(Folk-Rock) Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon - 1970, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Ladies of the Canyon is Joni Mitchell's third album, released in 1970. Its title refers to Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, a center of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the sixties. It features several of Mitchell's most noted songs, including "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock" and "The Circle Game".
Notable for its expansion of Mitchell's artistic vision and its varied song topics (ranging from the aesthetic weight of celebrity, to clear-eyed observation of the Woodstock generation, to the complexities of love), Ladies of the Canyon is often viewed as a transition between Mitchell's folky earlier work and the more sophisticated, poignant albums that were to follow. In particular, "For Free" foreshadows the lyrical leitmotif of the isolation triggered by success that would be elaborated upon in For the Roses and Court and Spark. The sparse, alternate-tuning laden sound of later records comes to the forefront on "Ladies of the Canyon".
Of all of Mitchell's work, this album is arguably the most related to her long-standing friendships and relationships with Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young (whose hard rock arrangement of "Woodstock" was one of their three radio hits in 1970). A number of the album's songs, including the aforementioned "Ladies of the Canyon" and "Woodstock", feature densely stacked, wordless harmony overdubs reminiscent of David Crosby's oeuvre; Crosby himself has covered "For Free" for many years. "Willy" is a girlishly infatuating paean to Graham Nash. "The Circle Game", one of the artist's most recognizable songs, features background vocals from all four. "Big Yellow Taxi" has also managed to become a standard over the years, sampled by Janet Jackson.
Young and the Restless star Jess Walton has said that one of the houses featured on the album's cover belonged to her.

This wonderfully varied release shows a number of new tendencies in Joni Mitchell's work, some of which would come to fuller fruition on subsequent albums. "The Arrangement," "Rainy Night House," and "Woodstock" contain lengthy instrumental sections, presaging the extensive non-vocal stretches in later selections such as "Down to You" from Court and Spark. Jazz elements are noticeable in the wind solos of "For Free" and "Conversation," exhibiting an important influence that would extend as late as Mingus. The unusually poignant desolation of "The Arrangement" would surface more strongly in Blue. A number of the selections here ("Willy" and "Blue Boy") use piano rather than guitar accompaniment; arrangements here are often more colorful and complex than before, utilizing cello, clarinet, flute, saxophone, and percussion. Mitchell sings more clearly and expressively than on prior albums, most strikingly so on "Woodstock," her celebration of the pivotal 1960s New York rock festival. This number, given a haunting electric piano accompaniment, is sung in a gutsy, raw, soulful manner; the selection proves amply that pop music anthems don't all have to be loud production numbers. Songs here take many moods, ranging from the sunny, easygoing "Morning Morgantown" (a charming small-town portrait) to the nervously energetic "Conversation" (about a love triangle in the making) to the cryptically spooky "The Priest" (presenting the speaker's love for a Spartan man) to the sweetly sentimental classic "The Circle Game" (denoting the passage of time in touching terms) to the bouncy and vibrant single "Big Yellow Taxi" (with humorous lyrics on ecological matters) to the plummy, sumptuous title track (a celebration of creativity in all its manifestations). This album is yet another essential listen in Mitchell's recorded canon.
David Cleary

Joni Mitchell's third album offers a bridge between the artful but sometimes dour meditations of her earlier work and the more mature, confessional revelations of the classics that would follow. Voice and guitar still hew to the pretty filigree of a folk poet, but there's the giggling rush of rock & roll freedom in "Big Yellow Taxi," and the formal metaphor of her older songs ("The Circle Game," already oft-covered by the time of this recording) yields to the more impressionistic images of the new ones ("Woodstock"). The dark lyricism of her earliest ballads is intact (on "For Free" and "Rainy Night House"), yet there's a prevailing idealism here that sounds poignant alongside the warier, more mature songs to come on Blue and Court And Spark.
Sam Sutherland

Along with the other established ladies of folkdom, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Judy Collins, both Mrs. Harris and Miss Mitchell have been around a while, Some brilliant chick folksingers have vanished—Judy Henske, Alice Stuart and Rosalie Sorrels whither art thou?—but these two have endured. This is Joan's eleventh album and Joni's third and in their own gentle ways they come to grips with the teeth of the times in their curiously lyrical, frankly autobiographical fashion.
