joni mitchell woodstock (ladies of the canyon) solo piano

This has to be one of my few favourite Joni Mitchell songs, which is always gonna be a hard choice because she wrote so many lovely songs.

My version is loosely based on her original 1969 Ladies Of The Canyon recording which features the amazing Wurlitzer Electric Piano. Her original says alot. It's awesome.

visit my webpage - http://www.joolsscott.co.uk
You can download my most recent 10 track piano album for $4 at http://payloadz.com/go/sip?id=467446

This is a solo piano performance of joni mitchell's "Woodstock". "Woodstock" is a song about the Woodstock Music and Art Festival of 1969.

Joni Mitchell wrote the song from what she had heard from then-boyfriend, Graham Nash, about the festival. She had not been there herself, since she was told it would be more advantageous to appear on The Dick Cavett Show by a manager. She wrote this song crying at home watching the show on television. It was later released on her third album, Ladies of the Canyon in 1970, on her Shadows and Light album, and again in 1996 on her Hits album.

Mitchell's original version featured a stark and haunting arrangement - solo vocal, multi-tracked backing vocals and tremoloed Wurlitzer electric piano all performed by Mitchell herself. All subsequent recordings featured a fuller backing band sound.

Prior to release on any album, Mitchell performed "Woodstock" at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival, one month after Woodstock. The solo performance can be seen in the festival concert film Celebration at Big Sur (released in 1971). Ironically, Mitchell later developed a well-known distaste for festival gigs.

The song later went on to be hits for Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Matthews' Southern Comfort, the latter reaching #1 on the UK singles chart for three weeks in October 1970. David Crosby in an interview in the documentary Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind said that Mitchell had captured the feeling and importance of the Woodstock festival better than anyone who had been there.

Led Zeppelin incorporated Woodstock's lyrics and structure into live renditions of their song "Dazed and Confused" between 1973 and 1975. This can be seen and heard on the live album The Song Remains The Same as well as the film of the same name, which features a collection of performances (both live and staged) from 1973. The section is used as a preface to the Violin Bow solo. It can be heard on the currently unreleased "Dazed and Confused" section of the video from one of the 1975 Earl's Court concerts. The piano intro also bears strong resemblance to "No Quarter" and Bad Company's self titled hit; "Bad Company".

popular culture. In her 2005 book Break, Blow, Burn, critic Camille Paglia wrote a chapter about the song, honoring it as "possibly the most popular and influential poem composed in English since Sylvia Plath's 'Daddy'.

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[gresach]

this is one of the world's greatest songs, and you did it beautifully

[joolsscott]

joni is the queen of songs, this one in particular is my favourite... as well as Blue.

thanks for your comment

[bagoona]

terrible noise in background...like getting laid in sand

[telecasteredtodeath]

great performance.. im finding that when im stoned the cafesk sounds of fine china clanging add an ambiencet that lifts one out of the struggle of life is me mindset, into a sense of i might do something with my life!! like, get up! and make a coffee you slob.. and see whats in the fridge while yer there na ha ha ha ..

[ApIoIam]

Really excellent performance. Thank you for the doing. Thanks also for the excellent compilation of information in your introduction. Will be watching you. Go on!

[Ricorey]

PUre poetry and fantasy. Hard to hear without weeping. Those were idealic times.

[CaptainPillowMusic]

Very nice.

[Bundydeb1]

so haunting I wanted to cry - truly beautiful - thankyou

[TheBgcheez]

Very nice!

[Shellyann7100]

Beautiful.......Thank you.

[BluezBro604]

beautifully performed =)

[mavsfan4life]

Could you do a tutorial of this song? I'd love to learn how to play it.