ROIO of the Week [Recordings of Indeterminate Origin]

Click on the panels to download artwork

Joni Mitchell and James Taylor
At The Royal Albert Hall, Oct 28, 1970 [1CD]

The king and queen of new folk were an unlikely match of the sweet, smooth-talking Taylor and the giggly, elfish Mitchell. Together they visited London and were graciously hosted by the BBC’s John Peel whom you can hear introducing the pair. At the time of post-Dylan folk music, much interest was shown to introspective songwriting, hence Peel’s interest.

This performance exudes both warmth and charm with the pair playing on each other’s strengths and Joni taking lead vocals on James’ You Can Close Your Eyes while singing her own quirky songs The Priest, California and her early favourite The Circle Game.

There’s quite a lot of between song banter with the audience that makes this set so charming for its innocence and exuberance. Nobody was thinking about being an American idol then but rather just spreading their music.

As a bonus, five rehearsal tracks are included that were not broadcast on the BBC. This version is the Wolf ReMaster with the between song audience applause reduced slightly in volume.
- The Little Chicken

Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality, stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released.

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Reader Ed Saslaw writes:

I recorded this off WNEW-FM back when it first was broadcast in the US in late 1970 or early 1972. About 15 years ago, someone broke into my car and stole a bunch of cassettes I had there, and this was one of them. I am so happy to have this beautiful music back in my life and cannot thank you enough.

There are a few things which you might want to add to your little summary on the web page. First, and least important, word was at the time that Joni and James were a couple, something she sang about a few years later ("pack up your suspenders"on ).

Second is that what makes this such a treasure is that they play together from track 8; not just 11. James does a harmony on For Free which you can hear but his distinctive guitar is all over this.

Third, is that Joni's introduction to The Circle Game (which has stuck in my mind all these years) is, of course, about her friend, Neil Young, though she does not mention him by name but rather the lyrics to Sugar Mountain, to which The Circle Game is Joni's rejoinder. This is rock and roll history of the highest order.

Thanks Ed for your efforts.

Click on the link to order Joni Mitchell albums.

Click on the link to order James Taylor albums.

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