more on Dylan's Tangled Up In Blue being inspired by Joni - and what she thought of Blood On The Tracks

https://americansongwriter.com/bob-dylans-tangled-up-in-blue-was-inspired-by-this-unimpressed-musician/

not sure this podcast about Joni is 100% accurate

 but it does contain some interesting discussion of Blue and who its songs are about

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1reT17nLYXbbjPvl4Wl7O2?si=b85e8bc4ff3b4a9c

Joni's live return included two numbers from Blue

 and was truly amazing

plenty about Joni in this Graham Nash interview

interview here
 

Cary Raditz finally gives an interview about Carey and Joni

https://www.newstatesman.com/katemossmaninterview/2021/12/joni-mitchell-carey-california-blue-lyrics-cary-raditz-interview=

nice piece about possibly the best song ever written, A Case Of You

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/joni-mitchell-song-owned-up-errors/

more from David Crosby on Joni here, via Howard Stern

https://q1043.iheart.com/featured/ken-dashow/content/2021-06-28-david-crosby-admits-that-the-way-joni-mitchell-dumped-him-is-hilarious/

Her Kind Of Blue: Joni Mitchell's Masterpiece At 50 - Ann Powers on Blue for NPR

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/20/1008271419/joni-mitchell-masterpiece-at-50-her-kind-of-blue

LA Times on Blue at 50

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-06-21/joni-mitchell-blue-50-years-review

here's the Guardian's piece on 50 years of Blue

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/jun/22/joni-mitchell-blue-my-favourite-song-james-taylor-carole-king-graham-nash-david-crosby-kt-tunstall-birdy

Similar to the New York Times piece but also good.

the original Guardian review of Blue

This is such a car crash. If I was the Guardian I'd probably have left it in the archive, but it is fascinating how little reviewers grasped of the brilliance and groundbreaking nature of this album.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/from-the-archive-blog/2021/jun/21/joni-mitchell-blue-reviewed-archive-1971

this New York Times piece on Blue is so great

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/06/20/arts/music/joni-mitchell-blue.html

I love how her old lovers are still in love with and/or in awe of her.

David Crosby: "I think it’s arguably the best singer-songwriter album that ever got made. I’m a singer-songwriter, and I was her old man for a year, which was daunting. But I’m deeply into her music. I watched her write it, I’ve written with her, I love her to this day, I think she’s the best of us. But that record, some of those songs, I just don’t know how you could beat ’em. “River”? Holy [expletive]. I remember the first time I heard it, I felt like quitting the business and becoming a gardener.
The music is where she’s just vastly superior to Bob [Dylan]. I think Bob’s as good a poet as she is, maybe. They’re both brilliant poets, but she’s 10 times the musician and singer that he was."

Biographical details - James Taylor claims Blue as being written after their split, and This Flight Tonight as being about the night she flew back to LA instead of flying to Martha's Vineyard with him to see his new house.

Graham Nash confirms My Old Man is about him, and maybe River too. And says of seeing these songs being written: "It was a fascinating process to see, I must confess. It’s as if she tore her skin off and just released all her nerves into music."

Funny from Graham Nash: "I didn’t enjoy Carey. It’s not fun to have your old lady off on some Greek island with another man. But I did get the kitchen floor done."

Also some fascinating insights from other musicians into musical and lyrical techniques that Joni employs on the album.

Interesting persepective from Justin Vivian Bond - that so much of the album is about money. I hadn't thought of that, but I guess I see it as being about the death of hippie dream, and the two are closely related.

The Laura Marling documentary referenced in the last post sent me down some new rabbit holes

Here's a story from 1966 about Chuck and Joni Mitchell's relationship.

And here's what happened to Chuck Mitchell after his split from Joni.

I had assumed The Last Time I Saw Richard was about Chuck as it's set in Detroit and seems to be a conversation with a former lover, but I've just read in the Guardian that "The Last Time I Saw Richard was sparked by a conversation she had with folk singer Patrick Sky". Some days it's my favourite song.

awesome BBC Radio 4 documentary about Blue

Narrated by Laura Marling, the only contemporary artist who could hold a candle to Joni Mitchell. I learnt a lot from this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000x0y1

NPR's Blue listening party with the wonderful Brandi Carlile. See you there?

https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2021/06/15/1002239618/npr-music-listening-party-joni-mitchell-blue-at-50?t=1623802823897

Graham Nash and Joni duetting on the demo of Our House

https://open.spotify.com/track/0vItJLwvxJzu5PPw6o62A6?si=5c019f2c6b984805

Clive Davis interviews Joni

“When I first started writing less from fantasy, when I started scraping my own soul more and getting more humanity in it, it scared the singer-songwriters around me. The men seemed be nervous about it, almost like Dylan plugging in and going electric. Like, ‘Does this mean we have to do this now?' But over time, I think it did make an influence. I think it encouraged people to write more from their own experience. I mean, literature is very personal. People write from experience and that’s what makes it rich. But people used to say to me, ‘Nobody’s ever going to cover your songs. They’re too personal.’ And yet that’s not true. They’re getting a lot of covers. So that’s really encouraging to me, because I thought, ‘I don’t see why these men are so upset about it… It’s just humanness that I’m trying to describe.’”

