Essentials by the Dozen - Joni Mitchell in 12 Tracks

With respect to Joni Mitchell, if you’ve ever made statements worthy of a solid facepalm, such as “Her sound is kind of simple and a little boring”, or found yourself listening in on some conversation that had you asking “Is she the one who yodels?”, then this next list should serve as a good starting point if you wish to expand your knowledge on one of music’s most celebrated solo artists.

[NOTE: This list is not a definite top 12 of Joni Mitchell’s all-time greatest songs. Rather, it should be viewed as a strong collection in her catalogue that would essentially allow to have an efficient overview of her entire career. As a Mitchell fan myself, I also firmly believe that you should at the very least know every single one of these songs if you ever wish to debate the brilliance of her music. If at the moment you do not, RELAX, SIT BACK & ENJOY THE MAGIC OF ROCK.]

1. Chelsea Morning (1969)

A breathtaking introduction by a breathtaking singer, “Chelsea Morning” is of those songs that typically accompany the early hours of day as the morning dew makes its way across green fields off which reflect the warm rays of the sun. Before Joni Mitchell made herself relevant within the music world, she was still more than capable of creating beautiful imagery through her poems. The inviting folk sounds of her guitar announce the arrival of a cheerful day, and “Chelsea Morning” is very representative of Mitchell’s early work at a time during which she was still trying to find a voice. The inspiration for the song was supposedly as simple as one might think, in that it was a love letter to her quaint apartment in the Chelsea borough of New York City. The song itself sounds exactly as its description makes it out to be. It is a quaint tune with merry visuals brought to life through Mitchell’s exquisite writing and a perfect introduction to the gorgeous singer-songwriter whose skills would only improve as of then, Mitchell herself claiming she was but an ingenue by that point.

Great Line:

“Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew

There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too

And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my senses”

2. For Free (1970)

I admit not having been properly prepared for Joni Mitchell when I first heard her back in high school. I had bought Ladies of the Canyon, her third album, through use of an iTunes gift card (when those still existed) and did not know what to make of the songs. Other than the uptempo “Big Yellow Taxi”, there was nothing really that seemed to appeal to this sixteen-year-old punk lover, and I disregarded the artist for many years. Looking back on my initial consideration for Joni Mitchell, it makes perfect sense that I would have thought that at the time. It makes just as much sense that I exceedingly adore her today after living so many more experiences in my lifetime, and I have come to grow quite fond of all Ladies of the Canyon has to offer. “Big Yellow Taxi” is a hell of a hit single, but songs like “For Free” are just so indescribably beautiful in comparison, and I now ache every time I hear it. It paints one pretty picture of a musician who plays on the streets for free, narrated by one voice over a delicate piano progression.

Great Line:

“And I play if you have the money

Or if you’re a friend to me

But the one-man band by the quick lunch stand

He was playing real good, for free”

3. The Circle Game (1970)

If you gave me a hundred years to write something as heartbreakingly poignant as “The Circle Game”, I would still be scrambling by my ninety-ninth year. After shelving Ladies of the Canyon in high school, I wound up revisiting this song by pure chance. I had been watching The Wonder Years in cegep, and “The Circle Game” played at the end of one of the episodes in the most affecting of ways (God, I love that show). I could not stop listening to this track, and at that, everywhere I went. Already that the verses would cut deep wounds within my nostalgic soul, it was the chorus (accompanied by legendary trio Crosby, Stills & Nash) that profoundly stabbed at those wounds to the point of causing some bizarre mixture of wondrous innocence and heartache. Mitchell actually wrote this song in response to her friend Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain”, on which the Ontarian pained at the sad thought of growing older. “The Circle Game” depicts the natural circle of life that has a growing child regrettably lose his old dreams but not without gaining “new dreams, maybe better dreams, and plenty before the last revolving year is through”.

Great Line:

“And the seasons, they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We’re captive on a carousel of time

We can’t return, we can only look

Behind, from where we came

And go round and round and round in the circle game”

4. All I Want (1971)

Back in cegep, after rediscovering “The Circle Game”, I decided to give Mitchell’s critically acclaimed Blue a chance and once again disregarded yet another of her albums, only this time, after but a few songs. Years later, at the age of twenty-one, after ending a long-term relationship with a wonderful girl I had often considered marrying, I felt the bizarre need to revisit the album, and luckily, I did. Every single sentiment I was feeling at the time was spewed onto the opening track “All I Want”. It was as if Mitchell knew exactly the emotional rollercoaster I had been riding prior to ending things with the girl. Throughout the unhappy month that followed the breakup, I kept rather silent, for I did not believe any of my family members would truly comprehend the pain I was suffering and, due to later conservative judgment on their behalf and expressive Italian comments that went along the lines of “I never did that shit like you, dating someone for a long time in my youth”, I still maintain this opinion today. However, Joni Mitchell’s music unexpectedly understood me, and I must have heard Blue on repeat twice a day for a solid month before ultimately seeing some distant light at the end of the tunnel. “Do you see, do you see, do you see how your hurt me, baby? So, I hurt you too, then we both get so blue.” How much more beautiful can you become, Joni? Joni Mitchell is so incredibly naked on this track, as she is on the remainder of the album, and during that month back in 2018, Blue was the only album to which I wished to listen, for it provided me with that sense of comfort I desperately lacked.

