Painter-turned-folksinger Joni Mitchell had slipped stark saxophone solos into her prior album, For the Roses, and her singing had often hinted at a capacity for bluesier fare than her guitar- and piano-framed confessional ballads offered. None of those hints prepared fans for this sudden, expansive shift toward a much larger canvas--a sleeker, orchestrated pop style pulsing with jazz elements. Court & Spark found Mitchell casting aside her earth mother affectations and revealing herself as the thoroughly modern, thoroughly complicated woman she is; the songs sustained familiar preoccupations with relationships but replaced courtly settings and naturalistic imagery with recognizably modern locales. Deeply romantic, constantly questioning, classic tracks like the title song, "Help Me," "Free Man in Paris," "Same Situation," and "Raised on Robbery" display a more liberated Mitchell, ready to rumble with unbridled electric guitars (guest Robbie Robertson on "...Robbery"), even willing to poke fun at her own oh-so-sensitive rep with a hip cover of Annie Ross´s hilarious "Twisted."

民謠女歌手 Joni Mitchell 於一九七一年發行的經典之作。在六○年代的社運、學運已成過往雲煙後，回歸藝術家身分的Joni Mitchell，以纖細、感性之筆，寫下Blue中連篇美麗的樂章：“My Old Man”描繪無須法律約束就能地老天荒的愛情；“Blue"和“California”則以略帶憂傷的口吻，描繪社運結束後，發現社會仍無改變的惆悵； "The Last Time I Saw Richard"深刻描繪了知識分子的犬儒與失落……清淡如詩的口吻，娓娓道來日常的生活情境，蘊含的卻是極為深刻的社會觀察與生命哲思，充分展現「女性創作歌手第一人」的實力。