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For The Roses , 1972 Front Cover For The Roses  is often overlooked, sandwiched as it is between two masterpieces. Fans who missed it might be surprised at its richness -- musically, lyrically, and emotionally. It has always been one of my favourites. For the Roses  sits between Blue and Court and Spark  not only chronologically, but musically. There are the rich, deep piano chords of Blue , but heralds of another sound are mixed in -- woodwinds, reeds, and strings, Joni's own multi-track backing vocals -- hints here and there of what would be developed so astonishingly on Court and Spark . Listening to this now, I realize that in the past, listening on LP, I must have strongly favoured side two, beginning with "See You Sometime" and closing with "Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune)". This re-listen was an opportunity for me to hear the first six songs with a fresh mind. The album opens with a political song, a song of social consciousness, whic...

Blue , 1971 Front Cover The back cover is solid blue. Inside, only lyrics and credits. Ask people their favourite Joni Mitchell album, and you are very likely to hear Blue . In my experience, this is especially true of older fans who discovered the album in real time. Blue is a masterpiece; there is no doubt of that. It is also the masterpiece that is more straightforward and accessible. When a Joni fan names Blue as their favourite, I wonder if this was the last stop on her journey with Joni's music. That may not be fair, but my experience continues to reinforce the theory. In my post about Ladies of the Canyon , I wrote that in that album we hear foreshadowing of the future Joni. This is true. But after those first three albums, no one could have been prepared for Blue . With Blue , Joni rockets into an entirely different universe of talent. The music, lyrics, vocals, arrangements, the emotions and ideas expressed, are all light-years beyond what came before. Here Joni shows he...

Ladies of the Canyon , 1970 Original Front Cover I put this album on for the first time in probably three decades, and I thought, ah, here's Joni. Ladies of the Canyon , Joni's third album, is the first time we hear the seeds of the future Joni, the first glimpses of elements in her music which would become old friends. It's the first time we hear her on piano. The first time she has arranged horns, strings, percussion, and background vocals. The first time we hear several of the themes she would explore in much more depth and beauty in the future: the conflict between art and commerce on "For Free," and the bleakness of bourgeoisie life on "The Arrangement". On Ladies , we also hear the beginning of her distinctive guitar voice, more of the range of her actual voice -- and her peculiar and distinctive diction and phrasing. I love piano in rock (Nicky Hopkins, Roy Bittan, Chris Stainton, Dr. John) and piano in blues (Pinetop Perkins, Professor Longhair,...

I decided to solve the problem of over-interpretation of lyrics in Reckless Daughter ( described here ) by putting down the book. I'll go back to it in the future. For now the listening project is more interesting and absorbing to me than reading the biography. This means I'll review the two books on the nonfiction book group blog without having finished the second book. Don't tell anyone. Then I'll write new reviews for wmtc. Next up: Ladies of the Canyon .

Reading the biography  Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell  while doing this re-listening project is proving to be an obstacle. In general I'm enjoying the book. I love learning more about the artist who created some of the most meaningful music in my life, and about the woman I have always considered a personal role model. I love the stories of how albums were recorded, and even how they were received. What I don't like -- and don't want -- is author David Yaffe's pronouncement of what a song is "about". Art is always open to interpretation. In fact, art is not complete without interpretation. All art -- novels, film, theatre, visual arts, music -- is incomplete until the receiver (viewer, listener, reader, etc.) experiences it. And that experience is unique to us as individuals. I don't experience art exactly the same way you do, because we each bring our own unique experiences and consciousness to that art. Our interpretation may be consciou...

Clouds , 1969 Clouds , front cover Listening to Clouds  was a strange experience for me: I didn't know the album!   I know every note of every album Joni has recorded since then, but this one was foreign. Of course I know the famous songs from this album -- "Chelsea Morning," "That Song About the Midway," and "Both Sides, Now" -- but I had no memory at all of the other songs. The one exception was the a cappella  "The Fiddle and the Drum," about the US's war-making -- but that's because not long ago, we saw Joni perform it on an episode of the old Dick Cavett Show, filmed right after Woodstock had taken place. But the actual album? It felt like I was hearing it for the first time. This must mean that my sister and I didn't play Clouds . Maybe we didn't own it and filled it in later, when Joni's music had gone way past this stage. I really don't know. I'll see if my sister has any idea. Even more surprising, I had ...

This is my first post in my re-listen to the music of Joni Mitchell  in chronological order of album release. These posts come with all kinds of disclaimers, chiefly that I don't know what I'm doing. I wanted to write about the two Reckless Daughter  books before starting on these posts, but I'm ready to move on to the second album, and haven't yet finished the books. So here we go. * * * * Joni Mitchell ( Song to a Seagull ), 1968 Song to a Seagull, front cover I hadn't listened to this album in a very  long time -- probably not since childhood. I am the youngest of three siblings, and got into music much earlier than my peers, listening to anything my older siblings had. My sister and I adored Joni and listened to her obsessively. Of course in the present, all the songs came back to me immediately (long-term memory is amazing) and I knew many of the lyrics. The songs on this album hang together as a whole, which was very common in those days. The album is also the...

Two new books about Joni Mitchell have come out, with -- strangely -- the same title. Reckless Daughter: A Joni Mitchell Anthology , edited by Barney Hoskyns, is a collection of stories about Joni* and reviews of her work. It's part of an ongoing collection called Rock's Backpages , which looks at rock through accomplished music writers of the last 50 years. I'm reading this now. Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell , by David Yaffe, is a biography of the artist and her music. It's especially noteworthy because of the unusual access Yaffe had to his subject. I'm going to read this after I finish the anthology. While reading reviews and impressions of Joni's earliest performances and recordings, I realized how long it's been since I've heard her early music. In some cases, at least her first two albums, I probably have never played as an adult! I decided I would listen to all her albums in chronological order, starting from the beginning. I'...