Joni Mitchell – Blue

Blue, the fourth album from Joni Mitchell, is perhaps the greatest album of the singer-songwriter genre. A commercial success (#9 in Canada, #15 in the U.S. and #3 in the U.K.), it also garnered strong reviews:

• AllMusic gave it a perfect 5 stars
• Robert Christgau graded it an A
• Pitchfork rated it a perfect 10
• All versions of the Rolling Stone album/record guide gave it a perfect 5 stars

Blue is generally picked by the critics and fans as one of the greatest albums of all time:

• Paul Gambaccini's Critic's Choice Top 100 Albums: 67th in 1987
• Pitchfork's Top 100 Albums of the 1970s: 86th in 2004
• Q's 21 Albums That Changed Music: 7th in 2007
• Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time: 30th in both 2003 and 2012
• Time magazine's ALL-TIME 100 Albums in 2006
• CBC Radio: 3rd in the 100 Greatest Canadian Albums Ever in 2013
• Chart's Great Canadian Music Poll: 3rd in 1996, 1st in 2000 and 3rd in 2005
• Mar*Star's Canadian music polls: 24th in 1992 and 3rd in 2011
• Bob Mersereau's The Top 100 Canadian Albums: 2nd in 2007

Interestingly, I remember being introduced to Blue (as well as the top album in this poll and other classics of the singer-songwriter genre) in the apartment upstairs from my grandmother's house at 40 Euclid Avenue in Waterloo, while my sister Sherri was at university. Yet, I also remember listening to Nazareth's version of "The Flight Tonight" while cruising the bush roads of Algoma in Gord Childs's various cars during high school.

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Track Listing

1. "All I Want" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:32
2. "My Old Man" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:33
3. "Little Green" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:25
4. "Carey" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:00
5. "Blue" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:00
6. "California" (Joni Mitchell) – 3:48
7. "This Flight Tonight" (Joni Mitchell) – 2:50
8. "River" (Joni Mitchell) – 4:00
9. "A Case of You" (Joni Mitchell) – 4:20
10. "The Last Time I Saw Richard" (Joni Mitchell) – 4:13

Personnel

• Joni Mitchell – appalachian dulcimer, guitar, piano, vocals
• Stephen Stills – bass and guitar (on 4)
• James Taylor – guitar (on 1, 6, 9)
• Sneaky Pete Kleinow – pedal steel guitar (on 6, 7)
• Russ Kunkel – drums (on 4, 6, 9)

• Joni Mitchell – Court and Spark (album)
• Joni Mitchell – Hejira (album)
• Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now (song)
• Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi (song)
• Joni Mitchell – River (song)
• Joni Mitchell – A Case of You (song)