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Blue (Joni Mitchell album)

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Blue
Studio album by
Joni Mitchell
ReleasedJune 22, 1971 (1971-06-22)
Recorded1971
StudioA&M, Hollywood, California
Genre
Length36:15
LabelReprise
ProducerJoni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell chronology
Ladies of the Canyon
(1970) 		Blue
(1971) 		For the Roses
(1972)
Singles from Blue
  1. "Carey"
    Released: August 1971
  2. "California"
    Released: October 1971

Blue is the fourth studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on June 22, 1971, by Reprise Records. Written and produced entirely by Mitchell, it was recorded in 1971 at A&M Studios in Hollywood, California. Created just after her breakup with Graham Nash and during an intense relationship with James Taylor, Blue explores various facets of relationships from love on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight". The songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar and Appalachian dulcimer. The album peaked at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart, number 9 on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart and number 15 on the Billboard 200.

Retrospectively, Blue has been widely regarded by music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time; the cohesion of Mitchell's songwriting, compositions and vocals are frequent areas of praise. In January 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music".[1] In 2020, Blue was rated the third greatest album of all time in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest entry by a female artist.[2] It was also voted number 24 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). In July 2017, Blue was chosen by NPR as the greatest album of all time made by a woman.[3]

History

[edit]

Despite the success of her first three albums and songs like "Woodstock", January 1970 saw Mitchell make a decision to break from performing. In early spring 1970, she set off on a vacation around Europe.[4] While on the island of Crete and staying in Matala, she wrote some of the songs that appear on Blue.[5] This journey was the backdrop for the songs "Carey" and "California"—"Carey" was inspired by her relationship with an American named Cary Raditz, who was the "redneck on a Grecian Isle" in "California".[6] Some of the songs on Blue were inspired by Mitchell's 1968–1970 relationship with Graham Nash.[7] Their relationship was already troubled when she left for Europe, and it was while she was on Formentera that she sent Nash the telegram that let him know that their relationship was over.[7] The songs "My Old Man"[7] and "River"[8] are thought to be inspired by their relationship.

Another pivotal experience in Mitchell's life that drove the emergence of the album was her relationship with James Taylor.[9] She had begun an intense relationship with Taylor by the summer of 1970, visiting him on the set of the movie Two-Lane Blacktop, the aura of which is referred to in "This Flight Tonight".[10] The songs "Blue" and "All I Want" have specific references to her relationship with Taylor, such as a sweater that she knitted for him at the time and his heroin addiction. During the making of Blue in January 1971, they were still very much in love and involved.[11] By March, Taylor's fame had exploded, causing friction. She was reportedly devastated when he broke off the relationship.[12]

The album was almost released in a somewhat different form. In March 1971, completed masters for the album were ready for production. Originally, there were three old songs that had not found their way onto any of her previous albums. At the last minute, Mitchell decided to remove two of the three so that she could add the new songs "All I Want" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard". "Little Green", composed in 1967, was the only old song that remained. The two songs removed were:

In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either."[13]

Mitchell continued to use alternate tunings on her guitar to allow easier access to augmented chords and notes in unexpected combinations.[14] Due to the stark and bare revelations in the album, when it was first played for Kris Kristofferson he is reported to have commented, "Joni! Keep something to yourself!"[15]

Critical reception and legacy

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
About.com[16]
AllMusic[17]
Christgau's Record GuideA[18]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music[19]
MusicHound[20]
Pitchfork10/10[21]
Rolling Stone[22]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[23]
Sputnikmusic[24]

Today, Blue is generally regarded by music critics as one of the greatest albums of all time, with Mitchell's songwriting and compositions being frequent areas of praise. In January 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music".[25]

Jason Ankeny of AllMusic describes Blue as "the quintessential confessional singer/songwriter album". Praising the songs as "raw nerves, tales of love and loss etched with stunning complexity", Ankeny concludes writing "Unrivaled in its intensity". The writers of Pitchfork gave the album a perfect 10-out-of-10 rating, calling it "possibly the most gutting break-up album ever made".[21]

Blue was included in the 2018 edition of Robert Dimery's book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die[26] and ranked #18 on Apple Music’s 100 Best Albums list in 2024.

