Joni Mitchell - Ladies of the Canyon

Joni Mitchell's third album offers a bridge between the artful but sometimes dour meditations of her earlier work and the more mature, confessional revelations of the classics that would follow. Voice and guitar still hew to the pretty filigree of a folk poet, but there's the giggling rush of rock & roll freedom in "Big Yellow Taxi," and the formal metaphor of her older songs ("The Circle Game," already oft-covered by the time of this recording) yields to the more impressionistic images of the new ones ("Woodstock"). The dark lyricism of her earliest ballads is intact (on "For Free" and "Rainy Night House"), yet there's a prevailing idealism here that sounds poignant alongside the warier, more mature songs to come on Blue and Court And Spark. --Sam Sutherland Amazon.com

Songs to Aging Children- The Beginning

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. Start with the joyful pace of the title track (and great harmonics), the wistfulness of The Circle Game, the hopefulness of Woodstock, the love/ hate of The Priest, the sadness of The Apartment the yin and yang of Willie and on and on.

In such songs Joni is charting the trials and tribulation of dealing with fame, men and the expressions of her political beliefs 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. Ladies of the Canyon is at the top of the pantheon of her best music. A nice place, indeed, for us aging children to listen from. Sing on.
June 10, 2008

Back to college memories with the three J's!

As a college student in the late 60's I "grew up" with Joni and Judi and Joan. I don't think I would have appreciated these releases several decades ago as much as I do now! Get this, put it on your new fangled MP3 player, and let the memories flow!!! You CAN go back, well, sort of. February 13, 2008

My Favorite Joni Album

I love this album. Joni Mitchell was such a high-spirited sensitive optimistic gal at this point in her life. Too bad she ran into US. But she's still a great. For Free, Willy, Big Yellow Taxi & Woodstock are my favorites. This and Clouds are my favorite JM albums though I've only heard a couple others. February 9, 2008

Overrated album by an overrated artist with a specious vision of '60s counterculture in Los Angeles

In all fairness, I've made it a point over the years to listen to EVERY album that Joni Mitchell has released, comparing it to the work of whoever her current peers were at that time. After over 40 years, I can say in all honesty the following statements:

1. Her voice was/is AWFUL in all but the first two albums("Song To A Seagull", "Clouds")and it's gotten successively WORSE with each new release, thanks to age and misuse. Oh, and her smoking three packs of cigarettes a day didn't help either.

2. Her songs are lacking in humor, whimsy, charm and imagination by and large-starting from her third album on forward. A perfect example:have a listen to "Willy". If it DOESN'T make you gag then you'd better go straight to your doctor and have your gag reflex checked out! Poor Graham Nash! This song is SOOO BAD I can quite believe it just might have provided the impetus to END that love affair altogether!

Her songs therein are so self-indulgent, overly serious and limited in their scope of the world around us that I honestly can't imagine why ANYONE would consult Joni's musical vision in order to obtain an ACCURATE overview of a time period and the notable individuals therein.

This album in particular brings to full realization all of those artistic weak points of Joni's mentioned above. Her songs in this album are truly specious in their depictions of that highly creative and original time period of culture and music. Joni's associations with the many fascinating denizens of Topanga Canyon was severely LIMITED to
only the rich and priviledged elite, save for a walk down Venice's famed boadwalk to have a peek at it's street performers("For Free"). Her limited associations and experiences within that particular scene are all too evident in this album to anyone who truly WAS there and experienced it first-hand.

For folks who want a REAL, fully-realized vision and overview of that culture within "The Canyon" I suggest you check out the many fine albums of FRANK ZAPPA, and the excellent, highly underrated work of THE GTO's in particular. You can also get some truly inspiring and evocative
glimpses into that culture's TRUE visionaries by reading the poems of JIM MORRISON written at that time:they will truly ROCK YOUR WORLD!

To complete your experience of that time and culture, do check out
the groundbreaking work Jim was creating with THE DOORS, as well as the superlative body of work done by ARTHUR LEE & LOVE, and that of an
absolutely seminal singer/songwriter who-although lauded highly by industry insiders and virtually every notable Rock artist I have ever met-is virtually forgotten today by the general public:SEAN BONNIWELL.

As for folks who just want to put on an album of high-quality Folk and Folk-Rock music and be mesmerized by a female voice that really DOES
deliver the goods, take a tip I got from Bob Dylan:
Listen to JOAN BAEZ.

Here was a female Folk singer who actually DID reach a lofty height of technical and artistic SHEER BRILLIANCE in her performances that lesser singers like Mitchell and Collins only aimed for then and today. As the old saying goes:Accept no substitutes, demand the ORIGINAL & THE BEST! February 8, 2008

Her first great album

This is probably the prettiest record in Joni's repertoire. So even lesser songs like "Conversation" and "Morning Morgantown" (which gets by solely based on its prettiness - it's a lightweight song with a great melody!) sound good, unlike half of Clouds, which was just boring because none of the songs had melodies. And Joni's voice sounds excellent! I mean, sure, it always does. Not only do the songs have melodies, they actually have instruments besides acoustic guitar: "For Free" has a wicked cool clarinet solo, "Conversation" adds flute and a surprising tenor sax; "Morning Morgantown" has a piano. Some of this I'm still having trouble enjoying, though: "Willy", "Blue Boy" and the title track may be easy on the ears, but they're also both undistinguished fluff, while "The Priest" recalls some of Clouds' more boring moments. On the other hand, the darker fare is hard to beat ("Woodstock", which Crosby, Stills & Nash turned into an admittedly better hard rocker - still, I really like her electric piano and vocal version, especially her haunting upper-register vocals near the end; "The Arrangement", a chilling portrait of a hooker that forecasts Blue musically; "Rainy Night House"). This also contains one of Joni's best-known songs, "Big Yellow Taxi", a fast-paced environmentalist folk song with smart lyrics and a funny ending; as well as "The Circle Game", another well-known song that has intelligent verses and a thoroughly grating chorus. October 5, 2007

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