As a kid growing up in the 1970’s , the first song I remember knowing in any real capacity from legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was her 1974 single “Help Me”, though I’m sure “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Clouds” must have also been in there somewhere as they were on the airwaves all the time back then!
But I must say that even though I became a huge connoisseur of music from the 60’s and 70’s “Woodstock generation” as I grew up, Joni’s catalog of music stayed mostly unknown to me until much, much later. In fact, it wasn’t until the mid-90’s when I was working at Tower Records, when I had to catch a ride with my store manager to a corporate meeting that I was finally “turned on” to Joni’s music when he played one of her albums on the ride to and back from the place!
The album was Joni’s 1976 release ”Hejira”, and far from the flower-power-ish stylings of Clouds and Big Yellow Taxi, featured these large, moody and expressive landscapes of music, with songs like “Coyote”, “Amelia”, "Black Crow", and the mesmerizing title track “Hejira”…I was floored by how dreamlike these songs were, haunting and sombre, and after those powerful pieces, she wrapped up the album with the wonderfully warm and winsome tracks "Blue Motel Room" and “Refuge of the Roads”... oh WOW, I was HOOKED!
I asked to borrow the cassette we were listening to so could dub a copy of it for my own, but weeks after playing that over and over, had to grab the whole CD for my own! From there it led to me grabbing albums around the same timeframe as Hejira: “For The Roses”, “Court and Spark”, and what would become my all-time favorite album of hers, “The Hissing of Summer Lawns”. Moodily melodic and wordily picturesque, these albums also had the strange charm of reminding me of my childhood even as I was hearing them for the first time!
It was time to explore that seminal 60’s era of Joni’s (well, we could argue that ALL of Joni’s eras are seminal in some way): Song for a Seagull, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, and the immaculate “Blue”, I fell in love with her all over again and for a good year listened to those albums on an almost daily basis!
By the time I got around to exploring Joni’s “Geffen” years, I was taking night-drives with my car down to airport on my weekends off, and those albums strangely suited cruising those solemn deserted stretches of road: Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Night Ride Home (with the haunting “Two Grey Rooms”, another HUGE favorite) , Chalkmark in a Rainstorm, and it was here I knew that Joni could do no WRONG- seemingly EVERYTHING she released touched my heart in one way or another! I had to have it all!
My Joni Mitchell CD collection:
More CDs, Box Sets and DVDs.
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Turbulent Indigo, Taming The Tiger and even 2007’s SHINE (which would sadly be, at least at this point, Joni’s last original album output), ALL of them became “go-to" albums on my drives and walks, and firmly cemented her as one of my all-time favorite artists!
Joni Mitchell Vinyl Albums
After Shine, Joni withdrew from the business and fans clamoring for more had to go hungry. And when she went through her harrowing medical ordeal in 2015, one wondered if we'd lost her for good- But in 2024, we were gifted a wonderful present- Joni herself came out to perform at the Grammys, doing a powerful and emotional performance of “Both Sides Now”, and there wasn’t a dry eye there who could deny the huge, everlasting impact she’s made on music and our lives!
Though no new albums are forthcoming, they continue to find and remaster things like lost concerts, demoes and unreleased songs to satisfy the still going-strong Joni Mitchell demand, and I’m always right there ready to grab it!
