Joni Mitchell Retrospective - Part I

A young Roberta Joan Anderson

I've been a big fan of Joni Mitchell for just about as long as I can remember. The first album of hers that I bought was Ladies of the Canyon, which came out in 1970 when I was 13. My brother, who was two years older, had bought Clouds when it came out in 1969, so I was already familiar with her music. For a long time, Ladies of the Canyon remained my favorite Joni album. 

The reason I mention this is because we had a snowstorm a few days ago. And although it was only a few inches, it was enough to strand us indoors for a couple of days since we live on a very steep hill that never gets plowed. So I thought it would be a great time to take a look and listen to all the Joni Mitchell albums in my collection, which turns out to be exactly 30.

Song To A Seagull, 1968

Joni's debut album is titled Song To A Seagull, released in March, 1968. The album is usually just called Joni Mitchell since some of the seagulls spelling out Song To A Seagull in Joni's psychedelic cover painting were cut off in early pressings and are kind of hard to make out in any case. (In addition, Song To A Seagull is not printed on the spine or on the labels.) The album was released on Reprise Records, which was founded by Frank Sinatra in 1959 in order to give himself more artistic freedom. (Since he promptly sold the label to Warner Brothers in 1960, it must not have been as much fun as it sounded.) My copy of Song To A Seagull is a second pressing from 1970. The first pressing is on a two-toned orange/tan label which Reprise used from 1968-1970. In addition to the different colors, it is also distinguishable from their other label variations because it has the Warner Seven Arts logo (W7) in a small box beside the round Reprise Records logo at the top.

1968 first pressing

2nd pressing, 1970

In 1969, Warner Seven Arts was bought by the Kinney National Company, and the label was changed in 1970 to reflect that the parent company was now called Warner Brothers Records. The new label, used from 1970 to 1974, was changed to all orange (it looks more pumpkin-colored to me) and the W7 logo was dropped. The Reprise ":r" logo, which had been a tan circle, became an orange square without the word "reprise."  My copy is evidently an early reissue since it has the same matrix numbers as the original pressing:

Side 1: T 0 30753 RS6293A-1B  AB 13
Side 2: T 1 30754 RS6293B-1L  A

Pressed by Columbia Records at their Terre Haute, IN plant.

While my copy looks very clean, it has a number of ticks and some groove noise, no doubt caused by the cheap record player my brother and I used to listen to our albums. I would grade it a solid VG/VG. However, even if it were in better shape, this is just not a great-sounding album. Producer David Crosby had the bright idea of having Joni sing into an open grand piano, resulting in a rich, resonate sound, but also causing some high-level sympathetic string vibration that had to be filtered out later, along with most of the top end. (Which may be why the album has never been remastered.) That said, Stephen Still's bass on "Night In The City" is deep and punchy and the songs are terrific. I'll be looking for a cleaner copy at some point.

Clouds, 1969

Joni's second album is Clouds, released on Reprise Records in May, 1969. Like her first album, original pressings of Clouds are on the two-toned Reprise Records / Warner Seven Arts label. I have three copies of Clouds. One is an original 1969 pressing on the Warner Seven Arts label, one is a 1970 repressing on the solid pumpkin-colored label, and the third is a 1976 repressing. The 1976 label is identical to the 1970 label except it for the rim text at bottom. The 1970 label reads: Reprise Records, a Division of Warner Brothers Records, Inc., Made in U.S.A. The new label reads: Reprise Records, a division of Warner Brothers Records, Inc., 3300 Warner Blvd., Burbank, Calif. 91505, a Warner Communications Company, "W" logo, Made in U.S.A." The new "W" logo is commonly referred to as the sausage logo. This new rim text was first used in 1974 after a reorganization of Warner Brothers. The only other small change was the addition of an "R" in a circle beside the logo at the top to indicate that the orange Reprise ":r" logo was a registered trademark. 

Clouds, 1976 repressing

Post-1974 Reprise Records label with sausage logo.

