(Credits: Far Out / Stevie Nicks)
Mon 19 January 2026 16:49, UK
It’s easy to get lost in the sonic world of Joni Mitchell. The folk songwriter has been soundtracking the wins and woes of women for around six decades now. She writes with unflinching vulnerability and poetic flair in equal measure, with a composition to match nearly every emotion and experience. She’s become a big sisterly voice to lean on, even to Stevie Nicks.
Before Nicks became a formidable Fleetwood Mac frontwoman, she spent the early 1970s struggling to find her way in the music industry. She was in a romantic and professional partnership with fellow Fleetwood Mac member Lindsey Buckingham, releasing as a duo under the name Buckingham Nicks.
The pair released their debut album in 1973 but were not kept on by their label, and Nicks found herself floundering in her love life and her career. The promise of Fleetwood Mac was just around the corner – the duo would join the band in late 1974 – but until then, Nicks took comfort in the words of Mitchell.
In early 1974, Mitchell released her sixth record, Court and Spark. Filled with jazzy soundscapes about love and freedom, it was a gorgeous collection of tracks, one that immediately endeared itself to Nicks. “[Court and Spark] was one of those albums that I lay on the floor and listened to for three days straight,” she once recalled during a conversation with The Guardian.
The relationship between Nicks and Buckingham was breaking down, just like their relationship with their label, so the future frontwoman took comfort in the title track in particular. “Lindsey and I were coming to the end of our relationship, and I’d met someone else,” she explained, “So I latched on to the title track, which is about a new relationship that doesn’t last.”
A bright-eyed Joni Mitchell. (Credits: Far Out / Press)
It’s easy to see why Nicks latched onto the track. Bold pianos and chimes underscore Mitchell’s words as she sings, “The more he talked to me, you know, the more he reached me, but I couldn’t let go of LA, city of the fallen angels.” ‘The Same Situation’, on the other hand, reflected Nicks’ experience thus far in the music industry.
The record helped Nicks get through the difficulties within their relationship and career at the time, declaring it “the only time I ever felt music might not work out.” Luckily, it did work out, and the future Fleetwood Mac singer became a reference point and a voice to lean on for other budding women in music.
Nicks and Mitchell were both pioneering women in their respective spheres, voices just as revered and reliable today as they were at the time.
Is Court and Spark Joni Mitchell’s best album?
Well, for most listeners, that accolade would be reserved for Blue, but there is a lot here to be considered as some of Mitchell’s best work. A double-platinum record is always likely to be loved, but there’s something extra special about this album.
It was the moment Joni Mitchell truly broke free of her previously held perceptions and forged a new path all of her own creation. Naturally, Mitchell still retains her thematic crutches on the record, using the themes of isolation and forgettable love to bolster her attack. But there’s no doubt that the album is a change of pace and sees Mitchell’s pop sensibility begin to reach the surface as she charges, headfirst, towards a brand new era of her career.
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