Joni Mitchell has released an EP of previously unreleased demos and outtakes from her classic 1971 album, Blue.
The release of the Blue 50 EP comes almost 50 years to the day on from the original release of Blue. The five-song EP includes demos of ‘A Case Of You’ and ‘California’, alternate versions of ‘River’ and ‘Urge For Going’, and rare track ‘Hunter’.
All of the tracks on the EP will be included on The Reprise Years (1968-1971), a box set which documents the years leading to Blue and is due to be released in October. That release, on Rhino Records, will also include a 1968 Ottawa coffee house performance recorded by Jimi Hendrix, and a 1970 BBC concert featuring James Taylor.
The box set and the Blue 50 EP mark the latest instalments in the archive series that Mitchell launched last year with another box set, The Early Years. Mitchell’s first four albums will also be collectively reissued in one set on The Reprise Albums this Friday (June 25).
