Hear Joni Mitchell's Previously Unreleased Early Recordings

All Songs Considered

NPR

Music

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 5 November 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

A treasure trove of unheard Joni Mitchell recordings has just been released with more than a hundred tracks from the early 1960s, including almost 30 original songs she's never released before.

On this special edition of All Songs Considered, NPR Music's Ann Powers and host Bob Boilen explore these early works of Joni Mitchell and play selections from the new box set from Rhino. This includes some of Joni Mitchell's first-known recordings, like a radio studio recording made in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan when she was just 19-years old. We also hear some live concert recordings, including one made at the Ann Arbor Canterbury House 53 years ago, and demos she made on a home reel-to-reel tape machine. This includes one she made for her mom in 1965. Over the course of this remarkable box set and nearly six hours of music, we hear Joni Mitchell grow from a singer of folk songs to a playful and sophisticated lyricist with a brilliant voice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On the next episode of Louder Than a Riot,
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0:06.8	and how viral fame led to infamy.
0:09.4	I don't ask people from the hood
0:11.2	with they got criminal activity going on.
0:13.5	I know and hip-hop, the batter, the better.
0:16.5	Listen now to Louder Than a Riot from MPR Music.
0:21.3	From MPR Music, you're connected to all songs
0:23.3	considered I'm Bob Boylin.
0:24.9	On today's show, we explore the early works of Joni Mitchell,
0:29.0	the singer and songwriter released her first album in 1968,
0:33.0	but a new box set has just been released.
0:35.3	Joni Mitchell archives volume one, the early years,
0:39.2	1963 to 1967.
0:42.3	It's a hundred and nineteen songs,
0:44.7	including 29 songs never released from Joni.
0:48.6	I'm gonna bring on NPR Music's and powers to talk about
0:51.0	this five CD set, but let's start
0:53.8	with one of the many live recordings in this box set.
0:56.8	This song is from a performance at the Canterbury House
0:59.6	in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1:01.0	It's one of our well-known tunes.
	...

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