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Court and Spark is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Released in January 1974, it infuses the folk rock style of her previous albums with jazz elements. It was an immediate commercial and critical success—and remains her most successful album.
Mar 5, 2024 · “Raised on Robbery” departs from the jazzier elements of Court and Spark as a swinging 1950s-style rock ‘n’ roll number driven by Robbie Robertson’s guitar playing. Car on the Hill
- Thom Donovan
- 3 min
- Contributor
On first listening, Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark, the first truly great pop album of 1974, sounds surprisingly light; by the third or fourth listening, it reveals its underlying tensions.
Jan 20, 2024 · Initially, Court and Spark’s lead single was “Raised On Robbery,” a raucous tale of a hooker unsuccessfully trying to lure a john in a hotel bar. It featured the jazzy horns of Tom Scott’s L.A. Express and a guitar assist from Robbie Robertson.
Aug 23, 2014 · This outright rock tune was emblematic of Mitchell’s new musical direction and features The Band’s Robbie Robertson on lead guitar. “Trouble Child” is another pleasant soft rock track with the slightest tinge of an edge, as it musically has just the slightest elements of jazz, led by the trumpet of Chuck Findley .
Jan 18, 2024 · Joni Mitchell Court and Spark, Asylum Records 1974. Not that there weren’t non-jazzers on the album: The Band’s Robbie Robertson unleashes a fiery guitar solo on the first single, “Raised on Robbery,” and David Crosby and Graham Nash contribute some harmony vocals.
Much is made of the intimacy of Mitchell's songwriting, but few of her albums open with quite such beckoning closeness, while reeling out a tableau of the tensions of the romantic tryst, as "Court And Spark" itself.
