Joni Mitchell "Blue"

With Blue, Joni Mitchell basically set the template for all singer-songwriter albums that came after. Her three albums before had grown from the barely charting Song of the Seagull, to the Top 40 Clouds, with 1970 bringing Top 30 success for Ladies of the Canyon.

But 1971's Blue was different. It brought an amazing level of personal content, ripped straight from Joni's most personal thoughts and feelings. Simple production focusing on the lyrics brought listeners into Joni's struggles. The songs document the break-up with Graham Nash, complicated new relationship with James Taylor, homesickness, her young marriage, and giving up her child for adoption.

In 1979 Mitchell reflected, "The Blue album, there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the…