"Blue"
It's fifty years since Joni Mitchell released her most marvellous album - "Blue". I bought it as soon as it came out and listened to it over and over again. It was astonishing because of its lyrical beauty and its emotional openness. Everything poured out of her. There were no reins to hold it back. It was more than poetry. The melodies and the simple musical backing lifted it higher. In later years, I discovered that the songs reference Joni's love affairs with Graham Nash and James Taylor and the loss of her daughter Kelly who was fostered soon after her birth when Joni was an impoverished art student. In 1971, none of that mattered to me because I found the songs awesome in their own right. I didn't need to know exactly what had sparked them. She sang,:- On the back of a cartoon coaster In the blue TV screen light I drew a map of Canada Oh, Canada With your face sketched on it twice The album was revelatory and true and it was speaking to me direc...
