"Along with its romantic melancholy, Blue was the sound of a woman availing herself of the romantic and sexual freedom that was, until then, an exclusively male province in rock," the outlet added.

Mitchell herself has acknowledged the quality and impact of Blue, telling Rolling Stone in 1979 that "there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals."

"At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world, and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either," Mitchell added.

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"On this day (June 22) in 1971, Joni Mitchell released Blue. It was an intensely honest and emotional release in which Mitchell bared her soul to the world. Songs like "Case of You," "Carey," "California," and "This Flight Tonight" have become cornerstones of her discography."

"In the decades since its release, it has been hailed by multiple critics as one of the greatest albums of all time.

Several life events inspired songs from the Blue. The end of Mitchell's relationship with Graham Nash, her ongoing relationship with James Taylor, and putting her daughter up for adoption in 1965 were the major contributors, though.

"Why I wrote the songs on Blue, the point is that soon after I'd given up my daughter for adoption, I had a house and a car and I had the means and I'd become a public figure," she recalled.

"The combination of those situations did not sit well. So, I kind of withdrew from music, began to go inside, and question who I was. Out of that, Blue evolved.

"We had to close the doors and lock them while I recorded Blue," Joni Mitchell recalled in a 1996 interview.

"I was in a state of mind that, in this culture, would be called a nervous breakdown. In pockets of the Orient, it would be considered a shamanic conversion," she added.

She recalled playing Blue for Kris Kristofferson. "God, Joan, save something of yourself," he exclaimed upon hearing it.

"He was embarrassed by it," she reflected. "I think, generally, at first that people were embarrassed by it, that in a certain way it was shocking, especially in the pop arena."
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