20 albums in 20 days Blue by Joni Mitchell edited and updated

This is an updated and edited post originally published to this blog on 1 April. I've not been able to update the original post.

I've been nominated to post 20 album covers in 20 days to Facebook. But I've been a little distracted lately. So I've failed the deadline. The 20 album covers represent music that has had a significant impact on my life. No explanations or commentaries are expected on Facebook. However, in these difficult times, it seems writing about these albums is a suitable distraction. I thought this blog seemed a suitable place to write a comment or two about the albums.

A long, long time ago we visited a cousin of my mother's. It was 1973. I was 14 years old. I had bought Starman and John I'm Only Dancing. So I was a committed fan of Bowie. But I think this story took place before Aladdin Sane was released. They had two daughters. One was a couple of years older than me. One about my own age.
I reckon her sister - maybe two years older - shared her music with her younger sister. 
I have an even older memory of visiting this family. We visited their house. I think in Kent. I remember hearing Down Town by Petula Clarke on the radio. And someone played - I assumed the older sister played Revolution Number 9 by The Beatles. That earlier memory might have taken place late 1968 but most probably 1969 when I was 9 or 10. 
Anyway, back to my later memory in 1973. At some point, we must have escaped the parents. And somehow lost my two younger sisters. Just the two of us, my cousin and me and a record player, a radio and a cassette recorder between us. This was probably the first genuine conversation I ever had with her. Quickly we found music to talk about. It's possible I'd brought with me my radio - a present from this very family for my Barmitzvah - a cassette recorder and a lead that let me connect cassette and radio. I remember setting it up to record the top 20 on Radio 1. That's possibly how we got talking about music. I remember recording, Roberta Flack singing, Killing Me Softly. After the programme, we carried on talking. She mentioned three names to me. Firstly, she said David Bowie. She told me about Ziggy Stardust. I expect she played some of the album to me. I recognized the song Ziggy Stardust. It was the B side to Starman. 

Then she mentioned Neil Young. Perhaps she played a bit of After the Gold Rush. Did I know the song before she played it?  And almost in the same breath, she mentioned Crosby, Stills Nash and Young and their album Deja Vu. Then finally, she said the name Joni Mitchel and I'm pretty sure she played me a bit of Blue.
A little time after that visit I bought, After the Gold Rush and possibly Deja Vu. But for some reason, I didn't buy Blue. I bought instead, For the Roses. Perhaps I'd forgotten the name. Perhaps it wasn't in the record shop - definitely Discoveries in Harrow. I played it a bit. I wasn't hooked then. It gradually collected dust in my collection. 
To be honest I can't remember when or why I bought Blue. Perhaps I went back to Discoveries when I had a little money. Or maybe I found it after they'd restocked it. Maybe I couldn't get the songs out of my head and just had to buy it. 
It feels like it's been with me forever. I love it.

So, I feel a little awkward about admitting this but I owe a significant proportion of my musical history to a cousin I've met less than half a dozen times. It's awkward because it was so random. The seeds of part of my musical history are rooted in someone I barely know. I haven't been in contact with her probably since 1978 or 1979. I don't think she really liked me. I think my mother's cousin looked down on my mum. Maybe they thought they were better than us. They certainly had more money. That can create a lot of tension within families. 

The older cousins - my mother and her cousin - lost touch with each other years ago. And so did the younger ones - me and my cousin. I think she carried a box of fruit to my hospital bed once. That might have been in 1981. That's the last time I saw her. There's something so insignificant and banal about our dead relationship. But there is this music that stays with me. It reminds me of her now.

I think Joni Mitchell is a musical genius. I love For the Roses now. She has that extraordinary voice, it wanders around fast and slow, high and higher. It often seems to follow its own course. You can hear in throughout Blue, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira. And sometimes she has playing with her Wayne Shorter and Jaco Pastorius. Musicians from Weather Report and Miles Davis.