Clouds

Last week I wrote about Crosby, Stills & Nash's debut album, and how it was another example of the prominence of the Laurel Canyon sound in popular music. Also that month came another example, Joni Mitchell's second album, Clouds. Mitchell was something of the embodiment of Laurel Canyon, even though she was from Saskatchewan by way of New York City.

Clouds is an entirely acoustic album, and won the Grammy for Best Folk Album. It has several stunning songs which showcase her brilliance as a songwriter. The opening track, "Tin Angel," starts like this:

"Varnished weeds in window jars
Tarnished beads on tapestries
Kept in satin boxes are
Reflections of love's memories
 Letters from across the seas
Roses dipped in sealing wax
Valentines and maple leaves
Tucked into a paperback
Guess I'll throw them all away
I found someone to love today"

Wow. Just wow. The album doesn't let up, as this lyric from "Roses Blue":

"I think of tears,
I think of rain on shingles
I think of rain, I think of roses blue
I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble
To see the place she's lately gotten to
Gotten to, gotten to
She's gotten to mysterious devotions
She's gotten to the zodiac and Zen
She's gotten into tarot cards and potions
She's laying her religion on her friends
On her friends, on her friends"

Mitchell's lyrics outweigh her melodies, but her voice--a crystalline mezzo-soprano that frequently went into a serene falsetto (later, time and smoking would alter her range) gives her an unworldly quality. Mitchell's music could have been gone over into pretentious mawkishness, but she is able to keep one foot on the ground, even while writing about subjects that approach fairy tale status.

The two best known songs on the album are "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides Now." The former, from which Bill and Hillary Clinton named their daughter, is an up-tempo ode to the sights and sounds of waking in the Chelsea section of New York, but then you realize she is imploring a lover not to leave. Arguably her most famous song of all time, "Both Sides Now" became a huge hit for Judy Collins, and has a structure that can't be beat.

"Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's clouds illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all"

There are three verses, each with a more complex subject: clouds, love, and then life, each viewed with a gimlet eye. The song can be seen as sad, as in each case the singer has gone from revering the subject to having grave doubts about it, but somehow there is still hopefulness in the lyric. I believe if I had written a song like that I would be tempted to just stop right there, thinking I couldn't do any better.

But Mitchell didn't stop right there, and is the greatest female songwriter of the Western pop realm over the last fifty years. I haven't made an exhaustive study, and many say Blue is her best album, but for now I'll stick with Clouds, until I do further research.