Miles of Aisles

Miles of Aisles
Live album by Joni Mitchell
Released November 1974
Recorded March 2 and 4, 1974; August 14–17, 1974
The Universal Amphitheatre, Los Angeles Music Center and Berkeley Community Center
Genre Folk jazz, Folk-rock
Length 74:00
Label Asylum
Producer Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell chronology

Court and Spark
(1974)		 Miles of Aisles
(1974)		 The Hissing of Summer Lawns
(1975)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
AllMusic [1]
Rolling Stone (not rated)[2]
Robert Christgau B−[3]

Miles of Aisles is the seventh album by Joni Mitchell, released in 1974 on Asylum Records. It is her first live album, a double documenting her concerts in support of the Court and Spark album with her backing band for the tour, the L.A. Express. It reached #2 on the Billboard 200 and became one of her biggest-selling records, certified a gold record by the RIAA.[4]

Content

This was Mitchell's first tour with backing musicians; prior to this she had generally performed solo, and had never organized a tour with a band.[5] She hired an already existing group, the jazz fusion band L.A. Express, members of which had appeared on her previous studio album, Court and Spark, the biggest commercial success of her career. A track from this live album, "Big Yellow Taxi," was released as a single. Four years after the studio version had stalled at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100 as a single, this live version reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, becoming Mitchell's fourth Top 40 hit single and third in a row.

The album contains many of her best-known songs, but only one track derived from her recent album and neither of its two hit singles, "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris." All tracks except two were recorded at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, August 14 to 17, 1974. "Cactus Tree" was recorded at the Los Angeles Music Center on March 4, and "Real Good for Free" at the Berkeley Community Theater on March 2. The cover photo was taken at the Pine Knob Music Theater in Clarkston, Michigan.[6]

The album was remastered and reissued on a single compact disc on March 21, 2000, utilizing the Pacific Microsonics HDCD process. This was part of the series reissuing her entire catalogue on the Reprise and Asylum labels through 1980.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Joni Mitchell. 

Side one
No. Title Length
1. "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio"   4:09
2. "Big Yellow Taxi"   3:09
3. "Rainy Night House"   4:04
4. "Woodstock"   4:29
Side two
No. Title Length
5. "Cactus Tree"   5:01
6. "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire"   5:23
7. "Woman of Heart and Mind"   3:40
8. "A Case of You"   4:42
9. "Blue"   2:49
Side three
No. Title Length
10. "The Circle Game"   6:29
11. "People's Parties"   2:42
12. "All I Want"   3:21
13. "Real Good for Free"   4:27
14. "Both Sides Now"   4:14
Side four
No. Title Length
15. "Carey"   3:30
16. "The Last Time I Saw Richard"   3:35
17. "Jericho"   3:26
18. "Love or Money"   4:50

Personnel

References

  1. ↑ Ruhlmann, William (2011). "Miles of Aisles - Joni Mitchell | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Davis, Stephen (2011). "Joni Mitchell: Miles Of Aisles : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". web.archive.org. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  3. ↑ Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: joni mitchell". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  4. ↑ RIAA database retrieved 13 August 2014
  5. ↑ Joni Mitchell website Chronology retrieved 13 August 2014
  6. ↑ Blackburn, Dave (September 12, 2011). "A Conversation with Max Bennett". jonimitchell.com. Retrieved September 3, 2014.

External links