Rhinofy-Joni Mitchell Covers
BOTH SIDES NOW
Judy Collins
The first time most people were exposed to Joni Mitchell, even though they didn’t know it.
This single was iconic, mostly for the sound and Judy Collins’s voice.
When we ultimately heard Joni’s version, on her second album, 1969’s “Clouds,” we were astounded to find it sounded completely different, with a heavy emphasis on the lyrics. Joni’s is a song, Judy’s is a record.
“Both Sides Now” cemented Judy Collins’s stardom, it’s a linchpin in her career, but just a member of Joni Mitchell’s canon.
P.S. Many people STILL haven’t heard Joni’s version. Her first two LPs were nearly ignored. The mainstream did not catch on until her sixth LP,” “Court And Spark,” and some went back, but many did not. They’re missing out.
URGE FOR GOING
Tom Rush
This will positively blow your mind, it will become your favorite track if you’ve never heard it before and if you know it…no one captures the sound of fall better than Tom Rush does here. It’s eerie. You feel creeped out and connected at the same time. This is what music does best.
From Tom’s 1968 Elektra album “The Circle Game” (that’s right, he covered that Joni song too…before anybody knew it), which was a college favorite that Tom leveraged for a deal with Columbia and further penetration into the public consciousness. But, “The Circle Game” is his best work.
Meanwhile, most people didn’t hear Joni’s version until 1996, when it appeared on her collection “Hits.” It had previously been released as the b-side of the single “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio,” but almost no one heard it.
Once again Joni’s take is different. It’s the wistfulness in her voice that gets you.
THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY
Bonnie Raitt
Absolutely, positively magical, from Bonnie Raitt’s relatively stiff follow-up to “Takin My Time,” “Streetlights,” which was produced by Jerry Ragavoy and suffered for being a bit too slick. But not this.
At this late date, “Streetlights” is famous for the first appearance of Bonnie’s cover of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery,” and that’s fantastic, but Bonnie’s never sounded more mellifluous than she does on “That Song About The Midway,” the story comes alive.
Joni’s take is from six years before, 1968, on her aforementioned second album “Clouds.” In this case, it’s the same song, but the effect is different. It’s like Joni’s sitting on your living room floor, alone, telling her story, and you’re so riveted and intrigued that this exquisite person is letting you inside her world.
DREAMLAND
Roger McGuinn
Most people have heard neither this nor the original, which closes side three of Joni’s 1977 release “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter,” the first of her projects after her breakthrough to suffer not only critical barbs, but less than grand commercial success.
Meanwhile, Roger had burnt out the audience with so much mediocre material that “Cardiff Rose,” from which this track emanates, was unjustly ignored.
Released in 1976, McGuinn’s take trumps Joni’s, it sounds like the Byrds with an edge.
Joni’s take is nearly a cappella. It suffers from this sparseness.
But McGuinn renders the lyric unforgettable…
It’s a long long way from Canada
A long way from snow chains
THIS FLIGHT TONIGHT
Nazareth
I haven’t heard this in eons, but I’ll never forget this. It was released in 1973, before Joni had really broken through and only the cognoscenti realized “Blue” was one of the best albums ever cut. So, to hear this heavy version by this hard rock band was head-spinning. Meanwhile, it made inroads at radio, it was prevalent. And I’m stunned all these years later it works.
As for Joni’s take… I’d say it’s uncoverable, but it was!
“Blue” plays as a travelogue, this comes right after the legendary “California,” and if you don’t know that album, stop reading this and cue it up immediately, your life is not yet complete.
FOR FREE
James Taylor
And here we have the miracle of the internet.
The first time I heard this song was when it was performed by James Taylor at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard in April 1970. This was before “Ladies Of The Canyon” came out, when the two were dating. And I never forgot it. And STUNNINGLY, there’s a recording of it on YouTube!
You get something great the very first time through!
Shortly thereafter, I heard “Ladies Of The Canyon,” and it cemented my love for Ms. Mitchell.
Once again, it sounds like Joni is playing in her living room, just for you.
Meanwhile, this song goes through my head all the time…
And I play if you have the money
Or if you’re a friend to me
Don’t ask me for free work.
Unless you’re a friend of mine. Then there’s no limit to what I’ll do for you.
A CASE OF YOU
Tori Amos
Arguably Joni Mitchell’s most famous song.
HUH?
Sure, there were bigger hits, but “A Case Of You,” from “Blue” is the one that means the most to people.
Tori’s take is just as haunting and intimate as Joni’s, but Joni’s has got that dulcimer that brings a humanity no synthesizer can ever evidence.
A CASE OF U
Prince
Once a rare track, self-released by Prince and mostly unknown, it resurfaced in an edited iteration on a Joni Mitchell tribute album.
The greats know who’s great, and Prince has always testified about Joni.
MICHAEL FROM MOUNTAINS
Judy Collins
From the same album that contained “Both Sides Now,” 1968’s “Wildflowers,” not enough people know this, the cover or the original, from Joni’s very first album, produced by David Crosby, “Song To A Seagull.”
I DON’T KNOW WHERE I STAND
Barbra Streisand
From her 1971 album, “Stoney End,” wherein Barbra tried to be hip.
It worked commercially, if not artistically.
But Barbra’s vocal is just too perfect, it’s equivalent to that of a TV contestant as opposed to the original, wherein Joni injects juice that Barbra just can’t find.
THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY
Dave Van Ronk
You know the name, but you may not know the material.
A folk legend, Dave’s take is not in the league of Bonnie Raitt’s, but you’ll feel like you journeyed back to a Bleecker Street that no longer exists when you hear it.
CHELSEA MORNING
Judy Collins
I could have included the Fairport Convention take, or Green Lyte Sunday or Sergio Mendes’s hit versions, but this is the one that inspired Bill and Hillary Clinton to name their daughter…”Chelsea.”
WOODSTOCK
Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
From “Deja Vu,” when they were the biggest band in the land.
This is the first time many people realized who Joni Mitchell was, because it was strange for this entity not to record its own songs, the story of how she missed the festival and wrote the song got press.
It’s the stinging guitar that closes you.
Meanwhile, SiriusXM has the alternative take in its library, from 1991’s boxed set, with a different chorus, and it BUGS ME when they keep playing it on Classic Vinyl. They need to replace it with the original!
Joni’s entry is completely different. It’s more of a late night in the mud, less of a celebration, it’s haunting.
WOODSTOCK
Matthews’ Southern Comfort
This went to number one in the U.K.
BIG YELLOW TAXI
Counting Crows, Vanessa Carlton
After their first album, Counting Crows ran out of material, never mind lacking the production skills of T-Bone Burnett. And on some level, this is offensive, and on another it works. I’ll let you decide.
She + Him covered “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio,” CeeLo did “River,” Carly Rae Jepsen recorded “Both Sides Now,” Joni Mitchell’s legacy is not fading away and it is most certainly radiating. And although she had some hits, that’s not what it’s about, she’s left us a singular body of work…some so incredible, it’s nearly uncoverable, like “Song For Sharon” (even though people have attempted!) And we wish her a speedy recovery, because in an era of me-too, where everybody’s just repeating what came before, afraid to innovate and be out of the box…
Joni Mitchell is an original.
