The Hissing of Summer Lawns

A remarkable leap forward from Joni Mitchell

I don’t know why I chose to buy The Hissing of Summer Lawns, which recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, as my first Joni Mitchell album. She was an artist I knew very little about. I had heard of Blue, and seen it afforded classic status in some of the music books and magazines I read at the time, and I probably knew Big Yellow Taxi, but other than that Joni Mitchell was just a name to me. However, it was a name that I’d come across enough times to think I needed to find out something about her.

Stretching my mind back to the late 80s, or early 90s, when I first listened to this album, I have a vague, possible false, memory of taking the CD out of my local library. It must have made an impact because I definitely ended up owning a copy at some point, and right now I’m holding an original 1975 vinyl in my hand because it is a breathtaking record, unexpected and eclectic.

The cover

Designed by Mitchell herself, the album cover has five men carrying a snake through a suburb of Los Ang…