Joni Mitchell shares previously unreleased track ‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’
Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has shared a previously unreleased song titled ‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’.
Not unlike her fellow Canadian folkie Neil Young or her one-time label mate Bob Dylan, Mitchell has been digging through her vault in recent years to curate a series of archival releases. She’s already released Archives – Volume 1: The Early Years (1963–1967): Highlights and Joni Mitchell Archives – Vol. 2: The Reprise Years (1968–1971), and now she’s shining a light on her years over at David Geffen’s Asylum label.
‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’ comes from the third volume in Mitchell’s Archives series, The Asylum Years: 1972-1975, which covers the period that Mitchell recorded For The Roses, Court And Spark, and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. Mitchell remained on Asylum for three more albums before jumping ship to Geffen’s new label, Geffen Records, for 1982’s Wild Things Run Fast. Those years will presumably be covered by the next instalment of the Archives series.
Joni Mitchell recorded ‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’ sometime in late 1971 or early 1972 at A&M Studios. It was recorded during the earliest demo sessions for what would eventually become 1972’s For The Roses. The same demo sessions also produced embryonic versions of ‘Banquet’, ‘Lesson in Survival’, and ‘See You Sometime’.
“[‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’] was a piece of dialogue that happened with the real-estate woman,” Mitchell explained to Cameron Crowe in the liner notes to The Asylum Years: 1972-1975. “I had almost found the land where I would build my little (stone-cabin) house. Lorraine was the real-estate woman who showed me properties. She had a Marlene Dietrich kind of look. She was a platinum blonde, and she was elegant.”
“She had lived in China with her husband, so she was kind of worldly… and glamorous. It’s an account of our conversation,” Mitchell explained. “At some point, I switched to another realtor and found the property where I would live. It was a piece of an old lumber-jack town. It wasn’t on the market, but it called out to me. Houses are important to me, and I know how to pick them. I investigated it, and I found out who owned it. I paid what she wanted, and she thought she took me. I thought I got a deal [laughs]. So we were both happy.”
Check out the audio for ‘Like Veils Said Lorraine’ down below. The Asylum Years: 1972-1975 is set for an October 6th release.
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