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/clive-davis-joni-mitchell-dababy-oprah-gala-conversations-1234974118/

More Joni Mitchell/Carey Raditz/Matala magic here

https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/04/21/the-hippie-caves-of-matala-that-housed-joni-mitchell/

some great songwriters discuss their feelings on Blue and Tapestry

https://americansongwriter.com/blue-and-tapestry-albums-turn-50-legends-issue/

Why 'A Case Of You' Is The Best Love Song Of All Time

 really lovely article by Julie Wittes Schlack

https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2021/02/12/joni-mitchell-blue-julie-wittes-schlack

The Independent rank Blue as only the second best album of the best ever year for albums, 1971

not that I can really argue with their no. 1...

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/best-albums-1971-carole-king-tapestry-b1800405.html

Who is A Case Of You about?

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/who-did-joni-mitchell-write-a-case-of-you-for/

some good quotes about Blue and dulcimers in here

http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/question/ice-antarctica-melt-much-global-sea-level-rise-quickly-likely-happen/

Cameron Crowe interviews Joni

Including an interesting comment about Little Green, and a dream that inspired Blue:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/27/joni-mitchell-interview-archives-early-years-cameron-crowe

Listen to Joni Mitchell’s mesmerising isolated vocal on her classic song ‘River’

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/joni-mitchell-river-isolated-vocals/

Pitchfork on Joni songs including some of the highlights from Blue

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/joni-mitchell-her-art-and-life-in-33-songs/

Still Travelling - Joni Mitchell’s “Blue” By Ellen Willis from The New Yorker, March 3, 1973 issue

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1973/03/03/joni-mitchell-still-travelling

this article includes a good quote from Joni about Blue

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/article-uncovered-music-theatre-hybrid-concert-gives-context-to-the-lyrics-of/

wow, this Joni tribute concert sounds amazing, and she was there

http://www.bostonherald.com/entertainment/music/2018/11/joni_mitchell_thrills_concert_audience_just_by_showing_up

singer songwriter Sadie Jemmett picks her favourite Joni songs

Sadie's tastes are pretty different to mine but we can all agree on A Case Of You:

https://medium.com/@sadiejemmett/my-top-10-joni-mitchell-songs-96bf6f92a6a5

update on Joni's health from Cary/Carey

Update here. These comments still makes my heart race.

Cary is also searching for Mark and Barbara.

I fear Barry Young may have died since writing this, unless it's a different film director called Barry Young.

Rosanne Cash: "I wouldn’t have become a songwriter had it not been for River and Blue.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/stuck-in-a-beach-town-rosanne-cash-turned-to-joni-mitchells-music-1521557412

RIP Gary Burden who designed the sleeve of Blue

https://www.stereogum.com/1986735/classic-album-cover-artist-gary-burden-dead-at-84-neil-young-pays-tribute/obit/

David Mitchell the novelist on Blue

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2017/12/david-mitchell-blue-joni-mitchell-it-s-art-so-it-s-ageless

Tom Chaplin from Keane covers River

Move over Nick Knowles.

Ultimate Classic Rock rank Joni's albums with Blue at no. 1

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/joni-mitchell-albums-ranked/

They also rank her tracks; more like her greatest hits really, with Blue underrepresented and Case Of You weirdly only at no. 4.

It's not even coming on Christmas yet, and TV's Nick Knowles has covered River

Hunter - an outtake from Blue

Just read about this in Pitchfork. They're saying it's an outtake from the Blue sessions and it certainly sounds like it. It's good but not as good as This Flight Tonight. 

wonderful excerpt from RECKLESS DAUGHTER: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe

https://www.thedailybeast.com/joni-mitchell-dug-deep-to-make-her-dark-masterpiece-blue

Barney Hoskyns talks about the appeal of Blue amongst other things

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/xwazgn/joni-mitchell-is-pretty-much-peerless

lots about the appeal of Blue in here

https://www.theringer.com/music/2017/10/16/16476254/joni-mitchell-pop-music-canon

Joni Mitchell - Blue and related songs - a Spotify playlist

Somewhat inspired by the book Girls Like Us.

Cary Raditz talks about his relationship with Joni

Bob Lefsetz on A Case Of You and Blue in general

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2017/09/04/a-case-of-you-live-budokan-1983/

Blue is the greatest album made by a women according to NPR

http://www.npr.org/2017/07/20/538307314/turning-the-tables-150-greatest-albums-made-by-women-page-15

Laura Marling interview which mentions Joni and Blue

"(Marling's) music has been compared to the most celebrated names in the field, particularly Joni Mitchell, whose album Blue was given to Marling by her parents as a 13th birthday present. “If Joni Mitchell didn’t exist, I wouldn’t exist,” she says."

https://www.ft.com/content/a63127c2-fe07-11e6-96f8-3700c5664d30 

45 years later, Joni Mitchell's 'Blue' is still the perfect album for Minnesota winters

http://www.citypages.com/music/45-years-later-joni-mitchells-blue-is-still-the-perfect-album-for-minnesota-winters/406683995

Gavin James - River

It's coming on Christmas, they're cutting down trees, and covering River again.

Kathryn Williams on Joni Mitchell

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/05/bob-dylan-nobel-favourite-songwriter

Drowned In Sound on Blue

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4150366-the-friday-fangasm--blue-by-joni-mitchell