The July edition. This is not advertising, this is personal. The founder of VinylChapters isn‘t bothering asking people about vinyl albums in their collections. Well I have one with BLUE, a story still going on. An album as life‘s company, from decade to decade. „The wind is in from Africa“ … this line alone, the way she sang it, put a spell on me when I was sweet sixteen. (m.e.)
„I was 15, 16 and had started writing songs, and at some point my dad said I should listen to Blue and Blood On The Tracks – because those are, like, the bibles of songwriting. So I had a fall and a winter driving around rainy Seattle in my 1980s Toyota Camry listening only to those records.
I started learning all the songs on Blue and playing them at coffee shops, and for All I Want, because I wanted to do it right, I had to buy a dulcimer. The song is all about how little you need to be infinite, and the dulcimer is definitely a part of that. Dylan is like, I only need 6 strings. Joni’s like, I only need 4 – total flex!
All I Want is like the overture to Blue, setting up the mission statement that this is going to be about relationships, and we even get the first appearance of the word “blue”, with that amazing melody, moving from the G to the F for “…so I hurt you too”. It’s a master level move.
There’s stuff on Blue that I think about almost every day. Even [from River] “I’m gonna make a lot of money and quit this crazy scene” –I aspire to that sometimes! Some people have the Bible and I have Blue.“
(Robin Pecknold, Fleet Foxes)