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/

Cary Raditz talks about his relationship with Joni

James Taylor reminisces about working on Blue

http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/james-taylor-it-was-wonderful-working-with-joni-mitchell-69137

Vanity Fair's oral history of Laurel Canyon

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/02/laurel-canyon-music-scene?curator=MusicREDEF#13

this Joni interview ends with a list of her best tracks

which includes four tracks from Blue, although not A Case Of You: http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/both-sides-now-joni-mitchell-looks-back-1.2016070?page=1

the story behind Carey by Joni Mitchell

I loved reading this almost as much as I love listening to Carey by Joni Mitchell.

And here's Cary's perspective.

More on Cary Raditz is here.

here's more on Matala, plus what Joni was saying about Cary in 1972.

and finally:


Joni Mitchell's Matala, Crete from Matala Crete on Vimeo.

Joni Mitchell and Brian Blade interviewed at Luminato Festival

more about the interview below and the effect Blue had on people

Joni says: "If you listen to that music and you see me, you're not getting anything out of it. If you listen to that music and you see yourself, it'll probably make you cry and you'll learn something about yourself, and now you're getting something out of it.

"When I realised how popular I was becoming it was right before Blue and I thought 'Oh my god, a lot of people are listening to me. Well then they'd better find out who they're worshipping. Let's see if they can take it. Let's get real.' So I wrote Blue which horrified a lot of people and then it created a lot of attention that was really weird and so then I bought a property in British Columbia and dropped out. Because what had happened is they're looking at me, and all I've done is reveal human traits but they haven't seen themselves in it. At the point that they see themselves in it, the communication is complete. At the point where they're looking at me it's like taste of blood, it's like Marilyn Monroe on a tightrope or something.

"Blue is considered a classic now, but at the time? No, they were horrified. Kris Kristofferson went 'Joni, keep something of yourself'. Johnny Cash said 'The world is on your shoulders'. The game was to make yourself larger than life; don't reveal anything human, and my thing was why? It has been done in film. But the trouble is, I'm the playwright, I'm the actress, and I want them to look at the play and see past it, but it's such an intimate art form and I'm revealing so much of it that all the attention is going to me, which is insane from my point of view, because you're not going to get anything out of it if you look at me. You've got to see yourself in it, otherwise it has no value."

The New Yorker article she refers to about a "black woman" (Zadie Smith) learning to love Blue is here.

a new interview with Joni Mitchell on Canadian TV

CBC say "This week we were excited to present Jian's broadcast exclusive interview with Joni Mitchell in advance of her tribute concert, "Joni: A Portrait in Song" at Toronto's Luminato Festival.

We've just posted video of the revealing interview inside Mitchell's Los Angeles home. Watch Mitchell open up about how she dealt with fame, her fight to remain original, and how painting shaped her approach to songwriting.

The interview will be airing on CBC on Sunday at 1pm and interview segments can be found below

Visit the Q Blog for behind-the-scenes photos and more:

http://www.cbc.ca/q/blog/2013/06/11/joni-mitchell-portrait-of-an-artist/"

part 1:



part 2:



part 3:

Joni Mitchell and Morrissey - a conversation with music

music + words, 1996

including:
you turn me on, i'm a radio
the circle game
river
the wolf that lives in lindsey
sex kills
come in from the cold
hejira
the reoccuring dream
both sides now
the magdalene laundries

Woman of Heart and Mind Documentary

an erudite and insightful discussion with Michelle Mercer

http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/439/Michelle-Mercer-Will-You-Take-Me-page01.html

Michelle is the author of Will You Take Me As I Am - Joni Mitchell's Blue Period. I was fascinated by what she says about revealing biographical information that inspired songwriters, about Jaco Pastorius and why Joni rated him, about Joni's self-confidence, her refusal to pander to commercial interests, her annoyance at being so closely associated with her lyrics, and her feelings on her Blue period.

interview with Michelle Mercer, author of Joni Mitchell's Blue period

http://www.nowtoronto.com/daily/books/story.cfm?content=169252

short clip of a documentary about the album Blue, played over a live performance of the song Blue

"I was demanding of myself a deeper and greater honesty. More and more revelation in my work in order to give it back to the people where it goes into their lives and nourishes them and changes their direction and makes light bulbs go off in their head and makes them feel. It isn't vague. It strikes against the very nerves of their life and in order to do that you have to strike against the very nerves of your own."

Does anyone know what this documentary is or where the rest of it can be found?

Prince covers A Case Of You, and Joni talks about her influence on Prince

skip forward to two minutes for Joni's anecotes about and analysis of Prince:

an interview with Dutch TV

"I think that I began to write intimately about my feelings at the time of my fourth album and that those emotions found fertile ground in other people's unexpressed feelings, and so in a way it could be said that I expressed the unexpressable. It was a very lonely time in America. It was strife ridden. It was difficult. It was the end of America's naivety. We were the good guys up until then. We had an heroic reputation from the war and suddenly there was trouble at home, beginning with the Kennedy assassination. The sixties were a very idealistic time for youth, very hopeful. We did believe we could change the world; (then) we found we couldn't change it very much at all."