missed this thread but would have voted "this flight tonight" or "california."
― The Détourn of the Depressed (get bent), Monday, 14 December 2009 09:10 (fourteen years ago) link
great winner - what i voted for in the end. if there's a surprise here it's the title track coming in so low.
― lex pretend, Monday, 14 December 2009 09:51 (fourteen years ago) link
this is just such a fucking amazing record
i sorta love every song on this in a way that deprives them of much individuality but i think i like 'california' the most its so spry and lovely but deeply sad, 'the streets are full of strangers' part, where her voice lifts up on 'strung out on another man'... its just so perfect
― peebutt fartbottom (Lamp), Thursday, 8 March 2012 05:11 (twelve years ago) link
cannot be said enough
― Tim F, Thursday, 8 March 2012 05:57 (twelve years ago) link
"---well, surely you touched mine"
― lex pretend, Monday, December 7, 2009 6:15 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
this post made me tear up. this record has held me for two decades.
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:05 (twelve years ago) link
another line I love:
"he gave me back my smile / but he took my camera cell..."
― Tim F, Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:14 (twelve years ago) link
actually it's "my camera to sell" isn't it.
It's the way she says it that is so effective.
― Tim F, Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:16 (twelve years ago) link
i have listened to so much joni tonite
the line 'it's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head' is sorta killing me rn
― ^lame (Lamp), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:18 (twelve years ago) link
ohhhh the way the tone of her voice changes on "i'm gonna blow this damn candle out"
― an elk hunt (Ówen P.), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:21 (twelve years ago) link
As I was kinda saying upthread, "The Last Time I Saw Richard" is a song which I suspect only Joni could write, she plays both sides of the song so convincingly.
― Tim F, Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:36 (twelve years ago) link
haha yr first post itt is really good although i had a chuckle @ 'in a Bakhtin sense'
― Lamp, Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:39 (twelve years ago) link
Man. I'm glad this is the first bookmark I saw when wandering by - a week of doing PWolf over at OneWeek/OneBand has sent me to Blue and Hejira at every spare moment/opportunity.
The dulcimer is such a gorgeous instrument.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:47 (twelve years ago) link
Her pacing on "undoes all the joy that could be" is lovely. Just stretching out those last two words.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:48 (twelve years ago) link
'A Case of You' used to be such an easy default answer for best song on Blue and now I don't understand how I was ever capable of not struggling with the question.
Besides maybe 'Little Green' and 'River', which I love slightly less than the rest, I have no idea how I'd answer today.
― Somewhere between Fergie and Jesus (Alex in Montreal), Thursday, 8 March 2012 06:50 (twelve years ago) link
tbh when I read my first post again I died inside a little when I saw this.
― Tim F, Thursday, 8 March 2012 11:09 (twelve years ago) link
guys, i hope u all vote in upcoming joni artist poll. also - this album is so good i can't even listen to it anymore. every time i put it on i just feel entirely overcome with emotion. i have to save it for an evening when i have no responsibilities and don't mind enter blue-affect for a few hours.
― Mordy, Thursday, 8 March 2012 16:15 (twelve years ago) link
i haven't been able to think about listening to it for months but tonight may be the night
― Nultified Ancients of Man U (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 8 March 2012 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
my old man is a great song fuiud
― max, Thursday, 8 March 2012 16:24 (twelve years ago) link
we don't need no piece of paper from the city hall/fuck you if you disagree
― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Thursday, 8 March 2012 16:52 (twelve years ago) link
"he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on/and all the house lights left up bright" = one of the most devastating descriptions in any song
― simulation and similac (Hurting 2), Thursday, 8 March 2012 16:55 (twelve years ago) link
oh man "Little Green" just kills me - when she says "you're sad, and you're sorry, but you're not ashamed" I completely collapse. a song of almost unimaginable honesty in my opinion.
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 8 March 2012 17:21 (twelve years ago) link
yeah how could anyone not love "little green" it destroys me
― horseshoe, Thursday, 8 March 2012 17:22 (twelve years ago) link
this thread revive is kind of stressing me out--i can't listen to this album right now, okay???
― horseshoe, Thursday, 8 March 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
"child with a child pretending" devastates me
― Mordy, Thursday, 8 March 2012 17:26 (twelve years ago) link
shit i think i'm going to play this album.let me go hide the alcohol first
maybe i'll just play hejira instead as a compromise
― Mordy, Thursday, 8 March 2012 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
I'd have gone with "all i want"
― Jessie Fer Ark (Mobbed Up Ping Pong Psychos), Thursday, 8 March 2012 22:24 (twelve years ago) link
this album and me, we've parted waysdon't know how long, won't count the daysa classic yes, will always bejust not in my heart, no more for me
― surm, Thursday, 8 March 2012 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
'richard' is nice but very surprised that won this poll.
