5 JEWELS FROM JONI MITCHELL

A brief look back in my own words...

"Clouds" was Joni's second recording in 1968. She uses only a guitar to accompany herself, but it is interesting how she uses the guitar with remarkable expressiveness that is subtle to the ear. In 2009, Joni collaborated with the Alberta (Canada) Ballet in a piece called "The Fiddle and the Drum". I haven't seen the production yet. The original song appears on this album as a protest to the Vietnam War with a metaphorical reference to a bitter friend. In what came to mark her recordings, romantic vulnerability and uncertainty is present in the striking and unforgettable "I Don't Know Where I Stand". It is impossible for me to even consider anyone else attempting to cover this song. A stint at West Virginia University brought forth "Chelsea Morning" and the classic "Both Sides Now"--written when Joni was just 21 years old. It is in this album that a more strident singer emerges with subtle and sweet harmonies and another characteristic I still find compelling--her use of impressionism in the same manner that a painter handles this period with oils and paintbrushes. In what has become a welcomed pattern, Joni painted her self portrait that became the album cover. Yes, I have also enjoyed "Michael from Mountains", and frequently used this song title to encourage people not to call me "Mike"--which I dislike tremendously. It's "Michael", as in "Michael from Mountains".

Autobiographical and a Classic

Blue is the fourth album from Joni Mitchell that was released way back in the summer of 1971. And yet, this is the seminal album that has influenced modern day musical artists like Jewel Kilcher and Aimee Mann, among others. One of the amazing aspects of this CD for me is that 38 years later, it is considered the most important female singer/songwriter album in the history of music. "Blue" charted on the Billboard Top 20 where it stayed for 28 weeks! Simply stated, it is a creation of pure genius that I can only suspect became evident on some level during the writing and recording sessions. This CD is an Opus of the soul with 10 unforgettable songs that are complex, emotionally open and bold. "All I Want" opens the song list with a light dusting of a guitar and dulcimer. Joni's vocals and strong lyrics that hit the ground running: "I want to have fun/ I want to shine like the sun/ I want to be the one that you want to see/ I want to knit you a sweater/ want to write you a love letter/ I want to make you feel better/ I want to make you feel free". There is the gentleness and heartbreak of "Little Green", a song about a child put up for adoption--Mitchell's real-life daughter to "This Flight Tonight": a fast rocker about how she shouldn't have boarded a flight. This resembles for me a frenetic song that is a metaphor for a turbulent relationship heading for disaster. Then comes the masterpiece, "River" which paints the Christmas Holiday atmosphere as a backdrop against emotional underpinnings the singer wishes she could escape by skating away on a frozen river. "A Case Of You" is one of Joni's most beloved songs about the intoxication of new love. The CD closes with the last conversation had with a lover that becomes the Finale--signaling the death of the relationship in "The Last Time I Saw Richard". The song finishes with Joni's heart and voice both clearly breaking. I have shared this before, but it bears repeating. Singer/songwriter Kris Kristofferson is said to have told Mitchell after hearing this album, "For God's sakes Joan, hold back a little"! There has never been--to my knowledge--a more vulnerable or better crafted CD that is as balanced or deserving of praise than this CD. I highly recommend it to new Joni Mitchell fans.

This album cover grabbed me (and never let go)

Sandwiched between "Blue" and the FM Radio staple, "Court and Spark" is an expansive and beautifully evocative work, "For the Roses". More electric guitar is applied here from legendary session guitarist James Burton to Stephen Stills. It is Stills, by the way, who lays down a bluesy tapestry reminiscent of an obtuse lover whose identity remains in the shadows while his music is stark and familiar in "Blonde in the Bleachers". This is for me--a song about a woman who tries in vain to love a musician who is always in motion. "You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio" is a memorable and always in-demand concert song that makes ample use of Mitchell's lovely multi-octave soprano. "If you're lying on the beach with the transistor going/ Kick off the sand flies honey, the loves still flowing/ If your head says forget it/ But your heart's still smoking/ Call me at the station/ The lines are open". "Woman of Heart and Mind" challenges a materialistic lover with some sharp words about superficial crap devoid of meaning, while "Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune)" is an ode to Beethoven. This complex composition requires several plays for the listener to fully appreciate it. I have a memory of a neighborhood musician in my native Ohio (who resembled a bearded and bespectacled John Lennon) running up to a few of us with excitement, "Have you heard Joni Mitchell's new record? 'For the Roses'!" Exactly.