Great Line:

“All I really, really want our love to do

Is to bring out the best in me and in you

I wanna talk to you, I wanna shampoo you

Wanna renew you again and again

Applause, applause, life is our cause

When I think of your kisses, my mind see-saws”

5. California (1971)

Even within an album filled with heartache, there are some glimpses of positivity, and this was best heard on the opening of the record’s flip side. “California” is an ode to the wondrous state, and the imagery Mitchell paints of various European locations is fantastically engaging. As per the rest of Blue, the music is of acoustic nature; all one hears is the merry sounds of a guitar, the faint delicacy of percussion and the singer’s heavenly voice, and Mitchell proves that she neither needs extravagant sounds nor wild theatrics to gain a reputable following. She is an artist, and the words with which she chooses to narrate her stories are awe-inspiring. “California” is cheerfully melodious and depicts a seemingly successful person’s longing to return home where true comfort awaits.

Great Line:

“So, I bought me a ticket

I got on a plane to Spain

Went to a party down a red dirt road

There were lots of pretty people there

Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue

They said, “How long can you hang around?”

I said a week, maybe two

Just until my skin turns brown

Then I’m going home to California”

6. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire (1972)

Interestingly enough, it was Mitchell’s fifth album For the Roses, sandwiched between what are arguably her two best, that the Library of Congress chose to add to their National Recording Registry database. Perhaps it was due to the record’s fusion with the folk rock for which she had grown a reputation and the jazz into which she was steadily venturing. As per many of her albums, Joni Mitchell explored themes relating to human contact and amorous connections on this one, but in a poetic way, highlighting both the gratitude and sorrow these brought forth rather than simply penning a straightforward diss to a past love (cough, Taylor Swift). “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire” was inspired by then-lover James Taylor who grew addicted to heroin. The track is jazzy in nature, as would most of her subsequent work be, and its title derives from that feeling of “sweet fire” Taylor would enjoy via the “cold blue steel” of his needle.

Great Line:

“‘Come with me

I know the way’, she says

‘It’s down, down, down the dark ladder”

7. You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio (1972)

What I enjoy most about this song is knowing it was written as somewhat of a joke. Joni Mitchell’s record label craved for her to release something substantial for radio play that could contrast the softer sounds heard throughout her fifth album For the Roses, and her response was “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio”. I absolutely adore this track and believe it was her finest commercial hit by that point, more so than “Big Yellow Taxi”. Once again, the feel of the song is exactly as Mitchell narrates in her opening line, in that it’s like “driving into town with a dark cloud above you”. Not long after my relationship at twenty-one concluded, as I was in the midst of finishing my much-needed month-long listening sessions of Blue, a girl I knew unexpectedly opened up the possibility of pursuing our relationship romantically, which I accepted, much to my family’s dismay. By that time, although I remember my life having to endure quite a lot of loss on top of the many quarrels that sporadically occurred in the household, my drives heading to the quiet part of the outlying town where lived the girl were the sole moments of the day during which my mind was at total peace, and they were almost always spent listening to “You Turn Me On, I’m a Radio”.

Great Line:

“If you’re lying on the beach

With the transistor going

Kick off the sandflies honey

The love’s still flowing

If your head says forget it

But your heart’s still smoking

Call me at the station

The lines are open”

8. Help Me (1974)

“Help Me” is without a doubt in my personal top ten favourite songs of all-time. It is Joni Mitchell at her very best, and every single detail of the track is absolutely perfect, from the opening drum break to the sensual poetry to the delicacy of Mitchell’s voice to the gospel-like hook to that incredible bridge to the final aura of mystique brought about by the closing notes of the guitar. Joni Mitchell is so incredibly sexy on “Help Me”, and she neither needs to twerk nor appear half-naked nor sway her body like an amusement park on stage to make one realize this. She’s sexy because the music with which her blood surges is indelibly chiseled within her body. Many musicians have subsequently covered “Help Me”, and even the late great Prince who was an enormous Joni Mitchell fan references a line of this song in his own “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker”. It was the biggest hit of her career, peaking within the top ten of the Billboard Charts, and it is undoubtedly the highlight of her sixth album Court and Spark.

