The 100th Posting: The Most Perfect 'Perfection on Vinyl'

This is the 100th posting on shumakes music, and to mark that, I'd like to talk about my ultimate "Perfection on Vinyl," my favorite album of all time, Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark.

Released in 1974, this became Joni's crowning achievement in terms of radio play and record sales. It spent months near the top of the album charts, peaking at No. 2, and the single "Help Me" became her first and only top 10 hit.

This was the album where Joni's jazz leanings and her second-to-none song crafting and poetry hit their pinnacle. Whereas she's mostly remembered for the 1971 classic Blue, I think Joni hit all the right notes on Court and Spark.

I could spend paragraphs talking about how great this record is. I won't. I'll let you listen for yourself--nay, I shall demand you do!

Standout tracks:
Help Me
Car on a Hill
Down to You
Just Like this Train
Free Man in Paris
Trouble Child

And a month later, here I am

OK, so it’s been a month. All apologies, as the saying goes. I was too busy living life to blog!

I’ll start with the UK trip. It was phenomenal. It was like a dream. Seriously.

The first cool thing we did was travel by car to a place called Turville, which is a small village in Buckinghamshire where one of my all-time favorite Britcoms, The Vicar of Dibley, was filmed. We walked around in the gorgeous early April air; we went into the church and I immediately was impressed by how TINY it is in real life. It’s exactly the same as in the show.

To Brian and Rick’s chagrin, I immediately went to the pulpit and squeezed behind it for a photo. It wasn’t the closest I was to come to Dawn French (details on that later), but it was very fun. We then had lunch in Turville’s amazing gastro-pub. I also took a photo of a cat and a lovely windmill. Not together. Two pictures, actually.