Peter Gabriel’s favourite Joni Mitchell song
Throughout his eclectic career, Peter Gabriel has experimented with almost every genre in existence. However, while he’s been on his musical adventures, the former Genesis member has retained his love of pure songwriting, even though he’s now a considerably different type of artist to the younger version of himself.
When one thinks of the term singer-songwriter, naturally, Joni Mitchell springs to mind. Along with the likes of Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Mitchell helped create a blueprint which many artists continue to follow today. Following his departure from Genesis, Gabriel dipped his toes into the waters of the realm of folk music with his hit debut single, ‘Solsbury Hill’, which showed a new side to his artistry and allowed him to expand his wings.
Although Gabriel could never be described as a folk artist like Mitchell, he greatly admires her body of work and talent. Furthermore, the two highly acclaimed musicians teamed up in 1988 on the track ‘My Secret Place’, which appeared on her album, Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm.
The LP was recorded in a series of locations in Los Angeles but also included sessions at Gabriel’s Ashcome House studio in Bath, England. As Mitchell was using his facilities, and Gabriel was fortunately in the area, it was a natural decision to invite him to appear as a guest vocalist on the album’s opening track.
During an interview with Capital Radio in 1988, Mitchell said of the collaboration: “Well, Larry (Klein) had gone to the Wool Hall in Beckington to record Ben Orr, and they’d been there for some time and, you know, there’s a community of musicians there. So Peter was recording his album, and hearing that Larry was in the neighbourhood, sent for him to play on a couple of tracks.”
“And by the time I arrived, it was just about the time the album was completed,” she added. “Peter had his playback. I had two songs at the time that I needed to record and send back state-side, and with his studio sitting empty, he suggested that I go there and use it to be his guest since it was not in use”.
Decades later, while speaking to ABC News, Gabriel named his six favourite songs of all time, which included the title track from Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue. The trademark effort is one of the most widely beloved in her canon and deals with the complexities of her relationship with singer-songwriter James Taylor, who was suffering from addiction trouble.
Explaining why he named ‘Blue’ as one of his all-time favourites, Gabriel shared: “Joni, I think, I’ve been in love with not just because of the writing, but also [because] she was an experimenter. She was pushing the musical boundaries both in the way she wrote harmonies and then exploring arrangements. Great artist.”
Gabriel’s use of “experimenter” while analysing Mitchell’s magnificence is unsurprising. It’s a trait that runs through every facet of his work and is what he desires to see from others.
Listen to ‘Blue’ below.
