Joni Mitchell-For The Roses (1972)

 

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Title: For The Roses

Label: Asylum

Format: LP

Cat: SD 5057

Year of Release:1972

Country and Year of Edition: US early 70's gatefold

Sell Price: $4.99 VG+/VG

Discogs Last Sold: 111/23 VG+/VG+ $13.00

Low:$3.90

Median: $8.76

Average: $10.24

High: $39.00 M/NM still sealed

Current low price: $2.13 P/VG+, $6.00 VG/VG

Current Number on Sale at Discogs: 34

Have/Want: 1313/123

Where Sold: Brashear, MO

Time it took to sell:  8 years

Where and When Purchased: giveaway

Gwiz-gau Letter Grade: A-

Sad To See It Go: No

Joni Mitchell is alway tough for me to write about.  There’s a contingent out there that thinks everything she does is unassailable.  While she is a “cut above,” you’ve got to put in the work, something I barely did with Blue, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns let alone this one. Those I had 15 or so years before For The Roses.

In fact, the person that gave me this album about 20 years ago was so shocked I hadn’t heard it he gave me his spare copy!  I dutifully gave it a spin and filed it away for another 20 years. 

Right off the bat Joni serves up a banquet full of gristle and marrow bone.  Most of the hits for me were clustered on side 2: “Blonde In The Bleachers” and of course the actual song that cracked the American Top 40 “You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio.”  “See You Sometime” has a taste of “Fire and Rain” from the rumored muse of the album.  

The star of the first side, “Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire” has a certain negative beauty (also about JT?)  that makes it my favorite of the record.  Where else can I go with this?

Down.  Down. Down…