Mojo The Collectors' Series magazine #54 Joni Mitchell Essentials: Albums, Songs

MOJO The Collectors’ Series: Joni Mitchell Essentials

MOJO’s definitive guide to Joni Mitchell’s albums, songs and books.

With revered singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell – now 80 – set to make rare concert appearances later this summer, MOJO is thrilled to present Joni Mitchell Essentials, our indispensable guide to the music legend’s albums, songs and books. 

Written by our team of experts, this deluxe 132-page bookazine navigates readers through every Joni release – album by album, song by song – beginning with her 1968 debut LP and folk landmark, Songs To A Seagull, and concluding with last year’s Joni Mitchell At Newport, an extraordinary document of her return to the live stage in 2022, after a seven-year gap due to ill-health. The music Mitchell made between those two milestone releases changed music forever, of course, and we place her masterpieces Blue (1971) and Court And Spark (1974) under the microscope, exploring how in the mid-’70s her profoundly personal, starkly confessional songwriting began slowly to incorporate elements of jazz and soft rock, to create a sumptuous new musical form.

Our writers also reappraise the singer’s concert recordings, archive releases and compilations, as well as recommend the best in Joni literature, including the homemade tome that she gave to friends in 1971, which has now been published in a special facsimile edition. Plus, as a special treat, we’ve unearthed an in-depth interview from an early MOJO in 1994, in which Mitchell opens up about her early life, her relationships – musical and otherwise – with fellow stars Graham Nash, David Crosby and James Taylor, and her “difficult” 1980s, when musical missteps, uncharitable critics and health issues bedevilled her career.

Beautifully illustrated with sleeve artwork and rare and iconic photographs, Joni Mitchell Essentials is a must-have for all Joni fans and music connoisseurs.