Album: Joni Mitchell, aka Song To A Seagull
Recorded: 1967
Released: March 1968
Recorded: 1967
Released: March 1968
Songs / length: 10 / 38:00
Born in 1943 as Roberta Joan Anderson, Joni had a mix of Scots-Irish ancestry on her mother's side and Norwegian on her father's side. She grew up in rural Canada and contracted polio aged 9. This weakened her left hand and led to her adoption of unconventional tunings when playing ukulele, and later guitar. Painter, pianist and poet, Joni's early musical influences were Miles Davis, Edith Piaf and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
After heading east to Ontario aged 20, she became pregnant but was abandoned by her boyfriend, and had to give up her baby for adoption in 1965 aged 21. This was one of the sparks for her songwriting. She married, moved to the US and got divorced, then set out as a solo artist in New York in 1967. She built a reputation as a songwriter, with Judy Collins and others finding success with her songs. Playing a gig in Florida, David Crosby chanced upon her set and persuaded her to travel with him back to LA, where she was signed by Reprise and recorded her self-titled first album in 1968, also known as Song To A Seagull.
Joni made the brave decision of only recording original material for her first album, avoiding any of her early songs that were made successful by other artists, like Judy Collins (Both Sides Now) and Buffy Sainte-Marie (The Circle Game). I think it was mistake for her to leave off Urge For Going, one of my favourite early Joni Mitchell songs, and Chelsea Morning would have been a nice fit too.
As David Yaffe points out though, in his Joni biography Reckless Daughter, the LP was conceived as a concept album, with side 1 titled "I Came to the City" and side 2 "Out of the City and Down to the Seaside". This meant all the songs were chosen carefully to fit a narrative – those on side 1 about city life in Toronto and New York, those on side 2 written in & around Laurel Canyon – meaning no room for her early hits.
Both the album's artwork and even some of the songs, like Pirate of Penance, remind me of Love's Forever Changes, while Marcie has echoes of Leonard Cohen. For the most part though, the album is highly original, avoiding the folk-rock overdubs and Sgt Pepper psychedelics of the time, though it is slightly marred by Crosby's inexperience as a producer. I'm thinking particularly of the shrill harmonica sound on Nathan La Franeer, as well as the general tape hiss.
Despite its less than perfect sound, the album has lots of strengths – not least Joni's wonderful singing (especially on The Dawntreader and Night In The City), adventurous harmonies and song structures (Michael From Mountains) and fairytale finger-picking guitar sound. As ever, the songwriting is top notch too. The album is dedicated to her old teacher, Mr Kratzmann, who advised her to always avoid cliche, and there's always an original turn of phrase or shift in perspective in her songs.
Opening track I Had A King speaks of a marriage "too soon", no doubt a reference to her ex-husband Chuck Mitchell, while closer Cactus Tree, on which she talks of being "so busy being free", gives the impression of a restless soul too grand to be tied down to one man.
Highlights: Michael From Mountains, Night In The City, The Dawntreader, Cactus Tree
Album rating: B
Born in 1943 as Roberta Joan Anderson, Joni had a mix of Scots-Irish ancestry on her mother's side and Norwegian on her father's side. She grew up in rural Canada and contracted polio aged 9. This weakened her left hand and led to her adoption of unconventional tunings when playing ukulele, and later guitar. Painter, pianist and poet, Joni's early musical influences were Miles Davis, Edith Piaf and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
After heading east to Ontario aged 20, she became pregnant but was abandoned by her boyfriend, and had to give up her baby for adoption in 1965 aged 21. This was one of the sparks for her songwriting. She married, moved to the US and got divorced, then set out as a solo artist in New York in 1967. She built a reputation as a songwriter, with Judy Collins and others finding success with her songs. Playing a gig in Florida, David Crosby chanced upon her set and persuaded her to travel with him back to LA, where she was signed by Reprise and recorded her self-titled first album in 1968, also known as Song To A Seagull.
Joni made the brave decision of only recording original material for her first album, avoiding any of her early songs that were made successful by other artists, like Judy Collins (Both Sides Now) and Buffy Sainte-Marie (The Circle Game). I think it was mistake for her to leave off Urge For Going, one of my favourite early Joni Mitchell songs, and Chelsea Morning would have been a nice fit too.
As David Yaffe points out though, in his Joni biography Reckless Daughter, the LP was conceived as a concept album, with side 1 titled "I Came to the City" and side 2 "Out of the City and Down to the Seaside". This meant all the songs were chosen carefully to fit a narrative – those on side 1 about city life in Toronto and New York, those on side 2 written in & around Laurel Canyon – meaning no room for her early hits.
Both the album's artwork and even some of the songs, like Pirate of Penance, remind me of Love's Forever Changes, while Marcie has echoes of Leonard Cohen. For the most part though, the album is highly original, avoiding the folk-rock overdubs and Sgt Pepper psychedelics of the time, though it is slightly marred by Crosby's inexperience as a producer. I'm thinking particularly of the shrill harmonica sound on Nathan La Franeer, as well as the general tape hiss.
Despite its less than perfect sound, the album has lots of strengths – not least Joni's wonderful singing (especially on The Dawntreader and Night In The City), adventurous harmonies and song structures (Michael From Mountains) and fairytale finger-picking guitar sound. As ever, the songwriting is top notch too. The album is dedicated to her old teacher, Mr Kratzmann, who advised her to always avoid cliche, and there's always an original turn of phrase or shift in perspective in her songs.
Opening track I Had A King speaks of a marriage "too soon", no doubt a reference to her ex-husband Chuck Mitchell, while closer Cactus Tree, on which she talks of being "so busy being free", gives the impression of a restless soul too grand to be tied down to one man.
Highlights: Michael From Mountains, Night In The City, The Dawntreader, Cactus Tree
Album rating: B
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