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Published: 2005
Category: Rock
In 1979, Joni Mitchell came to one of my parties. She was a pleasure to chat with --- I was not a fan, and so was not struck dumb by her unexpected appearance.
What? Not a fan? My Lord, Joni Mitchell was huge back then. Everybody listened to her! Everybody revered her!
No. "Everybody" didn't. Women did. All the women in my circle, anyway. They loved Mitchell's trilly voice, naked lyrics, insistence on independence, her secondary gift as a painter --- for them, Joni Mitchell was a role model.
Maybe I was threatened by such a gifted woman, by such a quicksilver spirit. Maybe I suspected that there was a place beyond wit and charm where honesty ran wild --- and that women who lived there were beyond me. What man would willingly look into a light that bright? Not many. Not me, anyway.
But you know how it goes. Life beats you up. And, eventually, the windtunnel of your experience knocks off the rough edges and the easy certainty. And then an album that "everyone" was listening to in 1971 makes its way to your ears --- 30 years late.
Not that the road to "Blue" was easy for Joni Mitchell. By 1970, she was weary of touring and recording and the life of the rising star. So she "retired," the better to write: "I have to go inside myself so far, to search through a theme." Ten songs later, she was ready to record.
There's a sameness in "Blue," but it's the kind you want: "At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses, so there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals." The instrumentation is in the same flavor: scarce. James Taylor. Stephen Stills. A few others. Which leaves the words --- and the singer-songwriter --- totally exposed.
There's one song with news in it. When young and unknown, she had a daughter, and she doesn't sugarcoat her reaction to giving the child up for adoption: "You sign all the papers in the family name/ You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed." The rest of the songs are about the men she met on her travels in Europe. They're dashing and romantic and verbally acute --- and she is as much of a trial to them as they are to her: "I'm so hard to handle, I'm selfish and I'm sad."
These songs are love letters, of the greediest, most voluptuous kind. "I could drink a case of you," she sings. "I want to be the one that you want to see." But she's restless, always moving on: "I'm going to make a lot of money, Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene, I wish I had a river I could skate away on."
"Blue" is a CD that's in many collections but is, I suspect, rarely played; if you've heard it a lot along the way, it brings up memories of your own failed romances. But "Blue" is a collection that's gifted and frightened, dangerous and alive --- and time is kind to art that aims for so much, and hits the mark. Hear it again, with fresh ears, or, like me, for the first time; you'll be warmed. And, perhaps, even encouraged.
Amazon sells "Blue" for $7.99. Ten songs for $7.99 --- seventy-nine cents per masterpiece. If there's a better bargain in all of recorded music, get back to me fast --- I'll want in.
To buy "Blue" from Amazon.com, click here..