Joni Mitchell’s Blue is Second Greatest Album of All Time (aka, The Weaker Gender Consolation Prize)

According to Rolling Stone, Joni Mitchell‘s seminal 1971 album Blue is second only to Aretha Franklin’s I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You on their newest list, Women Who Rock: 50 Greatest Albums of All Time.

While it’s always great to be recognized, Joni has bristled at gender delineation in the past. As she might say, there is never a Men Who Rock list. It’s a good point, as these kinds of things can seem condescending. But, I’m sure the editors of Rolling Stone meant well and they’re obviously big fans. Of Blue, they say:

An acoustic tour de force with a swinging cast of beautiful losers, cafe romantics, sugar daddies, drunkards, liars and Rolling Stone-reading jet-setters in Spain. The one-liners cut sharp enough for a Preston Sturges film.

Essential moment: “Carey,” a jaded love ditty.

Further down the list, Carole King‘s Tapestry (also from 1971) comes in at #21:

The Brooklyn piano woman who co-wrote “You’ve Got a Friend” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?” reaches the Seventies with her marriage broken but her soul intact, singing some of the most painful divorce songs ever.

Essential moment: “So Far Away,” a wistful melody with all the loneliness of the album cover.

Other notable entries are Linda Ronstadt’s Heart Like a Wheel from ’74 (#42) and Bonnie Raitt’s 1972 sophomore album Give It Up (#48).

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About Corey Blake

Corey Blake does things on the Internet, and sometimes even in real life. As a comic book pundit, advocate and educator, he regularly contributes to the Comic Book Resources blog Robot 6 and runs the web-magazine The Comics Observer, which provides a variety of perspectives on the comic book art form and industry. He also advises for the award-winning documentary and comics advocacy movement Dig Comics, and is a recurring member of the podcast Part-Time Fanboy. As a comedic performer/actor, Corey has been seen in online web-series such as The Jeff Lewis 5-Minute Comedy Hour (Best Web Comedy-Episodic, Clicker.com), The Starmind Record (Best Direction and Editing, LA Web Series), and Poopdog Entertainment’s Mayer for Mayor (Funny or Die featured video). He is a founding member of the improv comedy group The You Convention, a house team at The Improv Space. See http://www.coreyblake.com for more.

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2 Responses to Joni Mitchell’s Blue is Second Greatest Album of All Time (aka, The Weaker Gender Consolation Prize)

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ann marie craig says:

July 6, 2012 at 7:29 pm

I think “Tapestry” is the better album. It hits a broader audience, which shows in it’s over 25 million in sales of the album. The songs on the album are still played today and are more recogonizable than the songs on “Blue”. I don’t think Rolling Stone has ever given Carole King the recoginization she deserves. My point is proven by Rolling Stone putting “Tapestry” at number 21. The numbers alone for this album should put it at number one. This album is a record breaker!