Joni Mitchell - Come to the Sunshine - Non-Album Tracks (1967)

Here's the third of three stray tracks albums from Joni Mitchell's early years. I'm imagining this one would have come out in 1967. All of the versions of the songs are from 1967, though no doubt many of them were written and performed in 1966, or even earlier.

When I first made this album a year or two ago (as I write this), I only had enough material for two stray tracks albums for her early years, 1965 to 1967. But in late 2020, the box set "Archives, Volume 1" was released. That gave me so much more material to work with that I was able to turn those two albums into three. The song list for this one was totally redone as a result.

All of the songs on this album were written by Mitchell, except for one, "The Dowie Dens of Yarrow." It's a traditional Scottish ballad. I think the quality of the songs are very good. It amazes me that not  none of these songs were officially released in the 1960s. All of them did make it on the box set except for the last one, "The Way It Is." That recording is from the first month of 1968. The box set only goes up to 1967, so perhaps it'll make it onto the next box set.

"Little Green" wouldn't get released until "Blue" in 1971, but she was already performing it by 1966. It's about a baby she had to give up for adoption in 1965. I've included it here because I figure if she did release an album in 1967, it's highly likely it would have been included.

01 Come to the Sunshine (Joni Mitchell)
02 The London Bridge Song (Joni Mitchell)
03 Gift of the Magi (Joni Mitchell)
04 Play Little David (Joni Mitchell)
05 The Dowie Dens of Yarrow (Joni Mitchell)
06 Free Darling (Joni Mitchell)
07 Ballerina Valerie (Joni Mitchell)
08 Go Tell the Drummer Man (Joni Mitchell)
09 Carnival in Kenora (Joni Mitchell)
10 Dr. Junk (Joni Mitchell)
11 Little Green (Joni Mitchell)
12 The Way It Is (Joni Mitchell)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15255800/JoniMchl_1967a_CmetotheSnshine_atse.zip.html

For the album cover, I considered using one of Mitchell's paintings or drawings, but I didn't know which ones were created in what year. Besides, I figure she probably wouldn't have had the pull with the record company to do that just yet. The picture comes from a video of her made for her song "Come to the Sunshine." It's mostly just her standing and singing in a wheat field somewhere in Canada. It's kind of a low-res picture, but I figure it's very fitting.