5. Joni MitchellFor the Roses
It’s the most honest and intellectual of her albums. The title track is a brilliant take on how the artist interacts with the industry, how conflicted it can be to a musician in the music business. There are brilliant lines – on Lesson In Survival, she sings: "Guru books-the Bible / Only a reminder / That you’re just not good enough / You need to believe in something / Once I could in our love." It’s so true. She’s reminding you that the people telling you what’s right aren’t necessarily right. That’s what the whole album is about. It’s given me so much. Blue is a fantastic album; For The Roses takes longer to understand it, and the songs aren’t as popular, but they’re better. There’s so much more richness in there: I’m still discovering new meanings. Joni Mitchell say she’s a better writer than Bob Dylan, and I agree, totally. Many people are better writers than Bob Dylan. Like Nick Drake. Dylan’s a great writer. He’s good at rhyming. But there’s more life and more depth in Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake.
