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 Jazz, rock, pop
Length 74:00
Label Asylum
Producer Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell chronology
Court and Spark
(1974)Court and Spark1974
Miles of Aisles
(1974)
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
(1975)The Hissing of Summer Lawns1975
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
Robert ChristgauB–[2]
MusicHound[3]
Rolling Stone(not rated)[4]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide[5]

Miles of Aisles is the seventh album by Canadian singer-songwriter 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8]

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 tracks written by Joni Mitchell.

Side one
No.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
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.TitleLength
15."Carey"3:30
16."The Last Time I Saw Richard"3:35
17."Jericho"3:26
18."Love or Money"4:50

Personnel

The L.A. Express
Technical

References

  1. Ruhlmann, William (2011). "Miles of Aisles – Joni Mitchell | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  2. Christgau, Robert (2011). "Robert Christgau: CG: joni mitchell". robertchristgau.com. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  3. Graff, Gary; Durchholz, Daniel (eds) (1999). MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide. Farmington Hills, MI: Visible Ink Press. p. 769. ISBN 1-57859-061-2.
  4. Davis, Stephen (2011). "Joni Mitchell: Miles Of Aisles : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone". web.archive.org. Archived from the original on January 24, 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  5. Brackett, Nathan; Hoard, Christian, eds. (2004). "Joni Mitchell". The New Rolling Stone Album Guide. London: Fireside. pp. 547–548. ISBN 0-7432-0169-8. Retrieved 8 September 2009. Portions posted at "Joni Mitchell > Album Guide". rollingstone.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2011. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  6. RIAA database retrieved 13 August 2014
  7. Joni Mitchell website Chronology retrieved 13 August 2014 Archived 19 April 2014 at the Wayback Machine.
  8. Blackburn, Dave (September 12, 2011). "A Conversation with Max Bennett". jonimitchell.com. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
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