ARTISTS SHARE TOP TRACKS
TO COMMEMORATE the 50th anniversary of Joni Mitchell’s “Blue,” we asked 10 top artists — some legendary friends and peers of Mitchell’s, some her musical progeny — to each choose a song from the landmark album and explain what it meant to them, why it pierced their hearts and minds. We’ve arranged their billets-doux in the running order of the album if you want to drop the needle and listen along.
JAMES TAYLOR ‘ALL I WANT’
> Joni and I had our year together, back when a year lasted three times longer than it does today. Inflation. That was 50 years ago. My time with her included the recording of her “Blue” album and I remember the sessions at A&M Studios with Henry Lewy behind the glass. There was never anyone else there, just Joni, Henry and me. I played on “All I Want,” “Carey,” “California” and “A Case of You.” She had written most of those songs in the previous year or so while traveling. Maybe that’s why so many were composed on the three-string dulcimer: a nice, portable ax. Playing along with her spare dulcimer accompaniment, I was free to substitute whatever chords I felt, which was great; but of course, it was her voice and the songs themselves that make “Blue” so singular. To his credit, Henry Lewy had us keep it simple. I believe that some of those songs were written with me in mind although, as a songwriter, I know how songs can have their own bent truth. Still, I hear a personal message in several of them, her gift to me: the lucky one.
“All I Want” allows itself to be light and loving, as sunny a sentiment as we are apt to hear from her. It’s a kiss, a love note, a valentine. Listen to her laugh at the end of “Big Yellow Taxi.” Like that ...
ADRIANNE LENKER (BIG THIEF) ‘MY OLD MAN’
> On “My Old Man,” Joni describes the kind of love where you cast aside the need for marriage, understanding that a certificate is just a piece of paper — a system in a structure that’s totally aside from the feeling of real love. You have something so strong that it exists on its own; there’s a natural desire for being true and together, and maybe marriage has nothing to do with that.
Joni describes this person as being the warmest chord she’s ever heard in this very romantic way. “He’s a singer in the park / He’s a walker in the rain / He’s a dancer in the dark.” What a beautiful connection to experience with someone, that there’s this person who keeps her blues away, who, when he’s gone, everything feels empty. The bed’s too big. The frying pan’s too wide. And I feel that, especially because I’ve gone through different relationships and I felt very big heartbreak in this last year.
At this point in my life, as a 29year-old woman — maybe not so far from when Joni was making this record in her own life — what I’m really trying to do is embrace myself and feel like I am the warmest chord. That I can feel warmed by my own company, and can also see that I’m all of these things that I usually externalize and put on another person.