All I Want

From the beginning on Joni makes it clear that she is a woman who is going her own way. Already in the upbeat starter All I Want (what a revealing title) Joni sings about the two themes which have been dominant through most of her (early) records. Independence and love. She travels to find herself and falls in love to lose herself in the other. And vice versa. Most of her songs are about the difficult task to reconcile these two opposing movements.

My Old Man

A sweet love song praising her lover in tender words. This is a piano ballad encapsulating the melancholic mood of Blue. It is quite telling that her strongest and most impressive images in this song describe separation.

Little Green

One of the most touching songs on the album. It is the only one which Joni composed long before Blue in 1967. She sings about the daughter she had when still very young whom she didn’t raise herself. There was a happy-end when both met a couple of years ago via the internet. Joni found out that she was a grand-mother.

Carey

Not my favourite song on Blue. Joni has got this high-pitch girl’s voice like on earlier records. When she reaches the high notes to my ears her singing is almost unbearable. The song is an account of a trip to Europe. She even has been to the famous Matala beach at the South coast of Crete where the hippies lived in a commune in the caves at the end of the 60’s.

Blue

The way she stretches the one syllable of the word blue probably is my favourite moment on the record: "Bloo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo". Really stressing the dark primal undertone of the vowel "u". The blues deep inside her emerges at the surface and the feeling is extended to a maximum time length. At the same time I also get the impression that Joni is expelling the mean bad spirits here.

California

Immediately after the sombre Blue we have the bright and sunny California. What a great contrast. Joni is still traveling around Europe (Is she the mother of Rumsfeld's infamous "old Europe" remark?). But she is kind of homesick and dreams about coming back to her adopted home, the warm and easy-going California. Amazing how her enthusiasm about something far away can catalyse such a light groovy song.

This Flight Tonight

This song I first heard in the version of 70’s rockers Nazareth. Another upbeat tune which is quite untypical for Joni as it is rather hard-rocking. I somehow never really warmed up to this one. The lyrics are great as usual and speak of a flight which disconnects her physically from her lover but inspires her to think of him and to come close to him in mind.

River

"The river to skate away on" is a typical image for Joni. As a Canadian she obviously skated a lot in her youth. The frozen river is like a road. A means to escape from lovesickness. On the other hand Joni is very honest and realistic here. She knows that she is not easy. Looking at her statements in interviews in the last couple of years where she is often extremely full of herself only confirms her difficult character. Music wise this ballad is at the border of schmaltz. I have difficulties appreciating it these days but that’s maybe because I have listened to it too many times.

A Case of You

One of the best songs of all time. A simple tune with a chorus which still knocks me down. The mystery of love condensed into four lines. Just a sip of this musical magic potion makes me dizzy. On the Woman of Heart and Mind dvd Joni performs the song on dulcimer. It sounds like an old Appalachian folk tune sung by an innocent and untouchable fairy queen.

The Last Time I Saw Richard

This has always been my song on Blue. During my first year of English in the 5th class every pupil had to choose an English surname by which he/she was called in the English lessons. I chose Richard. But that is just a footnote. The disillusioning story of a dreamer called Richard Joni sings about here has always impressed me because of its psychological realism. Do I have to mention that I saw certain parallels to my student life and that this song seemed like a prophecy of my future?

Further reading:

• AMG review
• 44 Rate Your Music reviews
• Joni Mitchell discussion list (most comprehensive Joni resource around)
• Joni Mitchell portal page with lots of links by Jorn Barger

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XIII was this post.

Sich einmal nur mit ihr betrinken und sie dann nie mehr wiedersehen.

1970, what a phantastic year in music.

August: The last official Velvet Underground album Loaded which treads similar country-rock grounds as my choice from

September: Neil Young's third long play, After the Gold Rush.

October: Robert Wyatt's almost overlooked debut The End of an Ear. Crazy experimental free-style jazz rock. Much more exciting than anything I have ever heard of Soft Machine. Maybe his best album.

December: Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon's primal scream therapy to cope with his parents' trauma. And Captain Beefheart's delta blues meets avant-garde record Lick My Decals Off, Baby which is a lot easier to digest than his previous outing, the mythic Trout Mask Replica.

Why did I choose the rather conventional Neil Young album? The main reason is that I have a personal relation to it which I don't have to the others. It was the record which comforted me after my first girl-friend had left me. I was disappointed in the beginning as it seemed so average but at the same time I discovered Neil Young. Whose feeble womanish voice I had detested before. Who taught me to never trust my first impression. And gave me back my belief in the power of innocence, the incredible strength of showing your own vulnerability to the world.

