The circle game (Joni Mitchell) (LP 3226 - 3238)

Joni Mitchell  Clouds (CD, Reprise Records, 1969) ****  

Joni Mitchell  Ladies Of The Canyon (Vinyl, Reprise Records, 1970) *****  

Joni Mitchell  Both Sides, Now - Live in London 1970 (2CD, Universal Audio, 2022) **** 

Joni Mitchell  Blue (CD, Reprise Records, 1971) ***** 

Joni Mitchell  For The Roses (CD, Asylum Records, 1972) ***** 

Joni Mitchell  Court And Spark (CD, Asylum Records, 1974) ***** 

Joni Mitchell  The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (Vinyl, Asylum Records, 1975) ****

Joni Mitchell  Hejira (Vinyl and CD, Asylum Records, 1976) *****

Joni Mitchell  Shadows And Light (Vinyl and CD, Asylum Records, 1980) ***

Joni Mitchell  Wild Things Run Fast (Vinyl, Geffen Records, 1982) ****

Joni Mitchell  Dog Eat Dog (Vinyl, Geffen Records, 1985) **

Joni Mitchell  Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm  (Vinyl, Geffen Records, 1988) ***

Joni Mitchell  Shine (CD, Hear Music, 2007) ****

Genre: Folk-rock, pop 

Places I remember: Fives, Chaldon Books and Records, JB Hi-Fi, Spellbound Wax Company, 

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Song For Sharon (Hejira)

Gear costume: For Free (Ladies Of The Canyon)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: I am not a Joni completist, but I am a fan. That means I have 13 of her albums, and there are some gaps. It all started with The Last Waltz and her spot doing Coyote in the film. That performance is lodged firmly in my brain.

Her second album was Clouds (I don't have her David Crosby produced debut) and it is glorious. It's a sparse sounding album - just Joni's superb vocals and guitar accompaniment. This is the one with Chelsea Morning, and Both Sides Now.

Special mention goes to the cover painting by Joni - wow! She captures herself precisely - the emotion in the eyes, the demure lips, her knowing innocence, the moody idealised landscape. Extraordinary!

A cassette of Ladies Of The Canyon was the first album I bought after the Coyote revelation. I played it a lot and absorbed all the songs but I didn't have much of a context in those days.

Now listening to them in order I can hear/see what a leap it was from Clouds. It feels so much more confident. Piano, cello and some horns now provide some additional texture, but the star on show remains Joni - her voice, guitar and songs are just outstanding. Her first 5-star classic.

Each song is special on Ladies Of The Canyon, but this is the one with For Free, Conversation, For Willy (this is her Graham Nash period), Big Yellow Taxi, Circle Game, and Woodstock.

The Live in London set is from the BBC archives. CD 1 is from a broadcast on 9 October 1970 with a couple of additions from The Johnny Cash Show. CD 2 is Joni and James Taylor later in October 1970 (it includes three songs from James). Given there's only a few weeks between the performances, only four songs are in each set - California, For Free, The Gallery, My Old Man. 

The sound is pristine throughout - like she's in the room with you and you're part of the rapt audience. Each concert is a great summary of those first three albums. I really enjoy these CDs because Joan, and James on CD 2, are chatty and full of confidence in their abilities. They were also a romantic item - something that fueled elements of Blue, as well as her relationships with Graham Nash and others.

Blue was another leap forward, and only a year after Ladies Of The Canyon had appeared. It features many of those songs that were in her set lists around that time (Live in London for instance). The heavy hitters are California, This Flight Tonight, River, Carey.

For The Roses is a fully assured folk-rock album. It has an overall sound that lulls you into a false sense of security, but Joni doesn't dwell in cozy places. Behind the facade of coziness is the doomed relationship with James Taylor (he broke away to form a relationship with Carly Simon). The big hit from For The Roses was the catchy, tongue in cheek You Turn Me On (I'm A Radio).

Court And Spark came out 2 years later - a notable gap given her productivity up till this time. That's because it took her a year to record it. The time was well spent because it's often regarded as one of the best albums ever. She is certainly on peak form in this 1970 to '74 period.

This time she really embraces bass and drums - these songs rock! Each one is a gem but her standards are really above the majority of artists. So, the highlights are these extraordinary songs - Free Man In Paris, Help Me, the title track, Raised On Robbery.

Her seventh album, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, introduces synths into the musical landscape as well as the jazzy feel from last track on Court And Spark - Twisted. It's her most experimental album to this point with some avant-pop stylings and a toe in the water of world music (The Jungle Line). 

Kudos to her for trying some new things, but this isn't a favourite album of mine. That said, In France They Kiss On Main Street is a standout (Crosby/ Nash and James Taylor are there on backing vocals).

Hejira is my favourite Joni Mitchell album by some distance (ha ha - it's kind of a travelogue so the pun is intentional). Is it perfect? Yeah, probably. The songs, the music (Jaco Pastorius adds new dimensions on bass) and her vocals - I can't see how she could have improved on anything. 

The expansiveness (of vision and song length) is what I especially like about Hejira. She's inspired, and really stretches! Favourite songs - Amelia, Song For Sharon, Coyote (of course) and Refuge Of The Roads. Sublime!

Shadows And Light is a double live album that fully embraces her jazz fusion. Lyle Mays, Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny (especially fab on Amelia) are all virtuoso exponents from the jazz fusion world and Don Alias (drums) once played with Miles Davis. Michael Brecker is on sax. Quite the jazz band!

Obviously, this suits all the Hejira songs, which, along with her Mingus project songs, make up most of the set list.  The solo portions slow things down for me - it's the Hejira material which impacts me the most. No Song For Sharon though.

And so to the Geffen years (I skipped a couple of albums before and during these years). First up - Wild Things Run Fast. This was the first of four for Geffen and with her new guy, Larry Klein, on bass and co-producing.  

I like this album - her pop and jazz sensibilities co-exist well throughout. She's in good form and the eighties horror production values don't affect things. Instead, the instruments have space around them. Wayne Shorter's sax is a standout! Favourite songs - Chinese Cafe, (You're So Square) Baby, I Don't Care, You Dream Flat Tyres and the title song.

Dog Eat Dog is as close as she's come to a weak album as she embraces eighties technology (and doesn't even play any guitar on it). It's still a worthwhile album because she can't write a bad song or sing badly. Still, not one of my favourites. 

Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm is a much stronger effort, even though the eighties tech remains. She's back playing guitar and the sound is more organic. She is still experimenting, this time out she uses a variety of vocalists to provide some vocal foils, and her song content takes on some social issues. It makes for an interesting set of songs.

I lost track of Joni until 2007's Shine (her first set of new material since 1998's Taming The Tiger (which I haven't heard). Her music is quite lush on this album, and her vocals are obviously best described as weathered. A lifetime of smoking has affected her voice.

By this stage, it's just great that she's still around and making music. I heard about it via a review in Mojo Magazine (a five-star review).

Where do they all belong? I'm keen to pick up Miles Of Aisles at some point. It's been reissued but it's pretty expensive. I'll wait till I get a voucher or can find a secondhand copy.