8 or Super Eight may refer to: Film * Super 8 film, a motion picture film format released in 1965 * Super 8 film camera, a motion picture camera used to film Super 8mm motion picture format * ''Super 8'' (2011 film), a science-fiction fi ...

footage taken by Mitchell on the road. It has since been released on DVD. Mitchell claimed that her inspiration for the album came from hearing the music of popular bands such as

Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band founded in 1971 in New York by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Initially the band had a stable lineup, but in 1974, Becker and Fagen retired from live ...

, Talking Heads and The Police at a discothèque during a trip to the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

in 1981. She said that hearing The Police, especially, affected her sound, saying, "their rhythmic hybrids, and the positioning of the drums, and the sound of the drums, was one of the main calls out to me to make a more rhythmic album".JoniMitchell.com – Biography (1981–1984 A Solid Love)
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Track listing

Personnel

Track numbering refers to CD and digital releases of the album. * Joni Mitchell – vocals, acoustic guitar , electric guitar on piano , electric piano , cover painting * Larry Klein – bass, rhythmic arrangements *

Michael Landau Michael Christopher Landau (born June 1, 1958) is an American musician, audio engineer, and record producer. He is a session musician and guitarist who has played on many albums since the early 1980s with Boz Scaggs, Minoru Niihara, Joni Mitch ...

– electric guitar *

Steve Lukather Steven Lee Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger and record producer, best known as the sole continuous founding member of the rock band Toto. His reputation as a skilled guitarist led to a stea ...

– electric guitar * John Guerin – drums , whisper chorus * Vinnie Colaiuta – drums , rhythmic arrangements * Don Alias – rhythmic arrangements * Larry Williams – Prophet synthesizer on , tenor saxophone * Russell Ferrante –

Oberheim synthesizer Oberheim is an American synthesizer manufacturer founded in 1969 by Tom Oberheim. History and products Tom Oberheim founded the company in 1969, originally as a designer and contract manufacturer of electronic effects devices for Maestro (most ...

* Wayne Shorter –

soprano saxophone The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

Larry Carlton Larry Eugene Carlton (born March 2, 1948) is an American guitarist who built his career as a studio musician in the 1970s and 1980s for acts such as Steely Dan and Joni Mitchell. He has participated in thousands of recording sessions, recorde ...

– guitar * Victor Feldman – percussion * Kim Hutchcroft –

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...

– backing vocals , co-lead vocals * Charles Valentino – backing vocals * Howard Kinney – backing vocals * James Taylor – backing vocals * Kenny Rankin – whisper chorus * Robert De La Garza – whisper chorus * Skip Cottrell – whisper chorus

Technical personnel

*Joni Mitchell – production, mixing * Larry Klein – mixing * Henry Lewy – engineering at A&M *Skip Cottrell – engineering at A&M *Clyde Kaplan – assistant engineering at A&M *Jerry Hudgins – engineering at Devonshire Sound *Larry Hirsch – mixing *Chase Williams – assistant mixing *John Golden – vinyl mastering *Lee Herschberg – CD remastering

Charts

References

{{Authority control 1982 albums Joni Mitchell albums Geffen Records albums Albums recorded at A&M Studios Albums produced by Joni Mitchell Albums with cover art by Joni Mitchell