Accolades

[edit]
Accolades for Blue
Publication Country Accolade Year Rank
Consequence of Sound United States The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time[27] 2007 28
Entertainment Weekly Greatest Albums Ever[28] 2013 11
Kitsap Sun Top 200 Albums of Last 40 Years[29] 2005 57
Paste The 70 Best Albums of the 1970s[30] 2012 21
Pitchfork The 100 Best Albums of the 1970s[31] 2004 86
Radio WXPN Greatest Albums[32] 2005 13
Rolling Stone 50 Essential Female Albums[33] 2002 2
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[34][35] 2012 30
2020 3
Top 100 Albums of Last 20 Years[36] 1987 46
Women Who Rock: The 50 Greatest Albums of All Time[37] 2012 2
Stylus Magazine Top Albums of All Time[38] 2004 109
Time Top 100 Albums of All Time[39] 2006 N/A
VH1 100 Greatest Albums of Rock and Roll Era[40] 2001 14
Vibe Essential Albums of the 20th Century[41] 1999 N/A
Mojo United Kingdom The 100 Greatest Albums Ever Made[42] 1996 18
The 100 Records That Changed the World[citation needed] 2005 65
NME 101 Albums To Hear Before You Die[43] 2014 N/A
All Times Top 100 Albums[44] 1974 67
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time[45] 2013 63
Q The 50 Best Albums of 70s[46] 1998 23
The Guardian Top 100 Best Albums Ever[47] 1997 35
The Observer The 50 Albums That Changed Music[48] 2006 14
The Times The 100 Albums of All Time[49] 1993 26
Uncut 200 Greatest Albums of All Time[50] 2016 33
ChartAttack Canada Top 100 Canadian Albums of All Time[51] 1996 3
Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time[citation needed] 2000 1

Commercial performance

[edit]

The album was a commercial success. In Canada, the album peaked at number nine on the Canadian RPM Albums Chart. In the United Kingdom, the album peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart and has been certified double platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for sales over of 600,000 copies in the UK. In the US, the album peaked at number 15 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album was later certified platinum for sales over a million copies. The single "Carey" reached number 93 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 2021, Blue peaked at number 1 on iTunes, 50 years to the day after its release. It also became the number 1 Audio CD on Amazon.[52][53]

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks are written by Joni Mitchell.

Side one

  1. "All I Want" – 3:34
  2. "My Old Man" – 3:34
  3. "Little Green" – 3:27
  4. "Carey" – 3:02
  5. "Blue" – 3:05

Side two

  1. "California" – 3:51
  2. "This Flight Tonight" – 2:51
  3. "River" – 4:04
  4. "A Case of You" – 4:22
  5. "The Last Time I Saw Richard" – 4:15

Personnel

[edit]

According to the liner notes:[54]

Charts

[edit]

Certifications

[edit]
Certifications for Blue
Region Certification Certified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[67] Gold 35,000^
United Kingdom (BPI)[68] 2× Platinum 600,000^
United States (RIAA)[69] Platinum 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Jon Pareles; Neil Strauss; Ben Ratliff & Ann Powers (January 3, 2000). "Critics' Choices; Albums as Mileposts In a Musical Century". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 31, 2020. Retrieved December 17, 2009.
  2. ^ "The Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: No. 3 Joni Mitchell Blue". Rolling Stone. September 22, 2020. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 22, 2020.
  3. ^ Tsioulcas, Anastasia (July 24, 2017). "The 150 Greatest Albums Made By Women". NPR. Archived from the original on September 26, 2020. Retrieved September 4, 2017.
  4. ^ Weller, Sheila (April 8, 2008). Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—And the Journey of a Generation. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780743491471. Archived from the original on May 29, 2021. Retrieved May 6, 2017.
  5. ^ Haig, Matt (2015). Reasons to Stay Alive. London, U.K.: Cannongate Books. p. 231. ISBN 9781782116820. Formentera was also where Joni Mitchell wrote the album Blue.
  6. ^ Mossman, Kate (December 17, 2021). ""I didn't want anyone to know it was me": on being Joni Mitchell's "Carey"". New Statesman. Retrieved January 7, 2022.
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