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  1. #1
    Rocket Surgeon Swish's Avatar
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    Week 14: 50 Albums That Changed Music

    This week's entry features another unique talent and one whom I have always admired. The album is Blue by Joni Mitchell (1971).

    Though Carole King's Tapestry was the biggest-selling album of the era, it is Joni Mitchell's Blue that remains the most influential of all the early Seventies outings by confessional singer-songwriters. Joni laid bare her heart in a series of intimate songs about love, betrayal and emotional insecurity. It could have been hell (think James Taylor) but for the pentrating brilliance of the songwriting. Raw, spare, and sophisticated, it remains the template for a certain kind of baroque female angst. Without this there would be no Tori Amos or Fiona Apple - and Elvis Costello and Prince have cited her as a prime influence.

    I don't know about you, but I could certainly do with Tori Amos, but I certainly this this was a great album as well as influential, although I'm not sure the "baroque female angst" comment was appropriate.

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    Swish
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  2. #2
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    I can't argue Mitchell's influence but I don't know if this is the album I'd cite as the beginning, since she had already made a splash with Big Yellow Taxi from Ladies Of The Canyon, which also had Woodstock on it (which is a Spooky, Haunted and Mesmurizing version of her song, which was made more famous by CSN&Y's version the same year).

    But I'll go so far as say the Carole King's Tapestry was more influential as far as albums go, at least in the same time frame. Long term though, I guess I'd have to give the nod to Mitchell, whose output was much more consistant than King's. But we are talking albums, so if credit is to go to Mitchell, then I'd vote for Court And Spark.

  3. #3
    Forum Regular BarryL's Avatar
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    Well, not being into Joni at the time of this album, I can't say whether it was so influential. Clearly her cross-over into jazz on Court & Spark was influential. Sure, Steely Dan were skirting the edges of the same thing on Pretzel Logic, but moved away to a heavier sound and more satirical song-writing on The Royal Scam.

    I guess Blue was influential mostly for the degree that Joni laid bare her soul with very personal first person songs. She always had a way with writing personal songs, but they were much more poetic - like Cactus Tree - than naked like Blue. Carol King was a great song writer, but spent most of the best years of her life honing hit songs for others. Tapestry surely needs to be on the top 50 list, because people like King paved the road for Joni.

    I think it's going a bit too far, though, to think that if Joni hadn't recorded Blue, people like Tori and Prince wouldn't have found influence elsewhere. It's nice rhetoric, and a fine tribute to her abilities, but lacking in honesty. My recollection is that Prince cited The Hissing Of Summer Lawns as a huge influence, not Blue.

    By the way, if you're a Joni fan, there is an outstanding documentary of her music and painting readily available on DVD. I found it extremely inspiring, and helped me understand why it is that of the two portraits of artists I have hanging in my house, one of them is Joni Mitchell.

  4. #4
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BarryL
    I think it's going a bit too far, though, to think that if Joni hadn't recorded Blue, people like Tori and Prince wouldn't have found influence elsewhere. It's nice rhetoric, and a fine tribute to her abilities, but lacking in honesty. My recollection is that Prince cited The Hissing Of Summer Lawns as a huge influence, not Blue.
    We've harped on this point before...basically this writer got paid for going to allmusic.com and cutting and pasting this article. I'd be surprised if the writer of this article actually listened to any of these albums...seriously.

  5. #5
    Forum Regular MindGoneHaywire's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3-LockBox
    I can't argue Mitchell's influence but I don't know if this is the album I'd cite as the beginning, since she had already made a splash with Big Yellow Taxi from Ladies Of The Canyon, which also had Woodstock on it (which is a Spooky, Haunted and Mesmurizing version of her song, which was made more famous by CSN&Y's version the same year).

    But I'll go so far as say the Carole King's Tapestry was more influential as far as albums go, at least in the same time frame. Long term though, I guess I'd have to give the nod to Mitchell, whose output was much more consistant than King's. But we are talking albums, so if credit is to go to Mitchell, then I'd vote for Court And Spark.
    I was crazy busy & alternately on my butt all last week, & therefore unable to post in this thread, but I think 3-Lock nailed it on this one. I'm not a Joni aficionado, but this looks like they felt they had to pick a rec & thought Court & Spark was just an uncool choice because it was the most popular one.

    She's an artist where measuring influence on the basis of one album alone is hard to justify, so they're screwing a square peg into a round hole for the sake of their piece. I could be wrong about that, but that's what it seems like, and that illustrates how flawed the intent of the piece is from the get-go. Taking that into consideration...I've read worse.

    I don't like others.

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