For Joni Mitchell fans, there are few visual documents of the earlier part of her career more coveted than the famed BBC In Concert special from 1970. The full title was Joni Mitchell Sings Joni Mitchell and it’s an intimate and closely miked performance shot in front of a respectful and quiet audience. The show was recorded at the BBC Television Centre in Shepherd’s Bush on September 3rd. but not broadcast until October 9th. 

It’s one of the very first things I ever downloaded on Bit Torrent and the quality was so perfect that, being used to crappy bootlegs, I was really shocked. Here was something that was of a higher quality than I could have purchased in Tower Records or the Virgin Megastore. Within a year or two YouTube launched and there was, of course, an avalanche of amazing rock era rarities that were instantly rare no more. If there was more stuff like this out there, I thought to myself, “I’m going to dive right into this whole Bit Torrent thing…”

Either there were several other songs videotaped during this performance that didn’t make it into the BBC broadcast or a more recent re-broadcast of the show was edited down, I’m not certain.

In any case, over at the Sixties Archive blog, they’ve recreated the entire set list with the best quality versions of the video and audio they could assemble.

Here’s the first clip, “Chelsea Morning.” Watch the rest of Joni Mitchell Sings Joni Mitchell at the Sixties Archive blog