― skip, Thursday, 8 March 2012 22:36 (twelve years ago) link
I went to Crete a couple years back and stayed near Matala ("beneath a Matala moon" is the line in "Carey" that I'd thought was "beneath a map of the moon" when I owned the album on cassette) and the vibe of that song became so, so, so vivid to me. The wind was in from Africa every night, there's all these little tavernas you can just hang out in, all these caves the hippies used to camp out in (which they thought were monks' quarters but were actually ANCIENT TOMBS)...getting a connection to a Blue lyric made me deliriously happy
― unlistenable in philly (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Thursday, 8 March 2012 23:39 (twelve years ago) link
:D
i was singing "Carey" to myself all last night.
cdn't bring myself to wrestle with the album tho.
― Nultified Ancients of Man U (Noodle Vague), Friday, 9 March 2012 09:37 (twelve years ago) link
YOU'RE A MEAN OLD DADDY BUT I LIKE YOU
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 9 March 2012 12:12 (twelve years ago) link
I've always thought that line was "Beneath the mantle of the moon." I've probably misheard a lot of lines on this album.
― "marvellously inoffensive" (Eazy), Friday, 9 March 2012 12:39 (twelve years ago) link
California is my eternal summer jam, even though I don't live there. So many subtle touches to the arrangement, i fuckin love it when the steel comes in at the very end.
― black covfefe in bed (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 21 June 2017 19:13 (six years ago) link
("beneath a Matala moon" is the line in "Carey" that I'd thought was "beneath a map of the moon" when I owned the album on cassette
Always thought this was "the mantle of the moon"!
― Eazy, Wednesday, 21 June 2017 20:27 (six years ago) link
Love rereading this thread.
― Tim F, Thursday, 22 June 2017 22:54 (six years ago) link
this is beautiful, paul horn with joni mitchell on piano and wordless vox
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS1lzfDmKL4
― brimstead, Thursday, 22 June 2017 23:13 (six years ago) link
it's a scandal that "my old man" got no votes here. an amazing song which is better than the best songs of most musicians/bands.
― Ich bin kein Berliner (alex in mainhattan), Friday, 23 June 2017 08:37 (six years ago) link
the real scandal is the size of my bed and my frying pans
― pray for BoJo (Noodle Vague), Friday, 23 June 2017 09:22 (six years ago) link
I had an old original vinyl copy of this that had clearly been played a thousand times, got it in college when I first discovered Joni's music. This year I got the Rhino remastered 180g vinyl, and while I didn't have a lot of faith in it actually being any better, the whole record just opened up for me all over again, like I'd never really listened to it before. You could isolate just about any single line from this album and people who didn't know it would be like ooohhhhh shiiiiii
― Guy Pidgeotto (Tom Violence), Friday, 23 June 2017 18:28 (six years ago) link
that moment in "this flight tonight" when you, the listener, not just the narrator in the song, hear the band through the headphones, is SO. GOOD
― flamenco drop (BradNelson), Friday, 30 March 2018 23:33 (six years ago) link
hi Brad
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 30 March 2018 23:35 (six years ago) link
a case of you is really fun to play on guitar, obviously not the same as a dulcimer, but those chords are so great. or at least the chords in this tab: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/joni_mitchell/a_case_of_you_chords_957219
― flappy bird, Saturday, 31 March 2018 01:19 (six years ago) link
brad otm - been loving that song for thirty years and that moment always puts a smile on my face
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 31 March 2018 02:12 (six years ago) link
that + the "help me" callback to it in "the ballad of dorothy parker" = name a more iconic pair of musical moments between two discographies
― lowercase (eric), Saturday, 31 March 2018 02:28 (six years ago) link
funny how I listen to this album least of the ones in her major sequence but I'm a sucker for any description that takes me back
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 31 March 2018 02:39 (six years ago) link
"my old man" getting nothing is bonkers. every point in song she says "my" is sublime. "he's the warmest chord i ever heard" is a killer line.
― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Saturday, 31 March 2018 04:48 (six years ago) link
River 8A Case Of You 7
Ugh. Richard topping ACOY, ok, but River? Mentalism.
Great album at least if you're focused on the heights of the highs, but I'll take the two at least as great follow-ups, thanks. Probably because I prefer Spring and Summer to Winter.
― Moo Vaughn, Saturday, 31 March 2018 05:32 (six years ago) link
There's a big kerfuffle in the youtube comments for "This Flight Tonight" because apparently when landing a plane you put the flaps down, not up, and raising the flaps would send the plane crashing down noseward. Others in the thread say Joni got it right, or that it's impossible to raise the flaps at all. Any pilots here? I need to know....
― Lee626, Saturday, 31 March 2018 11:33 (six years ago) link
Even though Joni's zenith was shorter than Dylan's (to say nothing of his multiple peaks) she really said shit that was out of his range. The emotional honesty of Blue - Hejira is a whole other level. And of necessity, cringe-inducing when we can't acknowledge our own feelings to that extent.
― startled macropod (MatthewK), Saturday, 31 March 2018 12:24 (six years ago) link