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I am listening to the Joni Mitchell album Blue for the first time ever right now.

This album is a revelation.

I feel like I am on a road trip across the U.S.A. listening to it.

Wow!

-Sean
http://www.livejournal.com/users/passthrufire

I've owned this album for some time and have only just got round to listening to it recently. It's wonderful. My Old Man is such an amazing song. Her melodies, phrasing, chord changes are so clever.

You're going to be a Millenium Hippie yet, Sean . I don't have that particular album of Joni's, but I have a number of others ~ and love her singing and style. Have you ever listened to Laura Nyro? Dory Previn? Much of Carly Simon? Yes, Joni Mitchell is awesome .

She issued a compilation album of previously released socially conscious songs in July called "The Beginning of Survival" and is issuing more re-releases in September called "Dreamland." But neo-hippies would probably be interested in her earlier work where she tells of her relationship with the Leonard Cohen among others, e.g. "Rainy Night House" from Ladies of the Canyon. Try to see the VHS documentary about her " Woman of Heart and Mind."

Joni Mitchell's "Blue" album is wonderful, yet her previous (first?) album contains one of the best, and most-covered tracks....."Both Sides Now".
Judy Collins had a hit with it, and there's a link with Leonard Cohen!
Who got him up on stage for his first concert? Who had already recorded "Suzanne"? Judy Collins.
They were, and remain, Canadian.
Andrew.

YaaaY, Canada ~ the Lady of the Connected Lands . Canada has always had an air of gentility about it .

yes. neil young is from canada. hahaha.

sorry... that last post was mine... it didn't log me in when i entered it.

Joni's next album, Court and Spark, was her greatest commercial success. Blue, to my ears, is her quintessential album

I wish I had a river, I could skate away on...

Thanks for all the responses!

Lizzy, I definitely have hippie blood in me... From where, I haven't a damn clue! Hahaha, I have not listened to the others you listed, but in time I will.

Anyone here heard Joni Mitchell's album "Travelogue"? So good!

Thanks,
Sean
http://www.livejournal.com/users/passthrufire

Blue was the first Joni Mitchell album I ever heard, which may be why I still think it's her best, but I also like her other four early albums, and Turbulent Indigo - especially 'The Magdalen Laundries'.

My favourite Joni Mitchell album remains Mingus.

For those of you who enjoy Marianne Faithful's Vagabond Ways - try this lady - Patti Wicks Love Locked Out.

http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.a ... m=lk_jzmtz

Andrew, Link with Leonard - Joni and L were living (and involved) together for some time in late 60s. There's her song "Rainy Day House" in which she sings about visit to LC's house in Montreal while his mother was out of town (she even mentioned "his father's gun")... Also, I read that they never lost connection til today.
By the way, she introduced LC to her enginner Henry Lewy in 1979 and to the band Passenger, so she had her fingers in Recent Songs also.
I think there's very recent Joni's painting of Loenard somewhere on The Files.,in her manner of painting you probably all knw from the covers of her albums.

I like the new versions of her songs better, on Travelogue.
tom.

Hi Jo ~

I've just read the Biography on Patti that you gave me the link for. What an interesting musical history, eh? Incredible comments from the Washington Post. I can't listen yet. I see she's now based in South Florida. I may actually be able to hear her in person at some point . Her albums sounds great!

~ Lizzy

I reckon a pretty strong case could be made for Mitchell's 'Amelia' being amongst the finest lyrics ever penned. The song as a whole can't be given enough praise. Hearing it again recently made me realise how I need to catch up with her back catalogue:

____________________________________________________

I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines
Is a song so wild and blue
It scrambles time and seasons if it gets thru to you
Then your life becomes a travelogue
Of picture-post-card-charms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

People will tell you where they’ve gone
They’ll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other’s just come to harm
Oh amelia, it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight
It’s so hard to obey
His sad request of me to kindly stay away
So this is how I hide the hurt
As the road leads cursed and charmed
I tell amelia, it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation
She was swallowed by the sky
Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly
Like icarus ascending
On beautiful foolish arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

Maybe I’ve never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I’ve spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
And looking down on everything
I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the cactus tree motel
To shower off the dust
And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
I dreamed of 747s
Over geometric farms
Dreams, amelia, dreams and false alarms