Joni Mitchell writes some of the finest tunes around and matches their flowing hesitancy with her enduring epiphanies and modern parables. Her clever inner rhymes and stylized satire have been around for years—recall Tom Rush's "Circle Game" and Judy Collins' "Both Sides Now"? Ably matched here by "For Free," "Conversation" and the already CSNYed "Woodstock," not to mention the elusive "The Priest" or the incisive "Ladies of the Canyon" and seven other enigmatic, poetic word-journeys that move from taxis to windows to whiskey bars to boots of leather and racing cars. Plus the fact that Joni has now mastered the piano to the point where she employs it rather than guitar on nearly half the cuts—she plays it shrilly with a lot of echo and lingering notes, giving certain songs even more dimension and wideness. Other innovations this time out are a mild use of horns and even vocal choruses on some cuts. The choruses don't work for me—I think they ruin her long-awaited version of "Circle Game"—but the point is debatable. The use of horns is excellent—in particular the minor riff at the close of the stunning. "For Free."
And "Woodstock" must be mentioned. Forget the hyper-active CSNY version and listen to this one. Joni uses a heavily-amped electric guitar and sings the hell out of each phrase, each syllable of this soon-to-be anthem of the Seventies. She takes her time and the song has its mellowing, quicksilver effect: "We are stardust/Million year old carbon/We are golden/Caught in the devil's bargain/And we got to get ourselves/Back to the garden." An album of departures, overheard conversations and unquiet triumphs for this hymnal lady who mingles the random with the particular so effectively. Now that she has stopped touring to concentrate on writing, successive albums ought to get better and better.
Joan's album is curiously refreshing. It ought to have been entitled David's Album Volume Two, for all the songs were chosen again to cast musical shadows on the fact that her man is in prison. Thus we get vibrant versions of Bonnie & Delaney's "Ghetto," the Stones' "No Expectations" and Gil Turner's "Carry It On," among others. But useless cuts creep in: her re-done version of "Long Black Veil" is just repetitive, while the spasmodic "Jolie Blonde" is plain unnecessary. If there is a problem, it is that she is still stuck in Nashville singing through a montage of musicians led by Grady Tate (the formula for her last two albums also), though other idiosyncrasies occur this time. She is joined by Jeff Shurtleff for vocal duets on three cuts—the most effective of these being the title tune, Willy Nelson's introspective "One Day At A Time."
Oddly enough, the highpoint of each side occurs when Joan sings the songs she authored. "Sweet Sir Galahad," which is about her sister Mimi, the ghost of Richard Farina and Milan Melvin, along with the revealing "Song For David," succeed musically and lyrically, probably because the emotions and recollections are so close to home. Also interesting is Joan's version of the old union song "Joe Hill," from which Dylan borrowed ingeniously for his "I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine."
Two albums of lyricism and folk echoes from two impresarios of the current music scene. I just wish Joan would leave Nashville behind for the next one.
GARY VON TERSCH, June 11, 1970

Ladies of the Crayon
Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10
Do you know what? JONI MITCHELL IS A HIPPIE!!!!
Yeah ... that kinda sucks, you know? ... Well ... no ... It's perfectly okay if Joni Mitchell wants to be a hippie, but she should know one thing before she goes further: I HATE HIPPIES!!! ... It's not the pot-smoking, the bra-burning, or the sex in sleeping bags that I object to (rather, those things are kinda fun) ... it's the whole wearing sandals thing! ... YUCK!!! ... WHEN WILL YOU PEOPLE REALIZE THAT I DON'T WANT TO LOOK AT YOUR FEET!!!!!! ... And that long hair, too. What a crappy generation...
Well, I'm kind of sad to say that Joni Mitchell's third album doesn't quite measure up to the uncanny qualities of A Song to a Seagull or the folky-glory of Clouds. Rather this is yet another almost completely different effort than any of those! What shall I classify Ladies of the Canyon as being? ... Organic pop songs? Not a bad idear ... but there's only "Joni Mitchell Magic" present in a select few of these ditties ... and there's a hippie anthem, too.
Anybody who enjoys Joni Mitchell simply must own this album. There's really no question about that one. ... It scored an 8.6! ... That's pretty good, you know! ... All I'm sayin' is that it's not a great album. Mitchell writes nice songs, but ... she fails to give all of them great personality.
Overall Album Score: 8.6 out of 10 (GOOD ALBUM!!! ... But ... she's only Ms. Magic on about three of these songs, and she's Ms. Hippie Carping About the Environment on one of them. The rest, she's just Joni Mitchell singing a song.)
Average Song Score: 8.7 (There's a lot of simplicity on here ... simple melodies ... simple instruments. Sometimes, the songs are utterly gorgeous ... Other times they aren't as such.)
Album Tilt: 8.5 (It's a fine album overall. It does get a bit dull, though.)
Artist Rating: 8.5 (She shouldn't have let it get dull! But she remains rock-and-roll's premier singer-songwriter ... and she's freaking good at it, too!)
