I had a friend back in the day that would always say she didn't like Joni Mitchell because she always "sung between the notes".   that always stuck with me.

I had this on cassette.  I bought it on vinyl and wore it out. I got two CD's of it, and it's still in my CD player most times. I tried my best to learn the guitar progressions in this song, but failed, so I settled for listening to it repeatedly. This work, along with Jackson Browne's "Late For The Sky", got me through some pretty not-nice events. I can remember sitting in one of the top rooms of Bath's Rooming House in Carson City, Nevada, with my friend Peggy. (I have a picture, but I can't figure out how to upload it.)   I'd just run away from home right after graduating from high school, and that room was festooned with paper flowers, dog-eared issues of Rolling Stone, and gypsy-scarves that had been purchased at yard sales.  It was an amazing time for me - I had a troubadour who had a convertible land-yacht and played guitar, and who serenaded Peggy and me  from the street while we sat on the balcony and threw flowers down to him.

I gathered the Rolling Stones and read them while I was trying to figure out what to do with my life, and I read an interview with Jackson Browne in one of them. That led me to Joni Mitchell, and I read whatever I could about her. Then, when I left that place with all its wonder and unnerving events, I subscribed to Rolling Stone.  All the while, I had music, and Joni Mitchell was at the top of my list, along with Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, and James Taylor.  Dan Fogelberg followed shortly after, as did Neil Young, Eagles, and Souther-Hillman-Furay.  Yes, I ran the gamut, but "Court and Spark" still remains one of my favorite pieces of music.  And this song, in particular, continues to resonate with me.  I truly believe that whatever dubious gifts I possess in the creative realm, I owe to Peggy, Rolling Stone, Joni Mitchell, and Bath's Rooming House.

. . . This & Hissing of Summer Lawns are my favorites of hers . . .

Sounds like you don't like the natural sound of a woman's voice.

Fireproof suit on, but Joni Mitchell is fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The good thing about this song is that its short.

Fireproof suit on, but Joni Mitchell is fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The good thing about this song is that its short.

Her voice makes me melt

Fireproof suit on, but Joni Mitchell is fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The good thing about this song is that its short.

Fireproof suit on, but Joni Mitchell is fingernails on a chalkboard to me. The good thing about this song is that its short.

I always wondered: how can SHE be a "free MAN" in Paris? Maybe I should listen to the lyrics more closely?

Because she wrote it from the perspective of her friend David Geffen, who was a record exec at the time and still is.
It's interesting to note the Joni turned her back on the music industry quite a while back since she found it to be a corrupted cesspool.
Geffen is still very much a a hard line lobbyist for the UK music industry pushing loads of (not very) nice laws through the House of Lords.
Wonder if they still are friends...

Her voice makes me melt

I always wondered: how can SHE be a "free MAN" in Paris?

Maybe I should listen to the lyrics more closely?

If I had a rock I'd have thrown it into the speaker cone about now.

Please crawl back under your rock and leave the rest of us alone.

Can't understand, and never could understand, why people actually like this artist. She sounds like a "schoolhouse rock" thing. you know, nouns, interjections, figure 8.  yes...that's what this is like. 

Amazing album, amazing tune.

Poor production | reproduction.

I checked my cd of this - yeah, the mix is muddy and the reproduction is second rate at best. I wonder if there is a reissue with decent fidelity.

I'd drop a stylus on the vinyl to check its integrity, but I know it's been played to death and won't be a good measure.

As you were.