An old flame introduced me to Joni Mitchell's music with "Court and Spark". For me, this album was bold, vibrant and filled with a longing to live life as much as it served notice that Jazz was Mitchell's new direction. It is of course her most commercially regarded album with the FM Radio staples "Help Me", "Free Man in Paris", and the rocker "Raised On Robbery". On this outing, Joni brings in Tom Scott and The L.A. Express, a jazz/rock band with an ample horn section that cooks. David Crosby, Graham Nash, Robbie Robertson, Jose Feliciano, and even Cheech & Chong appear on this album! At the heart of this spirited effort is an "up close and personal" exploration of Mitchell's thoughts and feelings about herself, her close friends, relationships and the world at large. It always felt to me that she pressed down harder on melodies and acoustic guitar arrangements wed to strings, horns, and piano work that steps out of her previous efforts with "Blue" and "For the Roses" with a sense of hope "hitting on all cylinders". This was the essential album of the 1970's that rocked, caressed and even took in a laugh with her rendition of "Twisted". A terrific studio album, Joni toured it in 1974 with a double live album called, "Miles of Aisles". Fans would have to wait for the video "Shadows and Light" for a live concert this energetic. However, by then her music evolved even closer to jazz and blues, with newer concert staples.


Rolling Stone magazine's pick as No. 11 of Best Album Covers of All Time

We'll end with an album inspired by a car trip by Joni from Maine to California. After nine years of releasing critically acclaimed albums of the rock era, Joni Mitchell was one of the most prolific female singers in the world when this LP debuted in 1976. Her popularity may have peaked with the release of her hit album "Court And Spark" 24 months earlier. But with each subsequent release, the lonely folk artist was gradually transitioning towards modern Jazz. This album cover jacket--shot in Black & White--opens with "Coyote," a driving guitar melody about "the journey", hence the album's Arabic title-a veiled theme with plenty of subjects built around it. Central to life is the struggle Mitchell notes between the temptation towards marriage tempered by the feeling that a career takes as much dedication. There is no conclusion, and no real happy ending. In fact, it took me years before I discovered the beautiful and haunting "Amelia" to be a song based around the American airplane pilot Amelia Earhart, whose flight in the Pacific mysteriously vanished in July, 1937. Joni sings about "seeing six jet planes leaving vapor trails across the bleak terrain" as she drives "down the burning desert". The psychological impact of both the stunning imagery and raw guitar work captivates the listener. "And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust. I dreamed of 747's, over geometric farms. Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms." This song was one I had initially interpreted strictly as involving romantic disappointment. And some of that may be true. But there is so much more here. The album shook the music world at it's release with mixed feedback from those who yearned for Joni's pure folk music period, while others frowned on the blues-laced Jazz influences Joni employed with bassist Jaco Pastorius and sax player Wayne Shorter of the fusion band, Weather Report". "Blue Hotel Room" and "Refuge of the Road", indeed, this entire album project represented for me what "Exile On Main Street" was for The Rolling Stones. A wonderful recording that is tranquil and leads the listener to question their mortality with evocative impressionism and complex chord structures that lend an ethereal quality to a very rich portfolio of recordings. In fact, I ordered a copy of "Shine" (previously mentioned in a recent Blog) and yes, "Hejira". It's one thing to have the vinyl LP, but it's also nice to have the CD for longer car trips. See you tomorrow!