Joni fan here. Have all her early (pre 1975) stuff.
I love Carey, Car on Hill, and Free Man in Paris.
Of the lesser known ones, I really like Electricity, Night in the City, and Michael From Mountains.
IMO, she is one of the best song writers of the folk genre.
Court and Spark is one of the all time great albums- Help Me, Free Man in Paris, Car on a Hill, Just like this Train, etc. are all classics. Case of You (from Blue) is a brilliant song, but I hate the way she sings it. After about Hejira I sort of lose interest, but her stuff up until then is all pretty solid.
Circle Game and Court and Spark are my favourites. She’s a hometown girl (says she’s from Saskatoon but she’s really from my little hometown in Alberta) so I know friends of hers. Never did meet her, though.
Another great performance on YouTube: Cactus Tree from the first album. IMO this is an example of her poetic best. The lyrics quite accurately describe the girl who broke my heart.
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
While she’s so busy being free
The bolded lines always stop me in my tracks.
Similarly, Tin Angel, That Song about the Midway and The Gallery show a poet at the peak of her abilities. Stunning lyricist.
Great poetry. How many pop songs have lyrics that actually make you stop and think?
Here’s a bit of trivia, that adds to the enjoyment: On the original LP album of cactus tree, there was a simple statement:
“This album is dedicated to Mr. Kratzman, who taught me to love words”.
I’ve always assumed that Mr. K must have been Joni’s English teacher in high school. And he must have felt some real pride seeing his student produce those lyrics.
Due to copyright concerns, I removed the full set of lyrics, jjimm, but I left the bolded ones in place (so the rest of your post made sense).
That is so cool! I am intensely jealous of your first husband’s little sister…
Understood, but that was actually less than 50% of the lyrics, which I thought constituted ‘fair use’.
Mitchell’s 2000 recording of Both Sides Now with an orchestra nearly moves me to tears. That is the voice of experience singing. And it sounds like a collaboration with Debussy.