Joni Mitchell : Blue (Album) Song by Song Thread

Haven't done one of these in awhile!

Blue (Joni Mitchell album)



From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Blue
Studio album by Joni Mitchell
Released June 1971
Recorded 1971
A&M Studios, Hollywood
Genre Folk-rock
Length 35:41
Label Reprise
MS 2038
Producer Joni Mitchell

Blue (1971) is the fourth album of Canadian-born singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer. Blue was a critical and commercial success, reaching #15 in the Billboard Album charts and #3 in the UK. The single "Carey" reached #93 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

History

After the success of her first three albums and songs like "Woodstock", Mitchell decided in 1970 to take a break from performing. While traveling around Europe she wrote many of the songs that appear on Blue.

The album was almost released in a somewhat different form. In March 1971, completed masters for the album were ready for production. Originally, there were three old songs that had not found their way on to any of her previous albums. At the last minute, Mitchell decided to remove two of the three so that she could add the new songs "All I Want" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard". "Urge for Going", her first song to achieve commercial success when recorded by country singer George Hamilton IV, was removed. (It was later released as the B-side of "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" and again on her 1996 compilation album, Hits.) Also removed was "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)", which has yet to appear on any official record. "Little Green", composed in 1967, was the only old song that remained.

There has been persistent speculation that the album, and particularly the title track, were named after fellow songwriter David Blue,[1] who was a friend and possibly love interest of Mitchell's when the album was released. She has denied the connection.

In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either."[2]

The album was influenced by jazz, particularly the music of Miles Davis. Mitchell used alternative tunings on her guitar to allow easier access to augmented chords and notes in unexpected combinations.[3]

Honours

* In 2003, Blue was ranked #30 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the '500 Greatest Albums of All Time'[4]
* In 2000, Blue won the top spot in Chart's '50 Greatest Canadian Albums of All Time' (Blue was third place in 1996 and 2005)
* In 2007, Blue was ranked second in Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums, behind Neil Young's Harvest (which was the second-place finisher in all three Chart polls)
* In 2001, Blue was ranked #14 on VH1's list of the '100 Greatest Albums of All Time', the highest album by a female artist to appear on the list.[5]
* Blue was also voted #13 on Hotpress Magazine's 'Top 100 Albums Ever', by various other artists
* In 2002, Q Magazine named "Blue" the 8th Greatest Album of All-Time by a Female Artist.[6]
* Blue was voted #66 in Channel 4's countdown of the '100 Greatest Albums'
* In 2006, Blue was listed among Time Magazine's 'All-Time 100 Albums' [7]
* In 1999, Blue was given the honor of a Grammy Hall of Fame award, which is given to recordings that are at least 25 years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"
* In 2004, Pitchfork Media ranked the album #86 on its list "Top 100 Albums of the 1970s".

Track listing

All tracks composed and arranged by Joni Mitchell

1. "All I Want" – 3:32
2. "My Old Man" – 3:33
3. "Little Green" – 3:25
4. "Carey" – 3:00
5. "Blue" – 3:00
6. "California" – 3:48
7. "This Flight Tonight" – 2:50
8. "River" – 4:00
9. "A Case of You" – 4:20
10. "The Last Time I Saw Richard" – 4:13

Personnel

* Joni Mitchell - Appalachian dulcimer, guitar, piano, vocals
* Stephen Stills - Bass and guitar on "Carey"
* James Taylor - Guitar on "California", "All I Want", "A Case of You"
* Sneaky Pete Kleinow - Pedal steel on "California", "This Flight Tonight"
* Russ Kunkel - Drums on "California", "Carey", "A Case of You"

Production

* Engineer - Henry Lewy
* Art Direction - Gary Burden
* Cover Photography - Tim Considine

 

Great pick for a song by song thread, it is one of my most played albums, not least because I use the DCC as one of my reference discs (usually tracks #6 & #9).

 

Thank you! Now, some of you folks feel like I go to fast on these Song by Song threads, so on this one I'm going to see what happens if we go ultra slow, and only cover one song per week. Now let's remember the rules, no jumping ahead, only talk about songs that I've posted the lyrics for. For now, until I post the first song, you can talk about general feelings and remembrances about the album.

 

Joni Just Blue By You...

Great idea Doctor P. and I love doing JONI nice and slow, no use rushing perfection. I look forward to bening able to wallow in each of these terriific tunes for a whole week!



Regarding this paragraph/history:

"The album was almost released in a somewhat different form. In March 1971, completed masters for the album were ready for production. Originally, there were three old songs that had not found their way on to any of her previous albums. At the last minute, Mitchell decided to remove two of the three so that she could add the new songs "All I Want" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard". "Urge for Going", her first song to achieve commercial success when recorded by country singer George Hamilton IV, was removed. (It was later released as the B-side of "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" and again on her 1996 compilation album, Hits.) Also removed was "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)", which has yet to appear on any official record. "Little Green", composed in 1967, was the only old song that remained."

