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Clouds

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I've often said that The Beatles were the geniuses of rock, but it was more of a collective genius with George Martin included. They fed off of each other's individual muse. Joni Mitchell, however, is a genius that stands on her own. Her music and lyrics meld into a seamless, living, breathing whole - taking on a magical essence that's greater than the sum of its parts. And those parts are some of the most brilliantly advanced and artful musings you will find in popular music.

"Clouds" (1969) is a fabulous collection of songs, and one of my favorite albums. It begins with "Tin Angel," about someone (Joni?) with memories of a past love who finds another with a soul as sad as her own. The verses are in a minor mode, so minor-infused they're practically mournful. When she gets to the last line of each chorus, "I found someone to love today," her minor guitar chords still amble, even right through the word "love," but finally resolve to major as she sings "to-day" (and even then there seems to be some hesitation as the chord smiles briefly). The song is pure magic. "Chelsea Morning" awakens us out of the gloom with a burst of sunlight - rhythmically bright, filled with hope and anticipation:

"Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey and a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch and stuck to all my SENSES
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present TENSES"

How can I not be moved? The entire album seduces me. Her meaningful lyrics are veritable stories one can become lost in, filled with thought-provoking relevance. The music supports her storytelling, bursting with sensual richness. The sound of her voice alone makes me swoon. I can only describe her vocal harmonies on "The Gallery" as heavenly. On "Songs To Aging Children Come," her lyrics, melodies and chords all soar to celestial heights while the rhythms of her guitar keep the whole thing anchored. One could depict this - like much of the album - as at once both cosmic and earthy. Her unaccompanied vocal on "The Fiddle and the Drum" can give me a lump in my throat, but that's no matter, since the concluding "Both Sides, Now" (which ranks among the most intoxicatingly gorgeous songs I know), is a song that can reduce me to tears.

Joni Mitchell is a genius in the truest sense of the word. She is an artist of the highest order. Words often elude me when attempting to describe what I feel when I listen to her music. She reaches deep inside of me - and I'm never quite the same after listening to one of her albums. If you are new to Joni Mitchell, I suggest starting with "Clouds" or "Song to a Seagull." Get to know her through these two, then continue on.
Cheers,
Murray

I'll go out on a limb and say that Joni Mitchell is probably the greatest female musical personality of the last three decades. She's also an artist that still commands great respect in her career at a time when other female artists who quote Mitchell as an influence are the ones ruling the charts. Mitchell's latest appearance on ROSIE O'DONNELL should revive interest in her career at the very least. Those new fans looking for a place to start may wanna try out her second album CLOUDS. Her self-titled debut just hinted at the potential Joni Mitchell was capable of, but CLOUDS manifested it. Looking at the dates for songs like "That Song About The Midway", "I Don't Know Where I Stand", and "Tin Angel", these are quite insightful and advanced for a woman still in her mid-twenties. Of course, the two songs that most fans will recognize in an instant are "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now". Judy Collins may have been the first to popularize these songs, but when sung from their actual creator, they sound a lot better. While not hit singles more than standards, these could still be called the most popular tunes to come off of CLOUDS. While Joni Mitchell's later work can be difficult and quite idiosyncratic, CLOUDS is by far the best a new fan can get when starting out their collection.

Major artists (aka not-one-hit-wonders) seem to have two ways of approaching the album thing. One is to record a mammoth of a debut album and then have a "sophomore slump." The other is to have "opening night jitters" the first time around and THEN hit the nail the second time out. 'Clouds' is a great example of the latter. With her debut a somewhat removed experience, Joni strides forward on this release and though the album has a few lesser moments, its overall strengths are wonders to witness. This record, ultimately, shows that she is an artist to be reckoned with, both as a songwriter and a performer.

As a songwriter, she finally gives us her versions of a pair of hits ("Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now" both made gargantuan by Judy Collins)and then hits us over the head with great lesser known material. While it can be said that neither, say, "Tin Angel" (the gorgeous opener) or "That Song About the Midway" have exactly become standards, they certainly stand out. Lyrically she is becoming focused and looking inward as well as outward, and only in a few spots do we suffer through the kind of Freshman Wordglot that slaughtered so many of the debut album's songs.

