... Blue is such a personal record, dealing with themes of love and losing love, journeying, and the idea of home. The album is the story of a year in her life, showing us what she has gone through and what she has learned and gained from it. She makes herself and her life the theme of the album.
The ... Read review
Joni Mitchell would go on from this 1971 recording to make more popular, more ambitious ... more
and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), th...
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Joni Mitchell would go on from this 1971 recording to make more popular, more ambitious ... more
and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), th...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Joni Mitchell would go on from this 1971 recording to make more popular, more ambitious ... more
and more challenging albums, but she's never made a better one. Working with minimal accompaniment (Stephen Stills and James Taylor are two of the four sidemen), the Canadian songbird summoned an involving song cycle of romance found and lost. Though Blue is an uncommonly intimate representation, it's also astonishingly open and gracious. Songs such as "All I Want", "Carey", "California" and "A Case of You" work equally well as poetry and pop music. --Steve Stolder
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Another beautiful hand printed limited edition from Brighton artist Screen Prince. As with ... more
his other works the words spoken by Joni Mitchell are skilfully manipulated to create this iconic portrait. This is a spectacular, mint condition print on high quality paper. All our prints are carefully hand-rolled, wrapped in protective paper and placed in a rigid postal tube to provide maximum protection. FREE DELIVERY WORLDWIDE!
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Advantages: Gorgeous songs and a great voice Disadvantages: I've only just discovered it
...Joni certainly follows that advice. Blue is such a personal record, dealing with themes of love and losing love, journeying, and the idea of home. The album is the story of a year in her life, showing us what she has gone through and what she has learned and gained from it. She makes herself and her life the theme of the album.
The album opens with All I Want, which sets out what the entire album will centre on.
“I am ... ...Looking for something, what can it be?”
This song is a self-reflective look at what she wants from life and describes her deep feelings for her lover.
My Old Man is a very bluesy piano accompanied song which delves deeper into her feelings for her lover, describing her feelings when he is gone and pleading with him to stay.
“He’s the warmest chord I ever heard, play that warm chord, play and stay baby” more
I really can’t believe it’s taken me so long to discover this album! And even then it was because I was made to listen to it as part of my university course. But when I looked on Ciao it seemed that Joni Mitchell isn’t as written about as I think she ought to be so I thought I’d add my opinion!
Joni Mitchell has become one of the most successful female artists in the world, with her albums frequently appearing in Top 100 Albums lists. She has such a distinctive voice and style that she redefined the way the music industry viewed women. Her influence in modern artists is still evident with singer-songwriters like Tori Amos following in her footsteps and even Madonna citing her albums as an influence. She strips away any artifice from her music- usually accompanying herself on the guitar or piano- making it an intimate experience between the listener and herself. Her voice is incredibly beautiful, a clear, gentle soprano (a nice change from the growling Britney style that is so popular in pop music today) which she is unafraid to use as an expressive instrument at the risk of losing the technically beautiful sound. Her talent as a songwriter is very impressive- understated but incredibly expressive.
People always say to write about what you know and Joni certainly follows that advice. Blue is such a personal record, dealing with themes of love and losing love, journeying, and the idea of home. The album is the story of a year in her life, showing us what she has gone through and what she has learned and gained from it. She makes herself and her life the theme of the album.
The album opens with All I Want, which sets out what the entire album will centre on. “I am on a lonely road and I am travelling, travelling, travelling. Looking for something, what can it be?” This song is a self-reflective look at what she wants from life and describes her deep feelings for her lover.
My Old Man is a very bluesy piano accompanied song which delves deeper into her feelings for her lover, describing her feelings when he is gone and pleading with him to stay. “He’s the warmest chord I ever heard, play that warm chord, play and stay baby”
Little Green is a beautiful ballad for the child which Joni gave up for adoption, describing her hopes for the child’s life and her feelings of loss. The simplicity of this song- the quiet, uncomplicated melody and bare guitar accompaniment- make it an incredibly emotional experience.
Carey is a song about Joni’s travelling experiences, celebrating the feeling of freedom that travelling can give. It is an energetic and positive song which has an underlying sense of impending separation and the music illustrates the meaning of the words incredibly well.
The title song, Blue, talks about being torn between leaving and staying. “Blue, songs are like tattoos, You know I’ve been to sea before. Crown and anchor me or let me sail away” It talks cynically about the war in Vietnam and this song marks a pivotal moment in this album, evoking a melancholy mood, reflecting on what has passed and what is yet to come.
California sets the homesickness you feel when you are in a foreign country alongside the backdrop of the war. “Oh it gets so lonely, when you’re walking, and the streets are full of strangers. All the news of home you read just gives you the blues” It is a light-hearted and humorous look at the life of a traveller and is beautifully written.
This Flight Tonight describes a plane journey to meet her lover and her conflicting feelings about him.
River begins with a discordant, out of tune rendition of Jingle Bells and is a song about lost love. Filled with Christmas nostalgia, Joni sings about feeling as if she doesn’t belong and wanting to escape. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on. I made my baby cry”. It has a beautiful piano accompaniment and was used recently in an episode of Ally McBeal.
A Case of You is a love song, showing the intense connection between love and pain. “You’re so bitter, bitter and so sweet. Oh I could drink a case of you, darling, Still I’d be on my feet”.
The Last Time I Saw Richard tells about how friends can drift apart. Richard has become an anti-romantic, materialistic person, rejecting the 60’s ideals.
Joni Mitchell’s success lies in the fact that she sings about real life issues that everyone can relate to. This is now one of my favourite CD’s in my rather bizarrely varied collection and I’m embarrassed to admit that I don’t own any of her other albums (but will be adding them to my collection soon- any suggestions would be more than welcome!).
...artist.