This aspect of BLUE's gestation/progression has always filled me with awe. I've heard The Hunter, a very good song. But, I think, ultimately, and as much as I love Urge For Going, she made it a stronger record with the change, although, now, classic that it is, how could we imagine it any other way than the perfect album it is? Also, note that the two tracks Joni added at the last minute became the first and last tracks on the record. Somewhere around these parts I saw a rare test pressing label pix which showed the original track listing and running order, anyone seen that, got a pix to share?



Time to break out the many lovely shades of BLUE!

 

I missed out on this album first time round and only came to it after the 'Court & Spar'. Hissing of Summer Lawns' and 'Hejira' trilogy and I really didn't warm ot it at first, other than the song 'Carey'.

However... this album has been a really slow burner and I have come to really like it but ... it's not what I automatically turn to if I want to listen to some Joni - that's usually one of the three above.

Best Wishes
David

 

Wow! TMI! Didn't even know that you two knew each other.

 

Blue will always have a special place in my heart. I can still remember picking up both Blue and Court and Spark at a swap meet for 25 cents each. They were in near mint condition. I knew Joni Mitchell's name and the song "Help Me," but that was about it. After spinning them once each, I became a lifelong fan.

 

too much sugar in your system... DP

Woah nellie, get your mind out of the gutter, you KNOW I did not mean knowing her in a biblical sins, I meant listening to her reckurs nice and slow, in repeated motions, honest judge... I could only wish to kiss her upon her hand one day.

 

Oh, my bad.

 

all I want fur chissy is my two fave jonis...

GOT YA!

So what song is first, when?

 

Aren't you the one who always says I move to fast?

 

All I Want
by Joni Mitchell

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be
Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me

I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive
Do you want - do you want - do you want to dance with me baby
Do you want to take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby
Well, come on

All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you
I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you
I want to renew you again and again
Applause, applause - Life is our cause
When I think of your kisses my mind see-saws
Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue.

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Looking for the key to set me free
Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
It's the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
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
I want to make you feel free


© 1970; Joni Mitchell

 

How strange, I just played this album before I even saw this thread.
I first heard this album back in 1983 when my tutor brought in about 30-40 albums for me to listen to. For well over 20 years, I had a cassette with this album on and finally upgraded this year. Such a gorgeous album.

 

Those A & M Studios where this was made was on the lot of what was originally the old Charlie Chaplin film studios, down there on Sunset & La Brea (in Los Angeles.)

 

One of the great opening lines ever on any album! It just sucks you right in! If you are in transition in your life, then you immediately feel that she is right there with you.

 

"All I Want" is really almost a pop song. It's a great opening number, yet doesn't give much hint for what comes next. I think Joni has written "All I Want" a number of times. Traveling is a theme she comes back to over and over.

It took six years for the relative innocence of:

"I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be"

to become:

"No regrets Coyote
I just get off up aways
You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway"

Both verses imply that Joni isn't necessarily in control of her travels. She is compelled to look for "something". Later, she is a prisoner.

Her second line in the song is something that probably makes sense to a lot of people:
"Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me"

Years later, she's given it all up. She celebrates her role in the exploits of the womanizer, and loses herself to drink.

"Now he's got a woman at home
He's got another woman down the hall
He seems to want me anyway
Why'd you have to get so drunk
And lead me on that way"

While Blue is generally a dark album, lines like "I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun" are optimistic and positive. This is the end of early Joni. Her aims weren't as pure in the future. She had become more complicated. Thus, "Coyote" is a riddle to many people, while "All I Want" is Joni singing to the masses. She's traveling for different reasons, and she's a different person, yet she is singing about the same basic thing - running away as a form of freedom and avoidance.

 

Oh man, you are the Chief there is no denying that! Tell it brother, tell it! you can grasp the very heart of the song, like I can, but you can explain it in clear and concise language that I can only hint at around the edges!

 

Wow, I was cogitating my response to the first track as I was scrolling through the thread. Then Chief totally nails it.

The opening track does a great job of foreshadowing the album as a whole. Joni starts easy with an accessible, fairly sunny song. No use completely depressing the listener when the needle first hits - there's plenty of time for that later. But there are moments in the song that allude to what is coming.

Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue.

Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
It's the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be

Those little bits are carefully woven into an otherwise optimistic love song. As the album progresses (bites tongue....follows the rules) she expands on these themes and provides much needed context.

And I totally agree with Chief that Joni introduces the idea of travel as a metaphor for soul searching. She perfects the metaphor with Hejira. On 'Blue' she uses it as a touchpoint along the way.

Lastly, I love the verse about wrecking her stockings in the jukebox dive. A quick listen to Cayote shows her perhaps getting what she asked for but not what she wanted.

 

Hey! Thanks for respecting the "rules," but you can compare and contrast to later tracks just don't overly analyze later tracks until we get their. Chief's use of lyrical comparison between two songs was brilliant and I don't want to skiffle anyone. Go for it.

 

I am just thrilled to be discussing Joni again. Since I missed the intro of the thread....

My exposure to Joni was 'Blue' in 1993. I was at a friend's house late one evening having one last drink and a pleasant smoke. Having moved to cd years earlier, I was intrigued by the fact that he still had lps. He had a bunch of them leaning against the front of his stereo cabinet and 'Blue' was facing out. I mentioned to him that I'd heard of it but never heard it. Rightly so, my friend looked at me as if I'd just transmogrified into another, less developed, life form!

