Joni Mitchell - Archives Vol. 2: The Reprise Years
According to the lengthy interview she gave for the booklet included here, Joni Mitchell arrived at the session for her first album with 60 songs. Four of the outtakes are included in this five-disc box set. She likes some of the alternate versions better than the ones originally released.
Her long conversation with veteran music critic Cameron Crowe is endearing and almost essential, providing the back stories and running commentary on the music. A baker’s dozen songs from a 1968 date at an Ottawa folk club is listed as “recorded by Jimi Hendrix.” Mitchell explains to Crowe that the guitarist showed up at the gig with a reel-to-reel and introduced himself as a fellow label mate (Reprise Records). The stage was only a foot above the floor, she recalls. “He knelt at the edge of the stage, with a microphone, at my feet. All during the show, he kept twisting knobs. He was engineering it.” The result is a clear document of a performer whose quirky changes on guitar and vocals already marked her as an original talent.
Archives Vol. 2 compiles six hours of music, home recording demos as well as entire concerts and alternate takes recorded from 1968-1971—plus lots of good memories.
