Joni Mitchell - Blue

Joni Mitchell would go on from this '71 recording to make more popular, more ambitious, and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian thrush summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it's also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as "All I Want," "Carey," "California," and "A Case of You" work equally well as poetry and pop music. --Steve Stolder Amazon.com essential recording

The best Joni has ever done

This album is so indicative of the hippie genre and how we lived it. Joni has captured that era in her songs "Little Green" and "My Old Man". All the songs on this collection are awesome and they will stay in your head and on your "pod" for time immemorial. I love this music for the memories and the good feelings it creates now. June 20, 2008

'Blue, songs are like tattoos.'

"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."--Joni Mitchell

Blue ranks among my three favorite Joni Mitchell albums (the other two being Court and Spark and Hejira), and it is one of Joni Mitchell's best albums. It was an instant success both critically and commercially upon its 1971 release. Mitchell wrote most of the beautiful blue songs on the album while travelling in Europe, infusing her definitive folk-rock sound with intimately poetic, confessional lyrics. Blue features a perfect arrangement of meticulously-crafted songs and Mitchell classics ("Carey," "A Case of You," and "California"). The album features an impressive list of backing musicians: Stephen Stills on bass and guitar, James Taylor on guitar, and Russ Kunkel on drums. The complete album tracklist includes:

1. All I Want 3:34
2. My Old Man 3:34
3. Little Green 3:27
4. Carey 3:02
5. Blue 3:05
6. California 3:50
7. This Flight Tonight 2:52
8. River 4:05
9. A Case Of You 4:25
10. The Last Time I Saw Richard 4:16

G. Merritt June 17, 2008

Songs to Aging Children

I recently viewed the American Masters documentary on Joni Mitchell during a time when I had been re-reading Norman Mailer's Marilyn- his take on the life of the legendary screen star Marilyn Monroe. And although there is no obvious connection between the lives or the talents of the two women there is a tale of two generations hidden here. Marilyn represented for my parent's generation, the generation that survived the Great Depression and fought World War II, the epitome of blond glamour, sex and talent. To my more `sedate' generation blond-haired Joni represented the introspective, searching, quiet beauty that we sought to represent our longings for understanding in a seemingly baffling world that we had not made. As this documentary and Mailer's book point out however they `represented' our fantasies they also shared a common vulnerability- attempting to be independent women in worlds dominated by men. Such is the life of the great creative talents.

Now to the work- this album of work only brings out the truth of what I tried to express above. In such songs as her homage to her place of birth Canada (and to her adopted home California), the songs of trials and tribulation of dealing with fame, men (in and out of love, think about My Old Man and The Last Time I Saw Richard) and the expressions of her political beliefs (as she rides on th eplane to somewhere) she sings her heart out, so, so sweetly we forget how powerful a voice she has. No barrelhouse singer here and for the material presented none is necessary. That is the true virtue of her value as a singer/songwriter. Blue is just a notch below Ladies of the Canyon in the pantheon of her best music but that just places it in very nice company. Sing on.
June 10, 2008

Joni's Best

I LOVE this c.d. It's her best in my opinion. Tracks 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 9 are my favorite! ...And thats most of the cd! :) May 23, 2008

Blue

Joni Mitchell-Blue *****

Joni is an acquired taste, their is no way around it. But with her being an acquired taste how is then that she is essential. It's a head scratcher. But the fact is, some people cannot stand the lady's voice, which is sad because it truly is a beautiful and unique voice. But the truth is people either hate it or love, there is no middle ground. But this, her 1971 masterpiece Blue, is easily one of the greatest and most important albums of all time. Along side Carole King's Tapestry are the two single greatest singer/songwriter albums of all time. While James Taylor and Stephen Stills may have lent hands to some of the material Blue is mainly a lonely melancholy album both literally and figuratively.

This may be the greatest break-up album of all time. Songs like 'California' 'Carey' and 'This Flight Tonight' show a vulnerability of Joni that we never saw before and that she would never come close to again. She was quoted as saying when she recorded and wrote this album she felt as transparent as cellophane, for the whole world to see everything, and that really comes across in the music. Even her wonderfully underrated guitar playing sounds tortured.

Yes Joni would go on to make more ambitious albums, and albums that would sell far more copies then Blue, but the simple fact is that as a whole, Joni would never, ever make another album that would even come close to the power of Blue. Essential April 9, 2008

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