Joni Mitchell
We've bought just about every album Joni's released but, to be perfectly truthful, we only regularly listen to her first 8 or 9 albums. So if I speak of her in the past tense, please don't think she died. She's still alive at this writing and probably still recording. But we really prefer her early work.
Joni is/was a poet, a painter, and an outstanding singer, musician and arranger. She painted pictures with her words and her voice. In the studio, she provided her own backup singing. She would often lay down track after track of backup harmony. Her voice was amazing. She was a storyteller and seldom repeated herself.
One thing I hate about most current music is the repetition of measures and refrains. I hear songs in retail stores and restaurants where the same lame notes are played over and over again, and the same words are sung over and over again. After having grown up on Joni Mitchell and seeing what real artistry is, I can't stand to listen to the radio. In fact, the radio antennas on our 3 cars are non-functioning. We always listen to our own CDs.
Let me tell you a story or two about some friends of mine back in the late 60's and early 70's. They were married and had just moved to Houston, Texas. At this point in their early life together, he bought every Bob Dylan album and she bought every Joni Mitchell album. They joked that if they every divorced, all the Dylan albums were his and all the Joni albums were hers.
Karen had to leave for a week to be with her seriously ill mother in Fort Worth, but Ross was in law school and couldn't leave town. So Ross had a week to spend alone, and at some point he started listening to all Joni's albums. By the time Karen returned home, Ross was in love with Joni and her music.
Ross called me in Dallas once and said Joni would be in Houston for a concert and asked if I wanted to drive down for it. By this time, I was also buying every album Joni released. So I drove down and we went to the concert. The crowd was pretty unruly and noisy before the concert began and even while she was trying to sing. At one point she said she had planned to sing a few songs from her latest, unreleased album, but that they were slower, quieter songs and the crowd seemed to want to 'boogie', so she did some old favorites. Ross was livid - quiet, but livid. I'm surprised he didn't break the arms off his seat. He was ashamed of the way the crowd treated her.
Three days later, Joni was at the Memorial Auditorium in Dallas and I went to that concert as well. The sold-out crowd was great and obviously loved her. She was able to sing her new songs that she skipped in Houston. At the end of the concert, she was picking up dozens of roses people had laid on the front of the stage. She spoke to one of the Dallas police officers providing security. He looked unsure of something and looked at the other cops. Finally, he handed her something and she took it and her roses and left the stage. The next morning a story in the Dallas Morning News told of the great concert and said she 'coaxed love and admiration' from her fans and 'the badge off a policeman's chest'. Apparently, she had such a great time that she wanted a souvenir. So did I - I still have that article from 30 years ago.
If you really love music, poetry, great voice, guitar and piano, buy these albums and see what music can and should be like:
Blue
For the Roses
Court and Spark
Miles of Aisles
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Hejira
Clouds
Ladies of the Canyon