Joni Mitchell
Part 1 - Seagulls to Sparks
Look up Joni Mitchell in the encyclopedia of ready-made rock cliches, and you'll find 'the female Bob Dylan', or 'Canada's Joan Baez', but neither of those labels, or any of the hundreds of others which have been applied to this most individual of singer-songwriters can ever capture her essence. Her musical career has been a journey from fragile-seeming folk singer to matriarch of a clan of - mostly female - artists from Prince to Eva Cassidy.
By the time of her first recording contract, Mitchell had already left her homeland, given up a child for adoption, and been married and divorced. The easy comparison at this period is with Carole King, who was churning out hit after hit with her husband Gerry Goffin, but King was a songwriter first and a performer second; Mitchell honed her craft in folk clubs and bars throughout North America. She had an extraordinary vocal range honed by years on the folk circuit, and an eccentric and unique approach to guitar tunings, and Joni Mitchell songs of the late sixties stand out from the plethora of female singer-songwriters at the time because they sound like nothing else.
However, her first hit song was recorded by someone else. Mitchell had been dscovered by David Crosby, and he introduced her songs to his musical contacts. As a result, Urge For Going was a hit for George Hamilton IV before Mitchell had had the opportunity to record it herself. Its only outing on CD is on a late career compilation, but it is a poignant and beautiful song, well worth tracking down.
The first album, 'Songs for a Seagull' was recorded in 1968. Already 25, Mitchell was crafting songs of elegance and style, although the early albums do not have the diversity of the mid-period ones. The songs on 'Seagull' are straightforward solo guitar and voice arrangements, and Mitchell's folk background is clearly in evidence. These songs may not have the familiarity of the ones on her other albums, but Nathan La Franeer and Pirates of Penance are worth investigation.
The following year, Mitchell released 'Clouds', which, had she not recorded anything else, would have still been a landmark album of its time and style. From the opening notes of 'Tin Angel', the listener is in accomplished hands. Although there is still really only Joni's voice and guitar, this is a more mature and striking set of songs, particularly Chelsea Morning, and Both Sides Now, both covered relentlessly ever since (and the former responsible for the name of a former First Daughter.) Of the less well-known songs, Songs for Aging Children Come, in which Mitchell harmonises with herself, is a standout.
'Ladies of the Canyon' marks the beginning of Mitchell's movement away from simple, sparse folk songs. Renowned for its killer closing trio of Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock (Mitchell, of course, famously never made it to Woodstock, but she wrote its anthem nevertheless), and The Circle Game , this set of songs, featuring more instumentation than previously, contains many hidden gems such as For Free , the first stirring of her unease at her celebrity.
Her fourth set of songs in four years is the highlight of this early style. 'Blue' is a cohesive album of love, loss and longing, spare in its instrumentation, but powerful nonetheless. It is almost impossible to pick highlights from it, but Little Green , about her adopted daughter, and River , a wistful longing for lost love and her homeland give a good indication of what 'Blue' is all about. This Flight Tonight was subsequently thrashed to within an inch of its life by Dunfermline pub-rockers Nazareth; Mitchell's own version is perhaps a little more subtle and ambiguous. Set closer The Last Time I Saw Richard is a simply stunning piece of poetry - if you're ever going to make Bob Dylan comparisons, this would be why.
'Blue' was an almost impossible act to follow, and 'For The Roses'' reputation suffers as a result. It is an often overlooked pointer to everything which was to follow; 'Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire' is a radical departure, with its jazz inflections, and its portrait of heroin addiction is a long way from the intimate songs on 'Blue'. You Turn Me on, I'm a Radio was Mitchell's first big US hit ('Big Yellow Taxi' only reached the charts in a re-released live version), although it was written as a response to record company pressure for a radio-friendly song. Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune) is closer to the style of 'Blue', but Mitchell is ready to move on. The song 'For The Roses' is her temporary leave-taking - she was to take a year off, and then return with a whole new approach to her music.
She returned with 'Court and Spark', her most commercially successful release. The title track, opening proceedings, at first gives few clues to what is coming; featuring Mitchell's voice and piano, as so many of her previous songs had done. After the first stanza, however, the piano is joined by electric guitars, bass, electronic keyboards and drums, and from here on, there's no looking back. The result is jazz-tinged, but still rooted in the folk structures which made her name. Help Me , and Free Man in Paris were hit singles, and changed the public perception of Mitchell. No longer the blonde waif behind her guitar, here is a mature and accomplished bandleader getting the best out of a large cast of accomplices, amy of them household names in their own right. The closing track, Twisted not only features Cheech and Chong and possibly the only recorded spoken instance of the word 'doop-shooby', but gives the clearest sign yet of the direction Mitchell's thoughts were turning - she had got the jazz bug.
Effectively rounding off this part of her career is a sumptuous live album, 'Miles of Aisles', on which many of the early songs are given a reworking with a full live band.
Absolute beginners:
Hits - contains all the best
known early-seventies songs, as well as a handful of later songs.