Acid, Booze, and Ass / Needles, Guns and Grass

Published October 30, 2007
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By Anya Brodrick

I first got Joni Mitchell’s Blue on vinyl and honestly, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Of course, I had heard of Joni Mitchell (I mean, who hasn’t?) but I never actually listened to her. Ten tracks of melancholic, beautifully simple, and evocative music is what I got. I’m not sure if it’s her voice, the simple guitar/piano accompaniment she uses, or the moving lyrics that draws me to her, but it’s safe to say that this is one of the best albums to listen to as we revel in the last glory days of fall and descend into the dreary and bitter winter.

I like this album because not only can you listen to it when the sun is shining and the last leaves are whirling around (thinking about what’s to come…) but also when you’re sitting by a window, looking out at the rain. The album starts off with “All I Want”, with Mitchell listing the things she wants to do (write a love letter, knit a sweater, shampoo her love, talk to him…) all while previously stating “Oh I hate you some/I love you some.” It’s super personal and obviously Mitchell is drawing from her own life, but she’s so encompassing about it that you can relate to it no matter what’s going on in your own life.

From here, it’s a mix of pop-y rock and moving ballads— all with an undercurrent of intimacy that you can relate to but that also provokes you. The title track “Blue” begins with a solo piano line, then Mitchell’s mournfully gorgeous voice takes over; it’s a love song about the ocean, “acid, booze, and ass/needles, guns and grass”, hell…it’s painful and hard to deal with, but it’s love. I also like the worldly feel throughout this album; Mitchell sings of Paris, Las Vegas, L.A., Spain and California…it makes me want to visit all these places and imagine what Mitchell thought in 1971 and what she thinks of these places now. She said she “felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes” about this album and I think that’s exactly what you get: a new perspective for everything around you with a sense of loneliness, hopefulness, and introspection courtesy of Joni Mitchell.

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