Joni Mitchell: Ladies Of The Canyon [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This reissue is on 180g vinyl, remastered by Bernie Grundman under Joni Mitchell's supervision. The album reached No. 27 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum, carrying three of her best-known songs.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered by Bernie Grundman
• Supervised by Joni Mitchell

About the album

The canyon is Laurel Canyon, and Joni Mitchell was writing these songs at 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue, the very house Graham Nash sang about in "Our House." It's the record where the Saskatoon folk singer starts reaching for something bigger, with piano moving to the front and the arrangements opening up. She was living with Nash at the time, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young turned "Woodstock" into one of their radio hits in 1970.

"For Free" watches a street busker play for nothing, a song Lana Del Rey later covered, while "Rainy Night House" recalls a night with Leonard Cohen in his childhood home in Montreal. "Big Yellow Taxi" became a standard, "Woodstock" an anthem of the festival, and "The Circle Game" closes the album with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young singing backup, billed as the Lookout Mountain United Downstairs Choir. Paul Horn and Jim Horn add woodwinds.

Robert Christgau called the second side almost perfect, and Annie Lennox later covered the title track. Mitchell also painted the cover herself, which is more than most of us manage with a spare weekend and a paint-by-numbers kit.

Also at Kops: more Joni Mitchell on vinyl · browse CDN Pop / Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Reprise / Rhino (cat# RR1 6376), a reissue of the 1970 album.