35 minutes and 15 seconds. A perfect length for an album. Every song a hitter. The whole Neil Young is here in a nutshell.

The definite statement on the flower-power thing of the sixties. The gold rush is over. The rednecks are still there. Southern Man as a precursor of the godly Cortez the Killer. The American dream is based on a nightmare. "Tell me lies later." Forget politics. It all comes back to

Only Love Can Break Your Heart. The 90's band Saint Etienne had one good song, a cover of this.

To finish this embarrassing post off. A link to the gorgeous starter Tell Me Why. By the way the last song Cripple Creek Ferry closes this gem of a songwriter album like a cheese closes a great meal. It lingers on for a good while in your eardrums.

Further reading: a discussion on the meaning of the lyrics of the title song.

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XII was this post.

werden maßlos überschätzt. Man sollte vielmehr ein Buch über erste Zigaretten schreiben. Die allererste ohne und mit Lungenzug, die erste am Morgen, die erste nach dem Sex, die erste nach dem Sport, die erste nach 24 Stunden, nach einer Woche, einem Monat etc. Das sind intensive Geschmacksempfindungen und Kicks. Wenn man innehält und für eine Zigarettenlänge die Zeit stillsteht. Inspiriert durch diese Besprechung von Cristina Peri Rossis Die Zigarette, die so anfängt:

Frage am Rande an die Handvoll deutschsprachiger Leser meiner Ergüsse: Hat jemand Zenos Gewissen von Italo Svevo gelesen und kann mir sagen, ob es sich lohnt?

Harold Budd - Epitonic.com:

His last album is Avalon Sutra (bbc, stylus reviews). I only got into Budd this year (The Plateaux of Mirror) and then he stops making music. Bad luck. There are one minute samples of all 14 tracks of the new album over here (click on "Catalogue" and then "Harold Budd Avalon Sutra"). I love this kind of daydreaming music. Apparently the CD can be ordered online here (the German Amazon hasn't got it).

1991 was the year I seriously got into indie rock. There are at least 65 releases (almost all are albums) of that year in my discotheque. Before starting the poll I was pretty sure to choose My Blood Valentine's noise pop classic Loveless as my fave. On Friday I relistened to it and there were exactly two tracks which stood the test of time: When You Sleep and the closer Soon. The rest was totally forgettable badly aged hoover in reverse gear experimentalism. Groundbreaking in 1991 but sucking big time in retrospect today. The next contender for number one were The Field Mice. I was rather close to go for their version of very personal romantic indie pop with gorgeous melodies and grooves but their album from 1991 Coastal (all songs being on their later sampler Where'd You learn to Kiss That Way which featured in the poll) has some tracks with drum-machine (that's a definite no-no concerning the music I appreciate) in it and is not as consistent as the album I finally chose:

The Smashing Pumpkins (and Butch Vig's as a producer) debut Gish. An album of an almost frightening intensity and coherence which somehow got both overshadowed by Butch Vig's next slicker production, i.e. Nirvana's Nevermind and the subsequent releases of the Pumpkins. Of which only the double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was noteworthy.

Gish is the only heavy metal album which ever did anything for me. If it is a heavy metal album. It is a very eclectic work also integrating psychedelics, goth and some of the most mesmerising drumming I have ever heard. Jimmy Chamberlin, the oldest member of the band (born 1964) who arrived latest and got kicked out later for his heroine addiction came from jazz. Corgan's father was a jazz guitarist. Maybe these jazz roots make the difference. I really don't know. All I know is that this album is extremely varied and timeless.

The coherence is two fold. There is a coherence of the album (an unmatched flow of indispensable songs) and a coherence of the band. The interplay of shaman drums, lead playing bass and distorting guitars is absolutely somnambulistic. Everything is extremely tight and fluid at the same time. Even Corgan's voice which can grate fits in perfectly.

I used to listen to this album on headphones after a night out. Going on a mind trip after the real life trip. Impossible to put into words like most of these kind of trips. Maybe the lyrics of Crush can give an idea of this experience:

Refreshing like a hot hyper-sweet peppermint tea served from a Moroccan tin tea kettle in the sahara.

The taster is Rhinoceros (lyrics) which starts slowly but soon turns into a guitar feedback drenched orgy.

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XI was this post.