My original 1969 copy is graded VG, while the repressings are both VG++. The original pressing has more surface noise, but the sound on all of them is great, with no significant differences in sound quality that I can hear. After the screw up with the sound on her first album, Joni produced Clouds herself with an assist from the great sound engineer Henry Lewy, who would go on to work on Joni's next 12 albums. Clouds has a wonderful natural tone and sounds excellent.

Here are the matrix numbers for my three copies:

-1969 original pressing:

Side 1: 30885 1S I
Side 2: 30886 1S I

Pressed by RCA Records, Indianapolis, IN

-1970 repressing:

Side 1: 30885 RS 6341 A RE1-1L (S) C17 1Ƨ
Side 2: 30885 RS 6341 B RE-1 1-C (S) F T1

Side 1 stamper was made for Columbia Records' Santa Maria, CA pressing plant, while the side 2 stamper was made for Columbia's plant in Terre Haute, IN. For some reason, one of the stampers was sent to the other plant.

-1976 repressing:

Side 1: RS-6341 30885 RE1 A2 P
Side 2: RS-6341 30886 C P

Pressed by Columbia Records, Pittman, NJ

Ladies of the Canyon, 1970

As I mentioned at the top, Joni's third album, Ladies of the Canyon has long been my favorite of her albums. (Although lately I've been leaning a little more toward The Hissing Of Summer Lawn.) But I have a confession to make. The first song on Ladies of the Canyon is "Morning Morgantown," which is rose-colored memory of the brief time that Joni spent studying in the city that houses the University of West Virginia back in 1966 or 67. From that song, I somehow got the idea that the "Canyon" in the title referred to the mountains of West Virginia, and that the whole album was a kind of reverie to Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia. I was an East Coast kid, so how was I to know that the West Hollywood suburb of Laurel Canyon had become the center of the musical universe in the late 60s? It was only many years later that I had a big "DUH" moment and realized the title referred to Laurel Canyon where Joni lived at the time with her boyfriend Graham Nash (inspiring Nash's song "Our House"), while hanging out and making music with neighbors Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Mama Cass, Peter Tork, Frank Zappa, Jackson Browne, Neil Young, Jim Morrison, Roger McGuinn, and many others. I feel a little sheepish every time I play the record.

I have two copies of Ladies Of The Canyon. The first is my 1970 original pressing on the pumpkin-colored Reprise label. The album also appeared on the two-toned Reprise / Warner Seven Arts label, but since it came out the year that Reprise changed their labels, it was available on both labels from the start. The matrixes are the same.

1970 original pressing

2009 Rhino Vinyl remastering

My second copy is the 2009 remastering by Chris Bellman which was issued by Rhino Vinyl. It was beautifully pressed by Record Technologies Incorporated in Camarillo, CA on 180-gram vinyl. My original 1970 pressing is VG++ (almost NM) and sounds excellent. But the 2009 remastering is a whole other level of amazing -- hyper-real, but not in a clinical way, in a "Holy crap, Joni is sitting right there" kind of way. The timbre of every plucked guitar string, the texture of Milt Holland's brushed drums, every subtle expression in Joni's voice comes through. It's a stunner. Listening to this new version recently got me thinking that Ladies Of The Canyon might still be my favorite Joni album after all. It's certainly my favorite jacket, with a wonderful self-portrait line drawing combined with a watercolor (or colored marker?) drawing of the Canyon. On the back are a row of colorful geese. Rhino's re-issue comes in a heavyweight replica gatefold jacket. The vinyl has the 1970 pumpkin-colored Reprise label.

-1970 original pressing:

Side 1: RS-6376 30992 C3 P
Side 2: RS-6376 30993 B3 P

Pressed by Columbia Records, Pittman, NJ

-2009 Rhino Vinyl remastering:

Side 1: R1-6376-A CB 18397.1(3)
Side 2: R1-6376-B CB 18397.2(3)

Remastered by Chris Bellman
Pressed by Record Technology Incorporated, Camarillo, CA

More to come.

Enjoy the music!