JONI MITCHELL: THE COMPLETE POEMS AND LYRICS primarily demonstrates how much Joni Mitchell's achievements are her songs and song writing evolution, showing in sharp relief that her artistic contributions depend on her words, music, and performing skills as a total musical package. Unquestionably, her lyrics, organized here chronologically and grouped as album tracks, are justifiably as influential as her melodies. Yet alone on the printed page, most of her lines read like a primer for younger lyricists shopping for images or song writing forms. The general reader is likely to feel that something is missing.

Many of the collected items here do have the meter and narrative flow to stand on their own as poems, notably "Chelsea Morning," "Midway," and "The Gallery." These verses seem fresh and vital as poems as they did on her vinyl recordings. Others, such as "Fiddle and the Drum" (originally a poignant a cappella piece), "Conversation," "Big Yellow Taxi," "The Circle Game" and many other songs built on repeated refrains and simple rhyme schemes beg for the composer's score to give the words emotional weight. In many instances, bluesy, ethereal musical landmarks seem simply girlish and thin without irony, tone, or drive, without the musical settings they were intended to compliment. JONI MITCHELL: COMPLETE POEMS AND LYRICS, then, will largely serve as a deluxe-edition gift book for already established fans, but first-time readers will want accompanying CDs that show the real depth and range of an important, seminal Canadian/Californian songstress whose gifts deserve continuing attention. As this volume provides a helpful discography at the end of the book, readers will hopefully find themselves seeking out Mitchell's albums, a collected body of work that has immeasurably reshaped the landscape of popular music's possibilities, particularly for younger generations of female artists.