My first memories of Joni Mitchell's songs are from an age I can't quite narrow down; too young, but old enough to recall.
What I can see in that soft-focused time begins from my parents' turntable: there I am, sitting in the living room, listening to "The Circle Game" on Ladies of the Canyon and thinking about how I was in the magical midst of my youth and I needed to Appreciate It, appreciate everything. That years ago my mother had been young with a life I knew nothing about when she'd bought this record, without any notion she'd have a little girl someday (as I sat there in her faded Indian linen hippie hand-me-downs); a weirdly nostalgic kid who'd sit there thinking herself in circles about those cycles - not unlike the song.
Other days after school, in the tiring sunlight of late afternoon, I'd drop the needle on song one (a meandering tune about some dreamy-sounding place called Cotton Avenue) from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter and imagine intently through all four sides to that album about what it would be like when I was all grown and on my own, young and free, adventuring on all the Cotton Avenues of my life that I could hardly wait to find.
A few years later I remember picking up a used copy of Blue on CD at the record store in Fredericksburg, Virginia, to pop in my discman for the walk home after work - all the acoustic guitar and piano-driven gems of songs falling snugly into place in my ears like old friends I'd forgotten but still knew to the core, their seats in my heart still warm and waiting.
Anyway, I love this series of photographs of her; like the best of her music, simple and beautiful:
2 comments:
I have Blue, Ladies of the Canyon and a few bootleg shows, including one I attended in, ahem, 1979. It was the Bread and Roses concert in Berkley, Ca. She headlined a unbelieveable lineup of folk and jazz artist two days in a row. I spent my last 10 dollars to go to day 2.
Wow, that's amazing! I wish I could have been there!
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