the canadian songbird at her best

from 1974, she had gone to the piano more by then

If someone would have asked me say ten years ago what artist's oeuvre I would take with me to a desert island, I would with dead certainty have answered: everything by Joni Mitchell, please. I'm not so sure anymore, although it could well be that I, when push comes to shove, would still make that choice. So it may not come as a surprise now that for a long time my all time best album was one of Joni's, Don Juan's Reckless daughter, where her cooperation with Jaco Pastorius really took off, for instance on this song where she's questioning her love for a man who's new sweety has already moved in while still keeping poor Joni (assuming the song is sort of autobiographical) on the side as his Off Night Backstreet. Jaco's warm bass carries the whole song and is almost like a second voice to Joni's singing, it blends marvelously with her cold metal guitar, some nice echoey and spacy flageolets too, great additional vocals - "Backstreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!"- by JD Souther and Glenn Frey, drums by John Guerrin, subtle and tight. PS Be warned that the soundfile is quite big (500 Kb).

Joni Joni Joni. Great poetess of the north! A wonderful merging of folk & jazz here. Some of the most beautiful poetry by this already prolific artist. Also a standout on this record is the bass playing of Mr. Jaco Pastorius. From the poet who said "we are stardust,we are golden,we are billion year old carbon,and we've come to find our way back to the garden. Joni Mitchell "Woodstock"