>>>BLUE<<<
The Blue was truly and astonishing achievement, The songs are beautifully written, and simply arranged with the help of Stephen Stills and James Taylor as two of only four musicians on the record. As always Mitchell's voice is unique for it's ability to be gentle and extremely emotional. She also uses her voice as an instrument changing her tone and depth of sound.
There are some great songs on 'Blue' but as with most classic ... ...can't really be dissected. 'Blue'deals with the themes of love, lost love, and journeys both emotional as well a physical. There are some song dealing with pain and some that are joyful expressions of emotion.
***THE TRACKS***
1.All I Want
From the opening notes on the acoustic guitar and her voice you know you're in a treat. This is a plaintiff ballad about her feelings for her lover. She is trying to make him see how much she love him and wants ...
Mauri 27.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blue - Joni Mitchell
This album, though not in my opinion her best, is one of my favourite Joni Mitchell albums. Her voice is really beautiful on all of the tracks, and the lyrics are clever and thought-provoking.
I know lots of people divide up albums a do them track by track but (for me, anyway) this album works as a whole album, not just 10 songs strung together at random. It all gels togther really smoothly and is really effective as an album.
The opening track, ... ...a melodic guitaer from Joni. Although I've never worked out why she sings "I want to shampoo you". (And I checked in the lyric booklet to make sure I heard it right!) There isn't really a single weak track on the album, like I said it all works together really well. Songs like "Carey" and "California" are up-beat, then there's songs like the title track which are slower but perhaps show off Joni's voice the best as she hits some really high notes!
...
MagicKitten 30.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Blue - Joni Mitchell
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Advantages: Her style of singing, as usual! Disadvantages: Old songs covered.
To Bobby (Cat Power, written by Chan Marshall and Matt Sweeney **)
10. Don't Explain (Billie Holiday)
11. Woman Left Lonely (Janis Joplin)
12. Blue (JoniMitchell)
* original version on the 'Moon Pix' album
** first appearance of this song
In addition, this limited-edition silver foil deluxe package brings a bonus disc containing the following 5 songs:
1. I Feel (Hot Boys)
2. Naked, If I Want To (Moby Grape)
3. Breathless (Nick Cave)
4. Angelitos Negros (Roberta Flack)
5. She's Got You (Patsy Cline) ...
with an early recording from 1967 "Urge for Going".
Then from the 1969 album "Clouds" comes "Chelsea Morning" then from the key album "Ladies of the Canyon" from 1970,the most popular tracks of her career "Big Yellow Taxi”,” Woodstock" and "The Circle Game" can be heard.
The songs "Carey" and "California" from the huge album "Blue" from 1971 are next in the running order, followed by the 1972 cut from "For the Roses" album "Turn me on I'm the Radio", then from the 1974 release "Court and Spark" the next 3 tracks are taken "Raised on Robbery" "Help Me" and "Freeman in Paris" so far so good. Then for some strange reason the complier has put a track from "Blue" next,” River" should be after "California" as they are from the same seminal JoniMitchell release "BLUE".
The listener then fast forwards to the 1982 collection "Wild ...
Advantages: It's Robbie (the good one) Disadvantages: None
a trumpet player who has played for the likes of David Sylvain and JoniMitchell in his long recording career.
For me personally the key song on the whole album is the track "Breakin' the Rules" which if the Blue Nile followers check out the sleeve notes you will find the whole band appear together on this track, from Robert Bell playing Bass to Paul Buchanan playing guitar and singing background vocals to Paul Moore and his individual style keyboard playing the band stamp the track with their sound, the sound of Paul Buchanan singing the lines "We can't go on, Hiding the pain, Breakin' the rules, Of the game" make the price of the album worth it alone for me.
Another reason that I think that I enjoy this album is the overall sound of the whole project, engineer and associate producer Steve Nye who has worked with the likes of Roxy Music ...
Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, piano); James Taylor (acoustic guitar); Stephen Stills (guitar, bass); Sneaky Pete (pedal steel guitar); Russ Kunkel (drums). Recorded at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, California. Ultradiscs are mastered from the original master tapes using Mobile Fidelity's proprietary mastering technique, then plated with 24 karat gold and housed in a stress-resistant lift-lock jewel box. Joni Mitchell's fourth album maintained the confessional style of its predecessors, but her biographical epistles were here infused with greater maturity. Although her lyrics remained personal, Mitchell drew upon their described scenarios to express a greater context. Stephen Stills and James Taylor added sympathetic accompaniment, but the album's musical textures were defined by the singer's use of guitar, piano and dulcimer. Mitchell's vocals showed a new depth and range absent from earlier work, emphasizing Blue's important place in her maturation as an artist. She never returned to folk after this release, she spied a bigger world for her lyrics and eclectic ideas of song.
Titles on disc 1
1.
All I Want
2.
My Old Man
3.
Little Green
4.
Carey
5.
Blue
6.
California
7.
This Flight Tonight
8.
River
9.
Case Of You
10.
Last Time I Saw Richard
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Listed on Ciao since
30/03/2001
Additional notes
Album Reviews
Rolling Stone (10/31/02, p.135) - Ranked #2 in Rolling Stone's "Women In Rock: The 50 Essential Albums" - "...An acoustic tour de force..." NME (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #28 in NME's list of the Greatest Albums Of All Time. NME (9/18/93, p.19) - Ranked #9 in NME's list of The Greatest Albums Of The '70s - "...Scrapings of the soul have rarely sounded so wretched..." Rolling Stone (8/5/71, p.43) - "...her songs, like James Taylor's, are only incidentally commercial: Her primary purpose is to create something meaningful out of the random moments of pain and pleasure in her life..." Rolling Stone (9/30/71, p.42) - "...She writes beautiful tunes coupled with beautiful lyrics...what more could be asked of her? BLUE is her best album by far..."
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