So, we played the record. I don't know exactly what it was, the lyrics, the late hour, the smoke, but the album hit me immediately! Since then, I've listened to it hundreds of times - but I am still reminded of that first time. This is supposed to be a 'chick' record, but I think that it appeals to anyone who is confused by the natural forces at play around them. Simple things like love, relationships, ambitions become endlessly difficult once you try to attain them. Joni's lyrics on this album speak so eloquently to all of it.

I love this record so much that I bought a turntable and the other requisite analog items as soon as I heard that Steve had remastered it on vinyl.

Here's to my friend who helped my find another...

 

What an awesome album, huh? I think a large portion of the appeal of this album is that she really wears her heart on her sleeve. And I think everybody is able to share that same feeling...where an artist puts a feeling that you've had or are having into words so well. It's like the artist wrote exactly what you felt, and there's a respect there automatically. Such pretty songs and such a pretty voice. It's such an accurate snapshot of human emotion. "All I Want" was the first song I heard off of this album (as I'm sure it was for most people). It's definitely one of my favorites on the album. I love the way the guitar is played so stiff, especially at the end there. Great ideas throughout the entire album as well. Very pleasing.

 

I love Joni Mitchell threads, they really bring out insights into the human condition that we unfortunately don't talk enough about.

 

I missed out on a lot of Joni's music when it was new. I bought the first album and Ladies of the Canyon when they came out, but I didn't buy a copy of Blue until I got a turntable in the 1990s. Of course, I heard the songs in lots of apartments, dorm rooms, cars--usually the apartments, dorm rooms and cars of women I knew. Though I liked the two Joni albums I had, I guess I dismissed the rest as "chick" music.

I'll get back to you when I've listened to "All I Want" a little more.

 

Slight on topic slightly off... Blue Period...

Read this book at Barnes and Nobles this past summer:

Will You Take Me As I Am

by

Michell Mercer

It was interesting and shed some light on her Blue album and what followed, but, overall I found it a bit disappointing and way too author-centric. Still, it might be worth reading if you are a big fan of Joni and thus Blue.


http://books.simonandschuster.com/Will-You-Take-Me-As-I-Am/Michelle-Mercer/9781416559290

Description


Joni Mitchell is one of the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and her landmark 1971 album, Blue, is one of her most beloved and revered works. Generations of people have come of age listening to the album, inspired by the way it clarified their own difficult emotions. Critics and musicians admire the idiosyncratic virtuosity of its compositions. Will You Take Me As I Am -- the first book about Joni Mitchell to include original interviews with her -- looks at Blue to explore the development of an extraordinary artist, the history of songwriting, and much more.

In extensive conversations with Mitchell, Michelle Mercer heard firsthand about Joni's internal and external journeys as she composed the largely autobiographical albums of what Mercer calls her Blue Period, which lasted through the mid-1970s. Incorporating biography, memoir, reportage, criticism, and interviews into an illuminating narrative, Mercer moves beyond the "making of an album" genre to arrive at a new form of music writing.

In 1970, Mitchell was living with Graham Nash in Laurel Canyon and had made a name for herself as a so-called folk singer notable for her soaring voice and skillful compositions. Soon, though, feeling hemmed in, she fled to the hippie cave community of Matala, Greece. Here and on further travels, her compositions were freshly inspired by the lands and people she encountered as well as by her own radically changing interior landscape. After returning home to record Blue, Mitchell retreated to British Columbia, eventually reemerging as the leader of a successful jazz-rock group and turning outward in her songwriting toward social commentary. Finally, a stint with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and a pivotal meeting with the Tibetan lama ChÖgyam Trungpa prompted Mitchell's return to personal songwriting, which resulted in her 1976 masterpiece album, Hejira.

Mercer interlaces this fascinating account of Mitchell's Blue Period with meditations on topics related to her work, including the impact of landscape on music, the value of autobiographical songwriting for artist and listener, and the literary history of confessionalism. Mercer also provides rich analyses of Mitchell's creative achievements: her innovative manner of marrying lyrics to melody; her inventive, highly expressive chords that achieve her signature blend of wonder and melancholy; how she pioneered personal songwriting and, along with Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen, brought a new literacy to the popular song. Fans will appreciate the previously unpublished photos and a coda of Mitchell's unedited commentary on the places, books, music, pastimes, and philosophies she holds dear.

This utterly original book offers a unique portrait of a great musician and her remarkable work, as well as new perspectives on the art of songwriting itself.

 

I was first introduced to Joni Mitchell waiting for a girlfriend at the time to order her coffee at a starbucks. Case of You was playing overhead and I just listened to the lyrics...so beautiful and the lyrics were so great. She then got me "Blue" for christmas that year (only because I asked for it not because we were in tune musically).

All I want is a perfect opener for this album. Just cannot think of another song on this collection to open up this album. It puts you in your seat with the opening guitar riff and then blows your mind with the lyrics and style of writing...the poetry in the lyrics are wonderful.