As an artist, Mitchell shows a big leap in charisma. No longer is she the distant whimsical youth of the first album, now she is bold, forthcoming, and still retaining that VOICE. This time around, though, she's not just playing pyrotechnics. She's learned to save her soprano for when it really counts, and when to fade back to a whisper to allow a song to build. Also, her instrumentation is improving, though she still clings exclusively to acoustic guitar here, and hasn't begun utilizing her ear for alternate tunings yet.

So what these events taken together tell us is that Mitchell was emerging not just as a fine songwriter but as a talent to be reckoned with on a par with few. What's more, the album's true center may lie in its potential...in the budding of this young woman not quite yet in bloom. Where you can see the colors taking shape, giving anticipation of what might come next. From here, Joni would not look back for six solid years, producing an output almost unequaled in modern music, critics, fans, lovers, and sales be damned. And here, on 'Clouds', she takes the first tenutive steps on that journey.

It's often said that Joni Mitchell first came into her own on this album. I would disagree. It's hardly a quantum leap from the first LP (sometimes referred to as JONI MITCHELL and sometimes as SONG TO A SEAGULL). Both albums are quality late 60s folk, with a few hints of the artistic adventuressness to come. What CLOUDS does have are some of songs already made famous by other artists, which, not insignificantly, she had penned prior to even beginning her recording career. Tactically, it was actually a pretty smart move NOT to record "Both Sides Now," "Tin Angel" or "Chelsea Morning" until her sophomore effort. Fans may have been dying for her versions of those songs, but if her fledgling effort had included them, it would have only proved what people already knew: that she had written a few good tunes.

Remember how Karla Bonoff's (much later) debut contained all three songs that Linda Ronstadt had already made famous, plus one that Bonnie Raitt had already recorded)? The implication was that Karla didn't have that much more up her sleeve (not an entirely fair assessment, but hard to avoid under the circumstances). Joni was actually quite canny in parceling out the pre-existing "hits" over the course of her first three albums (the only ones from SONG TO A SEAGULL being the title track, which had been recorded by Buffy Ste. Marie and "Michael From Mountains" which Judy Collins had done earlier--and she held off on recording a crowd pleaser like "The Circle Game" until her THIRD album). She thereby proved that she already had a wealth of material and that she was hardly a flash in the pan.

Less of a concept album than her debut, CLOUDS' focus is more on the individual songs, to be sure. In that sense, it may be viewed as a stronger album, since the individual songs are SO good. She was also gaining confidence as a singer and has a number of stunning vocal moments on this album. Her double tracked vocal on a track like "Songs to Aging Children Come" actually elevates one of her weaker, drippier lyrics into something quite special. Not all her vocal moves work so well, sometimes she seems to be striving for dramatic effect (as on "Tin Angel") and winds up just going flat. But even those occasional awkward moments do not undercut the entire song.

Unlike much of her later, more experimental work, CLOUDS is impressive mostly in its stark simplicity. On most tracks, it's just Joni's vocal accompanied by her guitar. One can really get a sense of her much vaunted guitar work, her unique open tunings. Her a capella "Fiddle and the Drum" always seemed a little forced to me, but I must admit that given the present political environment her stern anti-war, anti-unilateralism ballad takes on new significance.

CLOUDS is, as some have suggested, a good introduction to the work of Joni Mitchell, although for your more musically conservative friends and relatives, you may need to throw in a few caveats ("It's not ALL as tuneful as this one, Mom!"). Indeed there are many people who probably won't want to advance much more beyond this record and its follow-up, LADIES OF THE CANYON--just as there are others whose attention flags after middle period Joni (BLUE, FOR THE ROSES and COURT & SPARK). And well, that's OK. You can't bring everyone along with you every step of the way (although from Mitchell's own comments, I sometimes wonder if she blames critics, record company execs and radio programmers more than her own later obscurantism for her gradual falling off in sales). Whatever the case, if there is one record that could accurately be called "Mitchell for the Masses," this is it. Not that that's a bad thing!

