蓝色 (1971)

Blue is the fourth studio album by the Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It was released on June 22, 1971, through Reprise Records. The album was entirely written and produced by Mitchell, and was recorded throughout late 1970 and early 1971 at A&M Studios in Hollywood. Created in the aftermath of her breakup with Graham Nash and during an intense relationship with James Taylor, Blue explores the different facets of relationships against sparse musical backings featuring Mitchell's acoustic guitar, piano and Appalachian dulcimer.

Upon release, Blue was a critical and commercial success. It reached the top 10 in the UK and Canada, and the top 15 in the US, while its first single, "Carey" was Mitchell's second to crack the Billboard Hot 100. It received positive reviews, though Mitchell would reject the "confessional" label many critics would impose on her in the wake of the album.

Retrospectively, Blue is regarded as Mitchell's masterpiece. Rolling Stone included the album at number three on their list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the album frequently appears on other similar lists. It has been noted for its influence on the singer-songwriter movement and its songs have been covered by a wide range of artists. In 1986, Blue was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for US sales in excess of 1 million copies.

Background

Mitchell's stature as an artist and performer grew throughout 1970, and her album Ladies of the Canyon was a critical and commercial success. She was voted the world's top female singer in a Melody Maker poll that year, and in August, she played the Isle of Wight Festival. Biographer Brian Hinton describes this experience as a "public initiation under fire", due to the hostile, drug-addled audience and behind-the-scenes conflicts. Despite her heightened success, this was a tumultuous period for Mitchell, who had ended her relationship with fellow musician Graham Nash in 1969. At the time of the breakup, Mitchell went on a trip to Greece and throughout Europe as a whole, a sojourn which would lead to the creation of some of the material on Blue.

At the tail end of 1970, Mitchell played a Greenpeace benefit concert, Amchitka, with James Taylor, with whom she was romantically involved. Biographer David Yaffe notes that despite their seemingly idealistic connection, both were troubled by personal demons, with Taylor in particular suffering from depression and heroin addiction. Yaffe also states that while their relationship would not last, Mitchell "stayed with him, long enough and deep enough that she emerged with a batch of new songs, some of them darker and more disturbing than ever." This period leading up to the creation of Blue was extremely emotionally taxing for Mitchell, with "years of bottled-up melancholy pouring out", which she attributed to past and then-current events such as giving her daughter up for adoption, her dissolved marriage to Chuck Mitchell, and the relationships which followed.