Musette Honours ALBUM COVERS

Clouds (1969)
She was the queen of all the flower children; the folk singing goddess of the hippie era. Joni Mitchell's naturalistic self-portrait that appeared on the cover of her second studio album, Clouds, seems to assert this well earned status beautifully. On the cover of a compilation consisting only of acoustic guitar and Mitchell's crystal clear voice, the singer portrays herself, piercing eyes, vibrant flower and all, on a backdrop of her hometown of Saskatoon in Saskatchewan, Canada, long before the days of commercial development. For the woman who made the words, pave paradise and put up a parking lot, famous, it seems a rather fitting image. Mitchell is undoubtedly a jack of all creative trades, but claims the visual arts as her foremost passion. It is no wonder she is responsible for each cover of her twenty one albums to date. Joni has remarked she is a "painter derailed by circumstance," yet Musette chooses to think of her as a woman who can do anything.