just before our love got lost you said

I’d heard of 22-year-old Brit James Blake for the riveting imagination he brings to his hazy, glitchy downtempo music that is currently taking the UK (and beyond) by storm. The songs I had heard were glazed, breathy, blissful.

When I was in Los Angeles last week, my friend Garrett played me this Joni Mitchell cover that Blake did on BBC1, and we just sat sprawled on the couch and listened about ten times on repeat in the growing darkness. Neither of us moved to turn it off. It was nothing like what I had heard from Blake before. This cover is an elegy, the soulful excavation of the moment a heart actually breaks. The androgynous, haunting quality of his voice here immediately impacted and riveted me in a way that I can’t remember since Jeff Buckley, or maybe Antony & the Johnsons. Be prepared to bleed, as she warns.

A Case of You (Joni Mitchell) – James Blake

And if you don’t know the original — still some of the most piercing lyrics I think she’s written, but it’s so hard to tell.

A Case of You – Joni Mitchell

Just before our love got lost you said
“I am as constant as a northern star”
and I said “constantly in the darkness
where’s that at?
if you want me I’ll be in the bar…”

I would still be on my feet

I wanna wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive

This song never loses its magic — sometimes all the conflicting things are what makes us beautiful.

If you’ve never listened to it, you should.

All I Want – Joni Mitchell

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling . . .
looking for something, what can it be
oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
oh I love you when I forget about me

I want to be strong, I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive…

Jeff Buckley covers Joni Mitchell

In the early Nineties, some musician/taper was playing New York’s Sin-é club at the same time as a young rising star named Jeff Buckley. Unnamed fella was taping Buckley’s Monday night sets, and has recently put together a compilation of these live tracks, largely covers. Thanks to a tip from a reader in Brooklyn named Adam, I have been listening to these chill-inducing recordings all morning.

People’s Parties (Joni Mitchell) – Jeff Buckley

People’s Parties (original) – Joni Mitchell

Check the Love Live! Bootlegs From Bucklberry blog for this and other tracks, including:

Two versions of “Hallelujah” (Cohen), “Funk 49″ (James Gang), “The Way Young Lovers Do” and “Sweet Thing” (Van Morrison), “In A Different Place” (Ride), “May The Circle Be Unbroken” (traditional gospel), “Twelfth Of Never” (Johnny Mathis?), “Calling You” (Bob Telson), “Strange Fruit” (Billie Holiday), “Julia” (The Beatles), “Lost Highway” (Hank Williams), “Dink’s Song” (traditional), “I Shall Be Released”, “If You See Her, Say Hello” and “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind” (Dylan).

I haven’t even heard many of these covers. What a gift.

Okkervil River and Joni Mitchell, before the goldrush

Since you know you’re probably not gonna quit your job and Teach For America (unless you are one of my idealistic college-student readers in which case: DO it!) there’s a new compilation out that will let you toss them a few kopeks instead to help them carry on their noble educational goals.

Before The Goldrush is a benefit album of freshfaced up-and-coming types (along with some moderate heavies like The Swell Season and Neko Case) covering some of the very best songwriters of the halcyon days gone by. The song selection is spot-on fantastic, and all the proceeds benefit Teach For America.

The Swell Season‘s amazing cover of “Into The Mystic” from the bonus version of the Once soundtrack appears on the digital-only release, as does this song that Okkervil River first released on their free covers EP in December 2007:

Blonde In The Bleachers – Okkervil River
Blonde In The Bleachers – Joni Mitchell

Full tracklisting:

[thanks Bodie!]