It changed my world

She gave us all permission. Until Joni, I felt like all these feelings and all of that artsitic expression and working out your sexual selves and your emotional selves in a public and creative forum - I thought that was all the province of men until Joni did it. And then I saw how possible it was for a woman to explore [that] in a public arena. And it was completely inspiring. It changed my world.
Rosanne Cash on Joni Mitchell in Listen to This by Alan Reder and John Baxter. Can classical music help change the world?

Sleeve scan is Joni's 1969 album Clouds. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk

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Does it have integrity and relevance?

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Closer to Vaughan Williams than Phil Spector

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This year's BBC Proms season includes ' Nick Drake - An Orchestral Celebration ' with Jules Buckley and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That is Nick in the photo above; on the night in 1974 he died at the tragically young age of 26 a disc of the Brandenburg Concertos was on the record player in his room , and Black Eyed Dog , one of the last tracks he recorded before he died, has striking similarities to the Preludio of Bach's Lute Suite in E Major. But there is also an important and little-known contemporary connection between Nick Drake and the world of classical music. While at Cambridge University Nick met and worked with fellow student Robert Kirby. When Nick recorded his first album Five Leaves Left he chose Robert Kirby to arrange and conduct the backing for the majority of the tracks using strings, brass and woodwind. It is widely acknowledged that these arrangements were a major contribution to the success of the album and also to Nick's next LP Bryter Late
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The Berlin Philharmonic's darkest hour

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