\n<\/p>\n
At once incisive and joyful, this 1970 single \u2014 with which Mitchell opened her set last summer \u2014 covers a lot of ground in just over two minutes, moving seamlessly from social critique to personal lament. Its observations about industrialization and environmental degradation are still piercingly relevant 54 years later.<\/p>\n
\u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Mitchell\u2019s poetic 1991 album \u201cNight Ride Home\u201d is a highlight among her later releases, beloved by many fans but lesser known to the general public than much of her work made in the \u201970s. This moody, atmospheric title track \u2014 featuring some hypnotic crickets on percussion \u2014 sets the tone.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n This rowdy rocker from Mitchell\u2019s 1974 masterpiece \u201cCourt and Spark\u201d chronicles a failed barroom proposition (\u201cHey, where you going?\/Don\u2019t go yet,\u201d Mitchell implores, \u201cYour glass ain\u2019t empty and we just met\u201d), allowing her to show off an underappreciated strength of her songwriting: her sense of humor.<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n When Mitchell played another<\/em> cut from \u201cNight Ride Home\u201d as her fourth song in the Gorge performance, I knew we\u2019d be in for a thrillingly eclectic set. As she proved on \u201cCourt and Spark,\u201d and later on this seven-and-a-half-minute meditation on human connection, Mitchell is an expert at capturing the glowing flush of new romance: \u201cWith just a touch of our fingers, I could make our circuitry explode,\u201d she sings, recalling a teenage dalliance. \u201cAll we ever wanted, was just to come in from the cold.\u201d<\/p>\n \u25b6 Listen on <\/strong>Spotify<\/a>, Apple Music<\/a> or YouTube<\/a><\/p>\n Most days, if you were to ask me my favorite Joni Mitchell song, I\u2019d resent you for making me choose. But on certain days, particularly the lonely, melancholy ones, I\u2019d blurt out, \u201cAmelia.\u201d A highlight of her singular 1976 album \u201cHejira,\u201d this sparse, searching track plays out as a stream-of-consciousness monologue to the doomed aviator Amelia Earhart, who here symbolizes both the freedom and perils of independence: \u201cA ghost of aviation, she was swallowed by the sky\/Or by the sea, like me, she had a dream to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n2. \u201cNight Ride Home\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
3. \u201cRaised on Robbery\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
4. \u201cCome in From the Cold\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
5. \u201cAmelia\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n