Music Review: Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Deja Vu

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young: Déjà Vu, Atlantic Records, 1970.

This is the first album as a quartet, although Crosby Stills and Nash did have an earlier album.  This album strongly features the harmonic blend of these four as singers.  This album spawned four singles.  Two of these our classics.  “Our House” written by Graham Nash about his life with Joni Mitchell.  It has a catchy melody, as well as harmony.  It builds until they sing   “Our house is a very, very fine house with two cats in the yard, life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy cause of you and our la, la, la:It is just cool.

 The other song which is classic is “Teach Your Children.” Again this is a classic melody.  This song was written by Graham Nash as well.  (All of the artists contributed to the song writing of other songs.)  This song expresses two points of view,  The parents first:

Teach your children well, their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

 

And then the kids:

Teach your parents well, their children's hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams, the one they fix,the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

 

Some other songs are worth note.  ‘Déjà vu” gives the album its name.  Joni Mitchell wrote “Woodstock” about their experiences getting there.  A bit hard for my tast however. 

I like 4+20 as it has the harmony I enjoy.  “Carry On” has a very nice melody.

Music Review: Joni Mitchell: Blue 1971

This is on You Tube.  Joni Mitchell put out this album in 1971 when she was 27.  She wrote most of the music as she traveled through France after leaving a relationship.  She starts with the song "All I Want."  I like this sentiment from the song. 
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you

Isn't that what we should focus on in relations, making each other better.  

California starts out as peace anthem, but is more Joni singing about coming home to California.  It was in California where she recorded this album.

Sitting in a park in Paris France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh but California

California I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I'm coming home

However the highlight of this album is "River."

I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry

This theme is repeated several times throughout the album.  In referring to baby, it appears to be talking about a love, but may be a veiled reference to her own baby who was adopted by others when Joni was young.

Music Review: Documentary: Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind

This is the second documentary I have watched this week.  They let me know where the music I liked growing up came from.  Joni Mitchell wrote "Both Sides Now" one of my favorite songs.

Both Sides Now

Bows 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 cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

Oh but now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost but something's gained
In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now
From WIN and LOSE and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

Joni Mitchell was first a poet, and it shows in her music.  It reads like poetry, and painted images.  She in fact was also an artist, and sometimes painted her album covers. 

Joni Mitchell was born Joni Anderson.  She is from Canada.  while young she had polio.  She was told if she didn't improve she might might end up in an iron lung.  She began to sing to improve her lungs.  After her bout with polio, she was no longer competitive at sports so turned to music.  She started with the Ukulele.  She had to develop alternative guitar tunings and different ways of making chords due to weakness in her fingers. 
Her original music would be called fold music.  She told stories with her music.  She started as a solo act; she, her instrument (piano, guitar, ukelele, dulcimer or auto harp) and her vocals.  Later she would add band, drum and guitar.  She achieved her greatest critical acclaim for the album "Blue."
Another of her popular songs is Big Yellow Taxi,
"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got til it's gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Joni Mitchell is a smoker, which shows in the documentary.  Sometimes her self portraits include her cigarette.  She is still playing and writing.  She won a Grammy in 2007 "One Week last Summer."