Hang in there, dude…

Does another Monday morning leave you with nothing to be thankful for?  Well, The Nest is ready to pass the bowl of earworm gravy that’ll have you talking turkey again!  This is the day we dig through the giblets to pull out another song that got buried under the entrails from that giant Butterball of lost hits we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive!  DJ Scratchy’s ready to give you the bird….. and carve it too.  While the Sponkies wonder why there isn’t Thanksgiving in their native Australia.  Unlike the feast, this song won’t put you to sleep…….. we hope.

Legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was born and raised in Canada (where the Thanksgiving plates have long since been cleaned up), moving to the US in her twenties right at the time the late 60’s counterculture movement was taking root.  In fact, she penned the most famous song about that big music festival they held in 1969 even though she famously wasn’t in attendance at Woodstock.  She relied on the account of her boyfriend Graham Nash (Yes, that’s two straight Graham Nash mentions in the DVA!) when writing the song that his group (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young) would make a hit out of before she could even release her recording.

Hey, dude! Woodstock ended 50 years ago. Wake up!!!!

We’re here to talk about a slightly different era of Joni Mitchell’s career, however.  Despite writing both “Woodstock” and “Big Yellow Taxi,” considered iconic songs of that era today… Mitchell’s only real commercial success outside of her native country came from her 1974 album Court and Spark, by which time she was incorporating a bit more of a jazzy sound into her folk music.  It was easily her best selling (if not most revered) album of all time, and spawned the only US Top 40 hits she’d record on her own…. including her lone Top 10 entry:

“Help Me” reached #7 in 1974 (Yes, two straight 1974 songs in the DVA…. what’s up with that?), and is just a beautiful little piece of mellow funk that always delights me when I hear it.  It’s almost signature mid 70’s easy listening in my mind…

It’s got a great beat, and you can skate to it!

Come back next week for another golden oldie that won’t be from 1974 or have anything to do with Graham Nash….

Not that there’s anything wrong with Graham Nash…