A Case Of You: A Song History

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Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" first appeared on Blue, the album Reprise Records released on June 22, 1971, as the last of her four records for that label.[1] The Blue sessions began at A&M Studios in Los Angeles early in 1971, and James Taylor played guitar on three of its tracks, this one among them.[2] On the finished recording Taylor is on acoustic guitar and Russ Kunkel on drums, while Mitchell accompanies herself on Appalachian dulcimer.[3] American Songwriter reads the song as a portrait of a love that keeps its hold on the singer even after the relationship is over.[3]

Nineteenth-century Appalachian dulcimer with a long hourglass-shaped wooden body and a scrolled peghead

Charles Napoleon Prichard, Appalachian Dulcimer, wood and metal, late 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). A nineteenth-century dulcimer, not Mitchell’s instrument.

Mitchell bought her first dulcimer for $200 from Joellen Lapidus, a young instrument maker then living in Big Sur, at the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival, and Lapidus also showed her some strumming techniques.[4][5] Mitchell carried that dulcimer through Europe in 1970 and later said she wrote most of Blue on it.[5] According to the 2015 Hearts of the Dulcimer podcast, whose transcript is posted on Mitchell's official website, the first instrument was accidentally damaged, so Lapidus built her a second one, which Mitchell used to record the album.[5] The dulcimer is heard on four songs on Blue, "A Case of You" among them, and the CBC connects her work on it to her long experimentation with altered guitar tunings.[4][5]

Blue was inducted into the GRAMMY Hall of Fame in 1999.[6] Rolling Stone placed "A Case of You" at number 26 on its 2021 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.[7] The song has been covered by a long list of artists, including Prince, Diana Krall and James Blake, whose version appeared on his 2011 EP Enough Thunder.[3][6] When Kelly Clarkson sang it in the "Kellyoke" segment of her television show, Jaco Caraco accompanied her on Appalachian dulcimer.[7]

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Sources

  1. JoniMitchell.com: "Announcing 'The Reprise Albums (1968-1971)' boxed set, available July 2".
  2. Hi-Fi News: "Joni Mitchell: Blue Production Notes".
  3. American Songwriter: "Behind the Song: Joni Mitchell, 'A Case of You'".
  4. CBC: "50 years ago, Joni Mitchell introduced many of us to the sounds of the dulcimer".
  5. JoniMitchell.com Library: "Hearts of the Dulcimer Podcast" (transcript, Dulcimuse.com, June 2015).
  6. GRAMMY.com: "For The Record: Joni Mitchell's Emotive 1971 Masterpiece, 'Blue'".
  7. Rolling Stone: "See Kelly Clarkson Cover Joni Mitchell's 'A Case of You' With Only a Dulcimer Accompanying Her".