Black Crow

01 Sep


I’m a little black boy crying in a blue sky…

This cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Black Crow” is also from Wafers and Wine, but it was originally recorded on a cassette 4-track for 1997’s A Tape of You, a collection of covers by Joni’s Internet fans. Legend has it that a copy of it made its way to Joni, which is why I tacked the “Joni’s gonna hate this” bit at the end, with the sample of her laughing.

Saw her two years later playing “Black Crow” at the Day in the Garden Woodstock reunion show, summer of ’98. With my hero Brian Blade on the drums. And my head exploded. I had a sober hallucination that she was singing “black boy” instead of “black crow,” just like in my version. And my head exploded again.

(Also: you know the rules with the Bootleg Blog: this is an old, home-brew, four-track job, so the crappier the recording, the better, right?)

Direct Download: 060813_black_crow.mp3
Bootleg Blog Category: Covers

UPDATE: I’m going to start cross-posting the Bootleg Blog to the front page so you don’t miss ’em. Coming this fall: outtakes from the pre-Ones and Zeros “Tele Sessions” (2000) and more four-track fun with cuts from 1995’s “Bleed.”