Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Sat 27 December 2025 14:44, UK
The influence of David Crosby should not be understated. As a founding member of The Byrds, he was an essential part of the folk and psych-rock scenes of the 1960s.
Of course, it is his work with West Coast supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash for which he is most remembered. Having been an essential part of American popular music for so many years, it’s no surprise that Crosby had a few run-ins with other icons of the era, the most notable of which was his relationship with Canadian Singer-Songwriter Joni Mitchell.
Though the pair parted ways less than friends, Crosby didn’t let that get in the way of his appreciation for Mitchell as a musician. Here, he opens up about his favourite album by the iconic songwriter.
In the eyes of America’s music-loving youth, Joni Mitchell was the very epitome of boho feminity — a whimsical flower-child with the crystalline voice of some rare bird. Unlike her male contemporaries, such as Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash and James Taylor, Mitchell was never given complete control over her image. By 1970, this had clearly started to weigh on her conscience. Her response was to write an album that showcased her fiery intellect and musical dexterity. What she came out with was 1971’s Blue, an album Crosby would later call “the best singer-songwriter record ever made.”
Although the LP received lukewarm reviews on release, Blue is regarded by many as Mitchell’s masterpiece. As she recalled back in 2013, the album was motivated by a desire to rupture her fans’ reductive image of her. “They better find out who they’re worshipping,” she said. “Let’s see if they can take it. Let’s get real”.
A young Joni Mitchell. (Credits: Far Out / Tidal)
Much of Blue was written during Mitchell’s long vacation around Europe, during which she stopped off at the Greek Island of Matala, where hippies from America had set up a sort of cave-bound commune. The island would provide the setting for ‘Carey’, which uses as its subject a redneck American she met during her stay.
“I turned around just in time to see this guy with a red beard blowing through the door of a cafe,” Mitchell would later write. “He was wearing a white turban, white Nehru shirt and white cotton pants. I said to Penelope, ‘What an entrance—I have to meet this guy.”
Blue is, at its core, is an album about transformation. As Mitchell said of the now iconic Woodstock Festival: “It’s a description of the times. There were so many sinking but I had to keep thinking I could make it through the waves.”
In ‘Little Green’, ‘California’, and ‘River’, Mitchell looks back to her past in search of answers. Crosby singled out ‘A Case of You’ as his favourite track from the album. He even went as far as to compare Mitchell with another songwriting giant. “Bob Dylan’s as good a poet as Joni, but nowhere near as good a musician. Paul Simon and James Taylor made some stunners – but for me, Blue is the best singer-songwriter album.”
“Picking a song from it is like choosing between your children,” Crosby added. “Can you imagine a better song than ‘A Case of You’? She was so brilliant as a songwriter, it crushed me. But she gives us all something to strive for.”
It is a masterclass in everything that makes music perfect. Far from immersing herself in nostalgia, however, she keeps one eye fixed keenly on the future. The result? An album that grows in scale and maturity with each passing track.
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