Blue is an album. Blue is a color. The color of calm ponds and the rain that falls during the most tempestuous of storms. The color of teary rivers flowing from likewise dismal blue eyes straight into calm and sage blue seas. Blue is a boat journey through it all. Blue is a story, told by a woman. A poet. A myth. The understated legend of the 60s, unfortunately and unfairly obscured by the dust of oblivion.
Czytaj dalej The review of Joni Mitchell’s BlueTag: music
What Was Woodstock?
1.1.Introduction
We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden (Mitchell 1970)
These words are the chorus of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” song, that “named the generation” (Yaffe 2017: 3), meaning that it managed to capture the spirit of the whole event and what it stood for: Starry-eyed, idealistic young people gathered in the spirit of love and community to listen to music together. A symbol of the hippie generation, an organizational disaster, and a historical monument of humanity and kindness—that event contained all that, and more, in its boundaries. This essay attempts to reconcile these seemingly contradictory approaches by explaining how each one was true in its own right.
Czytaj dalej What Was Woodstock?