Track Reviews
Morning Morgantown 10/10
Mmmmm! Delicious! Joni Mitchell delivers a solid melody (featuring her absolutely lovely voice). It's a very organic song that features acoustic guitar (lovely played) and some nicely-placed piano. Yaaaaay!!! Joni Mitchell is awesome!!! And, Sarah McLachlan stinks! Yeah, that's right. I dislike Sarah McLachlan now, because I have the real thing, babies. Sorry to burst you pathetic little bubbles!
For Free 9.5/10
(Okay, I don't hate Sarah McLachlan. For one, she's a lot hotter than Joni Mitchell. That cannot be denied.) This is yet another gorgeous song that uses a good old regular piano. I love the melody, I love Joni Mitchell's singing, I love its simplicity, I love that it's personable ... I'm in freaking love!!! I WILL NOW PROCEED TO KISS THIS ALBUM!!! **MUAH!*** (I sure hope whoever these "Ladies of the Canyon" are are very hot and very single. Because I just realized that I had my eyes closed.)
Conversation 8/10
It's more upbeat this time ... and it's less priceless this time, in my opinion. It just doesn't have that **AWESOME** feel to it like those last two corkers did! Nevertheless, this is Joni Mitchell doing what she does best: singing songs and playing the guitar. What else do you need?
Ladies of the Canyon 8.5/10
What's with the singing in the chorus? Mitchell does a lot of overdubs on her voice and it sounds ... uhhhh ... a bit sloppy? ... SLOPPY??? ... JONI MITCHELL??? Man! In the recent past, I've been having fantasies about her penmanship quality. I would always imagine that it was so perfect. Now I'm not too sure. I am crushed!
Willy 8/10
Eh ... not too special. The magic's gone. Nevertheless, I still think this song is nice. It's keeping well with that whole organic-pop turn Mitchell's albums have been taking. Very nice piano, a rather nice melody ... great singing. Joni Mitchell is the best freaking hippie that there ever was.
The Arrangement 7/10
BOOOOOOORINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!! ... Or am I just not being shallow enough to enjoy this song and let this freaking hippie speak to me? ... DO I WANT A HIPPIE TO SPEAK TO ME???? ... Hippies freak me out, dude. Seriously. ... And Joni Mitchell is boring here! What the crap?
Rainy Night House 9.5/10
!!!! ... I was just kidding, Joni baby. I don't hate hippies. ... I don't even think you're a hippie. Not one of your songs is about burning bras or peace-baby or rolling ... things. ... And hey! This is another completely beautiful song where she manages to be magical, organic and FREAKING NOT BORING!!!! That bit with the choir in the middle of this was a luverly touch, tooo.
The Priest 8/10
...Eh... This hippie is talking to me again. This song's on the boring side, even though it's perfectly tasteful in the "artistic realm" ... but all of Joni Mitchell's songs are tasteful in the "artistic realm," and I'm sure her fans are eager to point that out. YOU HYPOCRITES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (...Actually, I was just kidding about that ... you're not hypocrites ... hippopotamuses, maybe ...)
Blue Boy 8/10
She's been watching too much of that old Nickelodeon show Doug ... there was a whole freaking family on that cartoon that was blue! MAN!!!! THAT SHOW WAS A TOTAL TRIP!!! ... Oh ... This is another quite lovely song ... Um ... piano ... organic ... hippies.
Big Yellow Taxi 10/10
HIPPIES!!!!!! It's a shallow song, to be sure (man ... don't even deny it you environmentalist pussywillows), but it's a very nice pop song. It was also a big hit, too. That's because it was 1970 and people suddenly started to care about things like clean air and water pollution. ... I happen to think the hippies were all full of it. Frankly, fresh water freaks me out. ... And what good is Earth Day? ... They don't let us out from school on that day ... They just make us plant trees and get scorned at by our teachers for using aerosol cans. ... I NEED TO MAKE MY HAIR LOOK NICE!!! ... It's for the ladies, you see.
Woodstock 9/10
An interesting song, anyway! ... It's very slowly-paced and kinda plodding, but hey! It's rather moving and stuff ... maybe Mitchell's most "artistic" song in here ... that doesn't mean it's the most enjoyable song of the album, but ... it's pretty good.
The Circle Game 8.5/10
Why bring in the other singers? That chorus sounds like something I used to freaking listen to in Elementary school! (Ooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round...) ((And these lyrics do sound a lot like pre school lyrics ... what the crap??)) But I still like this song! The melody is good! And ... uh ... Mitchell has a great voice ... and ... acoustic guitar ......... and the seasons ... go 'round and 'round ... and the painted ponies ... go up and down ...... PRE SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...... I should go find me a jungle gym. I miss those freaking things. ... I used to bite people's fingers and make them fall!