A couple of years ago, I tried to create a playlist of songs for those who were, like me, long-term single. The result was not as uplifting as I’d hoped. It kicked off with a couple of bangers – You Can’t Hurry Love by the Supremes, Independent Women Part 1 by Destiny’s Child – but quickly got a bit too real. Goodbye to Love by the Carpenters. Somebody to Love by Queen. I gave up the attempt when I found myself weeping along to George Gershwin’s But Not for Me.
As melancholic as those tracks were, I never got as far as plundering Joni Mitchell’s oeuvre. After all, Joni’s art is scored to the bone with the pleasure and pain of romantic relationships. Her 1971 masterpiece, Blue, fairly groans with love and the heartaches it has wrought. The real-life affairs enshrined within its 36-minute playtime are well documented, from the two-year relationship with “My Old Man” Graham Nash to the soulful connection with James Taylor that gave Joni her title track. Blue may be one of the greatest singer-songwriter albums of all time, but it’s not an obvious soundtrack for stubborn, unshifting singlehood.
