Thursday, November 6, 2008

Early Joni Mitchell: "Favorite Color"

This is a 1965 clip of Joan Anderson (a.k.a. Joni Mitchell) singing "Favorite Color" on the Canadian Oscar Brandt TV show called "Let's Sing Out."

Even though Joni looks squeaky clean without a trace of the California hippie she would soon become, this song already features the finger-picking style, open-tuning, eerie chromaticism and gorgeous poetic lyrics melding child and nature imagery she would use so much in her career.  

Host Oscar Brandt points out the rise of the crazy new movement of singers writing their own songs. Writing their own songs...crazy!

Joni never recorded this song to my knowledge. She was 25.



And ainit she just cute as a button?  My second favorite Saskatoonian.

I've added "Night in the City" and "If I Had a King" to my playlist, a couple tunes off of her first album produced by David Crosby called Joni Mitchell (Song to a Seagull) in 1968.

Here's a modern interpretation of Austin, Texas' Will Taylor and String Attached.



2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aw, thanks for plugging my home town. So who is your favourite Saskatonian? Is it Gordie Howe? Shannon Tweed? Keith Morrison ? :)

Anonymous said...

Love seeing Joni on your site. She's an all-time fav. And her sound is still hip today. I remember when my Mom said to turn that screeching woman off. But I still love Joni's music and hope to hear younger music lovers connecting with her poetic sounds.

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