Joni Mitchell’s Latest Trip to the Vaults Yields Treasures

by Jeff Burger
Blog Critics
October 15, 2024

After years in the spotlight, some musicians release a one- or two-CD best-of collection or even a career-spanning box.

Joni Mitchell has been so prolific over so many decades and so artistically and commercially successful that her record label decided that wouldn't be nearly enough. Nor would even one series of box sets suffice. During the last few years, Rhino Records has been simultaneously issuing two such series.

The first offers remasters of her previously issued LPs and has so far resulted in The Reprise Albums (1968 - 1971), The Asylum Albums (1972 - 1975), and The Asylum Albums (1976 - 1980). The second, Joni Mitchell Archives, consists solely of previously unreleased live and studio material. To date, it has included Vol. 1: The Early Years (1963 - 1967), Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968 - 71), Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972 - 1975), and the new Vol. 4: The Asylum Years (1976 - 1980).

Since fans were already familiar with the recordings in the first series, it's not surprising that the Archives releases are of greater current interest. What is somewhat surprising is that the new Vol. 4 is at least as good as any of its terrific predecessors. Though Mitchell's late-'70s studio albums sold respectably, Hejira, Mingus, and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter didn't achieve anywhere near the popularity of many of her earlier releases, three of which earned Platinum certification. Nor did these later albums - which find Mitchell moving much closer to jazz than folk - receive as much critical praise. Rolling Stone, for example, called Hejira "mysteriously vague" and respectively labeled Mingus (a collaboration with jazz great Charles Mingus) and Don Juan "sketchy at best" and "stilted."

In this writer's view, however, those albums were all underrated. Moreover, it turns out that a lot of spectacular stuff was sitting in the vaults. You'll find it in Vol. 4, which delivers 98 tracks on six CDs and has a playing time of just over seven hours. It features demos, outtakes, abundant concert material, and contributions from Mingus as well as such other jazz artists as Pat Metheny, Wayne Shorter, and Jaco Pastorius.

Like its predecessors, this box includes an illustrated booklet with the text of a substantive recent conversation between Mitchell and journalist and filmmaker Cameron Crowe. She tells him, for example, why she fell in love with the word "Hejira," how she came to write "Furry Sings the Blues," and how she wanted to approach jazz.

Among the musical goodies in the box are a 1978 set from the Bread & Roses Festival in Berkeley, California; what appears to be a complete 1979 concert from Long Island, New York's Forest Hills Tennis Stadium; extensive outtakes and alternate versions from the Mingus sessions; demos and session tracks for Hejira; and an improvised 12-minute solo piano piece called "Save Magic" that would evolve into Don Juan's Reckless Daughter's "Paprika Plains."

Some of the box's standouts are live readings of songs from albums that predate this period. There are, for instance, fine renditions of Blue's "The Last Time I Saw Richard" and "A Case of You"; Court and Spark's "Free Man in Paris," "Just Like This Train," "Raised on Robbery," and "Help Me"; and Ladies of the Canyon's "For Free," "Rainy Night House," "Big Yellow Taxi," and "Woodstock."

But much of the best material consists of versions of songs that appeared on those often-overlooked late-'70s albums, and some of these tracks pack a greater punch than the previously known renditions. An alternate studio take of "Dreamland" from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter is gorgeous, for example, and a live reading, with congas, succeeds with a dramatically different approach. Other memorable cuts include "Traveling," an early version of Hejira's title cut; and two readings of the same album's "Amelia" and "Coyote," the latter in its debut performance in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.

Throughout, you’ll be reminded not only of the excellence and adventurousness of Mitchell’s songwriting but of her immense capabilities as a vocalist. If you’re a fan, you need this box.