Joni Mitchell

Thirty-plus years after its release, Blue is still a revelatory record, defining the Singer-Songwriter idiom even as it demolishes the conventions that came both before and after it. Mitchell is a gargantuan talent and her art was never more evident than on this wrenching and triumphant record. Just look at the cover.

The last time I saw Joni Mitchell perform was a year and a half ago at Boston's Symphony
Hall, in one of her final appearances before she forswore the concert circuit for good.
Fragile, giggly and shy, she had the most obvious case of nerves I have ever seen in a
professional singer. Her ringing soprano cracked with stage fright and her frightened eyes
refused to make contact with the audience. It wasn't until well into the second... More >

As Joni grooves with the easy-swinging elite-rock sound of California's pop aristocrats, her relation to their (and her own) easy-swinging sexual ethic becomes more probing. But thoughtfulness isn't exactly making her sisterly--I've even heard one woman complain that she can't sing Joni's melodies any more. Well, too bad--they're getting stronger all the time, just like the lyrics. From the eternal ebullience of "All I Want" to the month-after melancholy of "Blue," this battlefront report on the fitful joys of buy-now pay-later love offers an exciting, scary glimpse of a woman in a man's world. (Grade - A)