Whenever I hear the phrase "singer/songwriter", one of the first names that comes to mind is that of the incredibly talented, creative, and prolific Joni Mitchell. This is one of her first efforts, and one that contains a terrific number of well written, masterfully executed, and quite memorable songs on it. No one sings popular sixties type folk music better than Joni, and here she is approaching her genius with such wonderful tunes as "Tin Angel", "Chelsea Morning", and "Both Sides Now". I love all the songs on this CD, from "I Don't Know Where I Stand" about a lover too new in a relationship to say those three little words that will launch her into a momentous situation where turning back is going to be painful to "I Think I Understand", a philosophic ballad about the sources and consequences of fear and courage, and finding one's pathway of the wilderness of tears and terror we all create for ourselves. This album provides a unique early look at one of best and most popular folk superstars of the last half century, who burst onto the stage with songs from this and several other early albums to enchant a generation with her wisdom, wistfulness, and wonderful talents. Enjoy.

Clouds was, perhaps, the album observers expected Joni Mitchell to release a year earlier. In recording her debut, Song to a Seagull, Joni avoided those of her songs made famous by other artists in favor of a "concept" approach centered around fairy-tale and nautical imagery. Pirates, seagulls, sailing ships, kings in tenement castles, I feel lost in the city. Its performance values were stark, free-form, echo-laden, with pseudo-medieval formalism. It was a verbose, grotesque, gorgeous-but-flawed treasure which was not for everybody.

Clouds, on the other hand, introduced a more wide-open Joni, her soaring soprano far freer than on the debut, with simpler song and lyrical structure and a mountain-spring-water-purity to the recording after Dave Crosby's muddy castle-fortress echo. Once again, the arrangements consist mainly of singer and guitar, although her voice is doubled and trebled more often, and the playing is closer to campfire strumming than on Song to a Seagull. The songs on Clouds convey a lush romanticism made heartbreaking and wistful by tales of love that is at turns found, lost, uncertain, or doomed. The album also unveils her own interpretations of several of her standards - "Tin Angel," "Chelsea Morning," "I Don't Know Where I Stand," "Both Sides Now." The playing and lyrics are Joni at her most straightforward, and her voice is at its gorgeous best on some of the tracks.

Although I love this album, I would rank it below several of her other pre-"Don Juan" discs - it is certainly my least favorite of her first period (the straightforward acoustic period, coinciding with her first four albums). It doesn't have the curious charm of the debut or the soul-deep passion of Blue. Ladies in the Canyon has a similar mood, but with far better arrangements and songwriting. Her singing on some of the songs here - "Tin Angel" and "The Fiddle and the Drum" stand out - is a rehash of her glum alto affectations on much of the debut. She's better off when she climbs up into the high end of her range (away with those philistines who consider her top end unlistenable), especially on "That Song about the Midway," in which Joni's high C's send haunted tingles down my spine. "Chelsea Morning" certainly conveys a certain joyful ebulliance, but of Joni's "token happy songs" on her early albums ("Night in the City," "Big Yellow Taxi," "Carey") I find it the weakest.

Clouds is, of course, home to "Both Sides Now," which is arguably Joni's signature song. Melodically gorgeous and lyrically reflective, it seems to draw all of her epic romantic experiences into a sorrowful lesson - "I really don't know love/life at all."

Joni Mitchell starts to show her musical genius in her second album. It includes one of her best songs, "Both Sides Now". There is a lot here for everyone to enjoy including, "The Gallery" and "The Song About the Midway". Her albums continue to get better, as they should, but this really is a classic album with a great album cover by Joni.

Clouds is the perfect title for this collection of songs. On the surface are the beautiful, simple melodies and the airy voice of Joni Mitchell. Like the changing landscape of the sky, the lyrics have simple and deep meanings, that can change over time, but always remain meaningful. When this album was originally released in the 60's, my best friend and I sang the two part version of "The Gallery" in a cafe in Paris. Although few in the cafe spoke English, they all loved the music.

Joni Mitchell's "Clouds" album is just beautiful. It combines simple yet thoughtful melodies with very personal, moving lyrics. In my opinion, although all of the songs on the album are exquisite, "Tin Angel" and "Roses Blue" definitely stand out. They are sad and utterly beautiful. I would recommend any Joni Mitchell album, especially this one and Blue.

With a sole guitar and her voice, Joni Mitchell has achieved perfection. Showing lyrical power reminiscent of Bob Dylan, she has described some incredibly lovely and tragic scenes. Of course her original version of Both Sides Now is THE version, no disrespect meant to Judy Collins. The Gallery still gives me the chills. Listening to this depresses me extremely, though, to think of how Joni's voice is a bare shadow of this incredible work.