Great Line (Amongst all of them):

“Oh, didn’t it feel good? We were sitting there talking

Or lying there not talking, didn’t it feel good?”

9. People’s Parties (1974)

Court and Spark, Mitchell’s sixth album, explored the jazz pop genre before the singer would ultimately discard pop altogether for the remainder of the decade. “People’s Parties” is brief but effective, and the track adds to that overall inviting emotion felt throughout the album. Joni Mitchell never truly felt comfortable with the thought of becoming a celebrity, and the artist never shied from informing her listeners via her music. “People’s Parties” depicts the singer’s remoteness with respect to these many festive events that have most people laugh and enjoy, unlike her who is incapable of maintaining a good sense of humour throughout.

Great Line:

“I feel like I’m sleeping

Can you wake me

You seem to have a broader sensibility

I’m just living on nerves and feelings

With a weak and a lazy mind

And coming to people’s parties

Fumbling deaf dumb and blind”

10. In France They Kiss on Main Street (1975)

By her seventh album The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Joni Mitchell was fully invested in the folk jazz genre. “In France They Kiss on Main Street” serves as the album’s opener and is a prime example of the sounds the singer so eagerly endeavored to tackle by this point in her career, and successfully at that. I am aware that Joni Mitchell’s music has seen a resurgence in popularity amongst the youth in the last year or so (within Montreal’s anglophone population, at the very least), but I have also noticed that the focus is mostly set on her earlier acoustic work. Once again, this is perfectly fine, for even I had admitted taking a while before fully investing myself in the artist’s music. However, one cannot say they know the bulk of Joni Mitchell if they were to totally omit her late 70’s work, the most powerful of which stemmed from the albums The Hissing of the Summer Lawns and Hejira.

Great Line:

“And we were walking down Main Street

Kisses like bright flags hung on holidays

In France they kiss on Main Street

Amour, mama, not cheap display

And we were rollin’, rollin’

Rock n’ rollin’”

11. The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975)

One can find the most fantastic of jewels in a vinyl store if they took the time to thoroughly rummage through its aisles. I cannot believe I managed to purchase a quality record of The Hissing of Summer Lawns for only three dollars. This was how I first came across Joni Mitchell’s jazz folk era, and it was bought almost immediately after listening to Court and Spark. “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” feels ambient in nature, and the whole is one charming piece of music written by the legendary songwriter in what I consider to be her most interesting period of her career. The first time Mitchell softly sings the song’s title, the mood feels slightly offbeat, as if there is something unusual lurking about within the life of the female protagonist. After a verse during which the listener understands that the protagonist’s life is far from an ideal one, for she is shackled by the horrid ideals of her wealthy husband, Mitchell sings it once more, and it feels as if the listener becomes liberated by the whole, as if the tragic woman’s pleas are being heard through the chants of the chorus choir.

Great Line:

“He put up a barbed wire fence

To keep out the unknown

And on every metal thorn

Just a little blood of his own

She patrols that fence of his

To a Latin drum

And the hissing of summer lawns”

12. Coyote (1976)

The opening to Mitchell’s eighth album is arguably its most interesting track as well. It carries on Mitchell’s experimentation with folk jazz, a genre of which I firmly believe she is undoubtedly the queen. Joni Mitchell’s seductive back-and-forth which has the artist alternately softly sing her lines and straightforwardly speak them is an undeniable triumph. “No regrets, coyote”, she sensuously states repeatedly throughout this gentle but energetic track. “Coyote” is the last of the essentials I chose to include here, for I believe that if Joni Mitchell’s career was to have unfortunately ended with the album Hejira, she would still be considered amongst the all-time beautiful songwriters in popular music. Thankfully, many of her subsequent releases do include quite a number of gems as well, and I highly suggest one give them a listen if this list of essentials speaks to you like it still does to me all these years later.

Great Line:

“No regrets, coyote

We just come from such different sets of circumstance

I’m up all night in the studios

And you’re up early on your ranch

You’ll be brushing out a brood mare’s tail

While the sun is ascending

And I’ll just be getting home with my reel to reel”

BONUS:

1. “Urge for Going”

2. “Both Sides Now”

3. “Big Yellow Taxi”

4. “My Old Man”

5. “River”

6. “For the Roses”

7. “Free Man in Paris”

8. “Edith and the Kingpin”

9. “Hejira”

10. “The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey”

Disclaimer: The original version of this story was published on another platform. Link to original version: https://medium.com/@gabriele_delbusso/essentials-by-the-dozen-joni-mitchell-in-12-tracks-57749e94556e