Raised On Robbery

Court And Spark (1974) Joni Mitchell

Summer of '75, fresh out of high school, I lived in a house up a dirt road off Highway 101, north of Santa Barbara, with Tom and Jerry, 26 year old identical twin night shift park rangers in the Gaviota area. I was 18, and a lifeguard. The house belonged to our employer, the State Of California, and my room, at the end of a long hallway cost $22 per month including utilities. So what if it was supposedly built on an ancient burial ground and haunted?
I'd play their records loud to drown out the footsteps going up and down the stairs in front of me. They led up to Tom's master suite. If he was home, the door was closed, if not it was open. Sometimes it would suddenly slam shut for my benefit. One evening while sitting in a chair reading "All The President's Men", all hell broke loose.
Pots and pans in the kitchen behind me rattled and crashed while the footsteps went down the stairs, around the corner, and into the bathroom where I heard a bar of soap assault the bathtub.
Between the book and the mayhem I was spellbound. The cacophony lasted maybe a minute.
Another time I came home only to find the house eerily dark. When the light switch just inside the door didn't work, I went straight to the refrigerator and found that the power was out. I got a candle, checked the electrical box, and the circuit breakers were just fine. The nearest town was 10 miles away, so I drove back down to the beach I worked at and hung out with a friend in the kiosk for a couple hours, eventually returning home to find every light in the place on. My housemates hadn't been there.
"Court And Spark" was in the front of the pile. I liked "Big Yellow Taxi", and "Raised On Robbery", so I put it on and cranked up the volume. She laid it all out and I fell in love.
After "Court And Spark", I bought "Blue" (1971) "Ladies Of The Canyon (1970), and "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" (1975).
In the '70's I was not a fan of jazz, so I didn't follow when she went there. My loss, of course.
I bought this album and "Mingus" (1979) last spring.
Man, she was twisted, in all the right ways. (Still is)
Although I went on to live in two more haunted houses, one in North Carolina, and the other in Massachusetts, and while I've seen a few ghosts, I'm not sure I really believe in them.

-BBJ