MY MOST LOVED ALBUMS - Blue by Joni Mitchell - 1971

 

Though released in 1971 I arrived late to the Joni Mitchell party, fifty years late in fact. Tail end of the sixties singer songwriters, well these were just not my bag in the seventies. It was all progressive or glam rock, or punk, post punk, or whatever music trend I was briefly affiliating myself with at the time. I would say the guiding star of Joni Mitchell's career, is that she rarely fully embodies the ethos or zeitgeist of any time or era. She wrote the song that encapsulated the spirit of Woodstock, a festival she was never to perform at.  Always doing entirely her own thing, continuing to write these idiosyncratic personal songs that stretched the envelope of how and what she could express or encompass. Pushing herself forward, when even her fans wanted her to stay put exactly where she'd just been, for a little while longer.

Always the first in many aspects, the first of her generation to coruscatingly bare her soul through her songwriting. The first woman of her generation to resolutely forge her own career path in music, beholden to no one. And then there is the purity and ever expanding reach of what that remarkable voice could express. As free as a bird, going wherever it felt was right, in whatever manner that was right. Her work continues to sound totally unique as a consequence. In terms of longer term cross generational impact there are few from her era to match or keep up with her. You underestimate the importance, life force and reach of Joni Mitchell's recorded work at your peril. 

Her first few albums were for whatever reason, the production or Joni still finding her feet as an artist, appeared to waver in their level of confidence and assuredness.  On Blue, finally everything comes together to create one perfectly heart rending album.  And boom she was right there, and never appears to lose total grasp of it. Listening to Blue, I'm amazed people were so taken aback and annoyed by Joni exploring Jazz quite so thoroughly later in her career. The inflections and scat are all in essence there on Blue, in the way she vocally skips and scampers across her lyrical landscapes.

Now I guess everyone who listens to Blue will be struck by different tracks for often quite disparate reasons. But I would be completely in love with any album, if it contained one love song as good as A Case of You.  'I can drink a case of you, and still be on my feet' she sings. Expressing both her intoxication with the lost love object, whilst also stating she's still upright and capable of being fully herself. She is not subsumed into submissiveness or contrition by her continuing desire for this persons love. Its complicated, and I guess that is why this still rings so true.