Blue by Joni Mitchell found the artist at an emotional and creative crossroads, a rare instance of the truly, vividly, and sometimes keeningly personal culminating in renewed commercial success. The record stands at a midpoint between her early sixties-infused folk stylings, which often featured and sometimes figured Crosby, Stills & Nash, and the freeform jazz experiments which would eventually see her collaborate with the likes of Jaco Pastorius, Charles Mingus, and Herbie Hancock.
Less ornate than Ladies of the Canyon, less austere than For the Roses, on Blue Joni Mitchell found her footing at some remove from the madding crowd. She had taken a break from performing and travelled across Europe, with Paris stirring up reflections on her adopted hometown of California, while in Crete and the Balearic Islands she contemplated her frictious relationships with James Taylor and Graham Nash.
Over intricately plucked Appalachian dulcimer and roiling piano, her voice already beginning to age like fine wine, sounding rich and full and deep, Mitchell relayed personal anecdotes covering her adventures among the cave-dwelling hippies of Matala, pored over her relationships with a prescient sense of absence and loss, and with one of her most cryptic yet intimate lyrics summoned the spirit of the daughter she had given up for adoption.
Critically acclaimed upon its release in the summer of 1971, today Blue is routinely listed among the greatest albums of all time. In 2000, The New York Times selected Blue as one of the 25 albums which represented ‘turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music’, and in 2017, Blue was chosen by National Public Radio as the greatest album ever recorded by a woman.
Now the fiftieth anniversary of the record has brought fresh tributes: from long-form pieces on the musical accomplishment of the album, likening its structure to Kind of Blue by the jazz icon Miles Davis, to reviews and appreciations from some of Mitchell’s fellow artists, including David Crosby, James Taylor, and Graham Nash.
Joni even opened up on the state of her singing voice and discussed the enduring legacy of the album, in a rare new interview for the Los Angeles Times with the film director Cameron Crowe. And on Wednesday she thanked her fans for all of the positive attention in a short clip posted via Instagram.
The fiftieth anniversary of Blue arrives alongside a new extended play, which features the late outtake ‘Hunter’ plus alternates and demo versions of ‘River’, ‘Urge for Going’, ‘California’, and ‘A Case of You’. A five-disc box set is scheduled for October, exhuming home recordings and old live performances, including sets in London, New York City, and an Ottawa coffee house which the guitar legend Jimi Hendrix captured using his portable reel-to-reel.
