Joni Mitchell For The Roses CD

Live Recording

Personnel: Joni Mitchell (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Joni Mitchell; Stephen Stills (vocals, various instruments, guitar); Tommy Scott (clarinet, reeds, woodwinds, saxophone); Tom Scott (reeds, woodwinds, wind); Wilton Felder (bass instrument); Bobbye Hall, Bobbye Porter (percussion); Graham Nash (vocals, harmonica); James Burton (guitar, electric guitar); Bobby Notkoff (strings, percussion); Russ Kunkel (drums).
Recording information: A&M Studios, Hollywood, CA.
Photographer: Joel Bernstein.
Unknown Contributor Role: Stephen Stills.
On For the Roses, Joni Mitchell began to explore jazz and other influences in earnest. As one might expect from a transitional album, there is a lot of stylistic ground explored, including straight folk selections using guitar ("For the Roses") and piano ("Banquet," "See You Sometime," "Lesson in Survival") overtly jazzy numbers ("Barangrill," "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire," and hybrids that cross the two "Let the Wind Carry Me," "Electricity," "Woman of Heart and Mind," "Judgment of the Moon and Stars"). "Blonde in the Bleachers" grafts a rock & roll band coda onto a piano-based singer/songwriter main body. The hit single "You Turn Me on I'm a Radio" is an unusual essay into country-tinged pop, sporting a Dylanesque harmonica solo played by Graham Nash and lush backing vocals. Arrangements here build solidly upon the tentative expansion of scoring first seen in Ladies of the Canyon. "Judgment of the Moon and Stars" and "Let the Wind Carry Me" present lengthy instrumental interludes. The lyrics here are among Mitchell's best, continuing in the vein of gripping honesty and heartfelt depth exhibited on Blue. As always, there are selections about relationship problems, such as "Lesson in Survival," "See You Sometime," and perhaps the best of all her songs in this genre, "Woman of Heart and Mind." "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" presents a gritty inner-city survival scene, while "Barangrill" winsomely extols the uncomplicated virtues of a roadside truck stop. More than a bridge between great albums, this excellent disc is a top-notch listen in its own right. ~ David Cleary
Between the stark, confessional singer-songwriter format of BLUE and the artful, streamlined jazz-pop of COURT AND SPARK, Joni Mitchell released this excellent transitional album. Located firmly between these stylistic poles, FOR THE ROSES looks to Mitchell's folky beginnings with wistful, piano-driven ballads like "Banquet" and the acoustic guitar lilt of the title track. At the same time cuts like "Cold Blue Steel and Straight Fire" push toward the unconventional melodies and rhythms--heavily influenced by jazz--that she would explore more fully on albums like HEJIRA.
"Electricity" and "Let the Wind Carry Me" blend singer-songwriter styles with jazzy flourishes (as on the saxophone accompaniment and swooping wordless vocals on the latter), while the record's hit single, "Turn Me On I'm a Radio" is breezy, harmonica-driven pop. But while the styles diverge, Mitchell's lyrics are sharp as ever, exploring human relationships with a storyteller's eye for detail and a poet's feel for phrasing and image. The sense of painful, incisive honesty that comes across on BLUE is here as well, contributing to this exceptional, often overlooked gem in Mitchell's discography.

Rolling Stone (1/4/73, p.60) - "..her great charm and wit, her intense vocal acting and phrasing abilities..and the sheer power and gumption of her presence combine to bring it all off and make it shine...constructed like the cleverest of novels - stories within stories within stories..."