Writing candidly about intimate, private moments and feelings is today such an accepted practice in pop songwriting that it can be startling to go back to 1971 and find Joni Mitchell reflecting that, at that point, 'the only thing that I could see to do fresh, that hadn't really been explored poetically, was the internal landscape. … [to] write from my own experience … was one of the few territories left for a poet to be a contributor of any kind'. The album she's talking about is Blue, and if she's right, then it might be viewed as the origin of this tradition of songwriting as 'an investigation of self, self-analysis of sorts', as she put it elsewhere. In this final episode of the series, I look at the penultimate song on this great album, 'A Case of You', in the context of wider shifts in American society, as well as Mitchell's particular musical and philosophical development, to see what's revealed in this bold venture inwards.

All the songs discussed in this episode, including the original recording of 'A Case of You' can be heard here. If you've enjoyed it, please leave a review on Apple podcasts; thank you.

With very special thanks to Paul Wierdak, the producer of this episode.