By the time Joni Mitchell made The Hissing of Summer Lawns, she had already entered the pantheon of the greats, with albums that can be talked about in casual conversation without having to say the artist (Court and Spark, Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, et al.). But the pioneering work in alt-folk and self-confessional singer-songwriting done, she started pushing her music in radical directions, incorporating jazz, African music (which was hard to actually hear in the States in the ‘70s) and a new, sprawling vision of pop music into her fold. The first moment that all those styles converge and lift Mitchell off into some new vista is The Hissing of Summer Lawns, an album we believe to be her masterpiece, an album that has tendrils of influence that are still being felt today. Rem...
