3 Vulnerable Joni Mitchell Songs From the 1970s That Still Stop Us in Our Tracks

Joni Mitchell changed the game in the 1970s by opting to get as vulnerable as possible in her music. Kris Kristofferson famously bemoaned that she should “keep something to [herself]” when she played him her 1971 album Blue. Clearly, she spooked listeners and contemporaries alike at the time. But she would later become known for really changing how singer-songwriters wrote music. To celebrate her, let’s look at just a few of Joni Mitchell’s most vulnerable songs from the 1970s, all of which are from Blue.

“Little Green” from ‘Blue’ (1971)

“Child with a child pretending / Weary of lies you are sending home / So you sign all the papers in the family name / You’re sad and you’re sorry, but you’re not ashamed / Little green, have a happy ending.”

“Little Green” is easily Joni Mitchell’s most vulnerable song from the 1970s. It still breaks my heart every time I hear it. Mitchell penned this folk rock song shortly after she agreed to put her daughter up for adoption while struggling to make ends meet in Toronto. Few knew even back then of the existence of Mitchell’s daughter.

“I was dirt poor,” Mitchell said. “An unhappy mother does not raise a happy child. It was difficult parting with the child, but I had to let her go.”

Mitchell would later reunite with her daughter in 1997.

“A Case Of You” from ‘Blue’ (1971)

“Oh, I am a lonely painter / I live in a box of paints / I’m frightened by the devil / And I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid.”

Mitchell had this magical ability, or perhaps just a personal standard, to never reduce the complexity of love into “good” or “bad”, “happy” or “sad”, or anything derivative. She knew how to pen a love song that was honest and couldn’t be reduced to such simplicities. “A Case Of You” is one such song in which Mitchell carries a relationship with her through life, even though she can clearly see the flaws in it. This song manages to tell us as much about the individual parts of the couple as it does the whole of their coupling. I really don’t think a more poetic love song was released in the early 1970s. Joni Mitchell was just on another level.

“River” from ‘Blue’ (1971)

“I’m so hard to handle / I’m selfish and I’m sad / Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby / That I ever had.”

It’s a Christmas song that really isn’t a Christmas song at all. Rather, “River” is an exploration of one’s loneliness and introspection after a relationship falls apart. If you’ve ever wanted to run away from your problems, this song will probably resonate with you. It certainly resonated with many other musicians. This song has been covered by over a thousand of Joni Mitchell’s contemporaries, from Linda Ronstadt to Heart to Barry Manilow.

Photo by Jim McCrary/Redferns