Ladies of the Canyon
| Ladies of the Canyon | ||||
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| Studio album by Joni Mitchell | ||||
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Publication |
March 1970 |
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| Label (s) | Recapitulation | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP, HDCD |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
44:33 |
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| occupation | ||||
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Joni Mitchell & Henry Lewy (sound engineer) |
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Studio (s) |
A&M Studios ( Hollywood ) |
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Ladies of the Canyon is Joni Mitchell's third album, released in 1970 on Reprise Records . The title refers to Laurel Canyon , a residential area of Los Angeles where many musicians lived at the time, including Mitchell himself. The LP contains some of her most famous songs, Big Yellow Taxi , Woodstock and The Circle Game .
Track list
The compositions and lyrics of all songs are by Joni Mitchell.
A side
- Morning Morgantown - 3:12 am
- For Free - 4:31
- Conversation - 4:21
- Ladies of the Canyon - 3:32
- Willy - 3:00
- The Arrangement - 3:32
B side
- Rainy Night House - 3:22
- The Priest - 3:39
- Blue Boy - 2:53
- Big Yellow Taxi - 2:16
- Woodstock - 5:25
- The Circle Game - 4:50
backgrounds
The title song Ladies of the Canyon portrays three women who belonged to Joni Mitchell's circle of friends:
- Trina Robbins , illustrator of underground comics ,
- Annie Burden, who was married to the artist Gary Burden (1933-2018), who illustrated the record sleeves of numerous pop albums, and
- Estrella Berosini, the daughter of a Czech high wire artist with the stage name Vaclav Veno Berosini (actually Holtzknecht).
Willy is about Graham Nash , then partner of Joni Mitchell, whom she called "Willy".
Rainy Night House is a reminder of a night out with Leonard Cohen , with whom Joni Mitchell was dating in 1967.
Big Yellow Taxi refers to Hawaii and its increasing tourist development. The aforementioned "pink hotel" is the luxury hotel "The Royal Hawaiian", which still exists today, on the beach in Waikīkī , a district of Honolulu . It still has a pink paint on the outside.
Woodstock became one of the most famous songs about the Woodstock Festival (August 15-18, 1969), which Joni Mitchell, who was invited, refused to attend because of the overcrowded highways to the small town. At that time she was still living in New York City , about 100 miles from there, and feared that she might miss an appearance on the TV show of the well-known presenter Dick Cavett , to which she was also invited. The show took place on August 19, 1969 and was broadcast live.
Cover versions
The band Matthews Southern Comfort brought out their own version of Woodstock in 1970 , as did Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young . Mitchell later covered the song several times himself. A total of 260 cover versions of Woodstock are available.
A total of 354 cover versions of Big Yellow Taxi have been published, including a French version by Joe Dassin under the title Le Grand Parking (1970 on his album La Fleur aux Dents ) and a German version by Stefan Gwildis under the title Wenn es ist weg (2008 on the Album wish you were here ). Janet Jackson used a longer sample from the song for Got 'til It's Gone (1997). Other versions are by Bob Dylan and Amy Grant . Joni Mitchell herself released a new and completely different studio version of her song on her album Shine in 2007 .
The Circle Game was reinterpreted by Tom Rush as early as 1968 (on his album The Circle Game , which also contains covers of two other Mitchell songs). The version by Buffy Sainte-Marie , which acted as the theme music in the socially critical film Bloody Strawberries , became very famous . Another recording by Agnes Chan became a hit in Hong Kong around 1971 . Overall, The Circle Game gecovert 207 times.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Annie Burden, Thoughts on the song Ladies of the Canyon and the time , May 4, 2008
- ↑ David Yaffe, Joni Mitchell. A portrait , Berlin 2020, pp. 174–176
- ↑ David Yaffe, Joni Mitchell. A portrait , Berlin 2020, p. 181
- ↑ David Yaffe, Joni Mitchell. A portrait , Berlin 2020, p. 216f.
- ↑ Joe Taysom, The song Joni Mitchell wrote as a farewell to her love affair with Leonard Cohen , in: Far Out Magazine , June 23, 2020
- ↑ David Yaffe, Joni Mitchell. A portrait , Berlin 2020, p. 177
- ↑ Website of the hotel "The Royal Hawaiian"
- ↑ David Yaffe, Joni Mitchell. A portrait , Berlin 2020, pp. 159–164
- ↑ Video recording of the Dick Cavett Show on August 19, 1969