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Excellant recording levels also. This is Joni Mitchell at her very best in song lyrics and musical talent. Every song is a keeper on this album.
This has to be one of the finest albums of the golden era. The lyrics at once endearingly personal and scripturally profound. The remastering is superb. If you're going shopping for jewels today, then buy this one. Does any song capture so perfectly the zeitgeist of the time as this version of 'Woodstock'. The vocals are perfect and moving to the very last note. I defy anyone to not love it completely. The instrumentation is exquisitely minimal and ethereal.
A great album produced by a great artist. Big Yellow Taxi is the hit of these tracks, but the haunting Woodstock and upbeat Conversation are my favorites. I love Joni's early stuff. Her voice is brilliant and the clean, minimalist instruments shine through the mix.
Big yellow taxi, the single lifted from the album, provided Joni with her only major British hit single, just missing the top ten. I love the sparse backing that Joni used on Song to a seagull and Clouds, but I'm in a minority in liking folk music recorded that way. In the next song, Joni expresses feelings of guilt about being paid for singing, contrasting her situation with that of a street musician playing his clarinet for free. It's still easily recognizable as folk music, something that cannot be said of Joni's albums from the mid-seventies onwards, though I also love those albums but in a different way.The songs here are outstanding.
This was Jon's third album and followed on from Clouds, the album that featured Joni's own versions of Both sides now and Chelsea morning. It's a great song that seems more relevant now than it did in 1970, commenting on the way in which much of the natural world is destroyed for developments of one kind or another. Many more classic songs follow but I'll just mention the last three tracks.Joni wrote Woodstock, which later became a British number one hit via a cover by Matthews Southern Comfort, despite not actually playing the famous event there. Expectations for this album were probably quite high in anticipation of its release.
The opening track, Morning Morgantown, paints a great picture of everyday urban life in the morning. The album closes with Circle game, a great song about how life just goes round and round.Joni recorded many great albums of varying musical styles, but this one certainly rates among her best as far as I'm concerned. Such expectations were fully justified as Joni moved away from her folk roots just a little by use of a slightly fuller musical backing, especially the addition of a piano. I suspect that most people welcomed the slight change in style here.
It will be worth it. I highly recommend this album, "Blue", "Court and Spark" and the amazing "Hejira" as albums that belong in every music collection. After all, it includes "Rainy Night House", right. This will sadly be your only way to enjoy Miss Mitchell as she doesn't record or tour any longer. The L.A. Put on the coffee, early morning, put in "Ladies" and start your day with "Morning Morgantown".
This lady is beautiful inside and out and this is easily one of her 2 or 3 greatest albums. Buy this one or all of them and wear them out. You will immediately be drawn into the world of Joni. music scene in the 60's/early 70's was a magical place and time and Joni was a big part of it. What a catalog of riches. And what a place that is.
Maybe her greatest song ever.I picture her looking out the window of her Laurel Canyon house all those years ago and just penning the entire album.
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