"Blue" by Joni Mitchell
Looking back at one of the absolute best 70s albums.
Hello! 😊👋
Welcome to a new edition of the Best Music of All Time newsletter!
Today’s music pick celebrates one of the best releases of the 70s, a tender record featuring my favorite Christmas song of all time.
Genre: Folk, Pop
Label: Warner Records
Release Date: June 22, 1971
Vibe: 💙💙💙
If they’re lucky, most albums provide listeners with one or two transcendent moments—flashes of creative expression that stick in the mind and soul well after the music stops. Joni Mitchell’s Blue, a seminal release in a long and illustrious career, serves up at least 10 or 12, earning its place on the Mount Rushmore of the best singer/songwriter records ever produced. Many contemporary and revisionist reviews peg this as a break-up album, but it’s far from modern tearjerkers produced by Adele, Taylor Swift, and company. Some of the tracks have a melancholic, even mournful quality, particularly about missing her daughter (”Little Green”). Still, those moments are perfectly counterbalanced with moments of hopefulness as Joni sheds the ghosts of her past and looks toward a brighter future filled with human connection (see “Carey” and “California”). Equal parts angelic and haunting, her vocal performance throughout is one of the best I’ve ever heard, inspiring countless modern spinoffs that have never quite equaled its emotional heft.
This brings me to the topic I really want to cover in this post: my favorite Christmas song of all time, “River.” It’s definitely not an upbeat holiday anthem, peeling back the curtains on Joni’s psyche as she feels lonely and lost as the holidays approach. Suddenly single, seeing all the joy and togetherness around her, all she wants to do is find a river that will allow her to skate far, far away from the reminders of how her life used to be. Mitchell called it “[a] Christmas song for people who are lonely at Christmas.” She quickly adds, “We need a song like that,” and I wholeheartedly agree. Whether it’s physical isolation or feeling like you somehow don’t belong within the confines of yearly gatherings of family or friends, showing different sides of familiar tropes has been one of Mitchell’s strengths for more than a half-century. Judging by the fact that “River” has been covered nearly 900 times since its release, it’s safe to say its story and message have resonated with generations of listeners.
It’s still the biggest highlight on a record full of them. If you’re looking to add to your or someone else’s record collection this holiday season, you could do a lot worse than Blue.
👉 Don’t forget to click the album image to stream the album on your favorite platform 👈