Joni Mitchell: Ladies of the Canyon (indie exclusive version) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This indie exclusive pressing comes in a matte gatefold sleeve with a poly-lined inner. The album went platinum in the US and holds three of her best-loved songs.

This edition

• Indie exclusive
• Gatefold jacket
• Poly-lined inner sleeve

About the album

Few houses have a better musical pedigree than 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue in Laurel Canyon. Graham Nash wrote "Our House" about it, and Mitchell wrote much of this album there, at the heart of the Los Angeles scene she named it after. The Saskatoon-raised songwriter was moving from guitar to piano, and her songs were growing richer and more ambitious as she went.

"Big Yellow Taxi" is the bounciest protest song ever written, "For Free" muses on fame through a street clarinetist, and "Woodstock" turns a generation's big weekend into a hymn, a song Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young took to the radio that same year. "The Circle Game," with all four of them singing along, closes the record, while "Rainy Night House," "Willy" and the title track show off the open tunings and stacked harmonies that point toward Blue.

Janet Jackson sampled "Big Yellow Taxi," Annie Lennox covered the title song and Lana Del Rey put "For Free" on Chemtrails over the Country Club. Half a century on, it's the album we hand to anyone who says they've never quite got into Joni, and they rarely hand it back.

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

Tracklist

Listen

On Reprise / Rhino (cat# RCV1 6376), a reissue of the 1970 album.