For the Roses

While the final cover depicts a conventional picture of Mitchell in a forest setting, she originally intended for the cover to be one of her own ink-and-felt-pen drawings, titled For the Roses and featuring "a bunch of roses sticking out of a horse's ass" (the imagery of which related to her feelings on the music industry). When this was rejected by Asylum Records on the grounds that they wanted her face on the cover, Mitchell presented them with a full-rear nude photograph of herself standing on ocean rocks, and was only dissuaded after David Geffen pointed out that "she wouldn't like (an) 'Only $4.99' (sticker) slapped across her ass." The nude photograph was used for the inner gatefold of the album instead.^[4]

Professional ratings

Retrospective reviews
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Christgau's Record Guide	A[6]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[7]
The Great Rock Discography	7/10[8]
Music Story	[citation needed]
MusicHound Rock	[9]
Pitchfork	9.1/10[10]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[11]
Uncut	8/10[12]

For the Roses was met with critical acclaim. The New York Times said in 1973, "Each of Mitchell's songs on For the Roses is a gem glistening with her elegant way with language, her pointed splashes of irony and her perfect shaping of images. Never does Mitchell voice a thought or feeling commonly. She's a songwriter and singer of genius who can't help but make us feel we are not alone."^[13] Writing for Rolling Stone, Stephen Davis applauded the singer's ability to explore a variety of emotional perspectives, sometimes in the course of one song: "Her great charm and wit, her intense vocal acting and phrasing abilities (the way she chooses to deal with a single word can change the feeling of an entire song) and the sheer power and gumption of her presence combine to bring it all off and make it shine."^[14] Randall Davis from the Arcadia Tribune found it difficult to analyze but ultimately "a very nice album, pleasant to listen to and, as always with Joni, it is full of sensitive, meaningful lyrics placed against a background of light rock with folky rhythms."^[15] In The Michigan Daily, Mike Harper called it the folk rock album of the year, "deeply personal and at times self-denyingly severe", saying "this album lacks the innocence of, say, Ladies of the Canyon but what it gains in womanly heart and wisdom is unmistakably greater: sincere but moreover real, For the Roses is emotionally fulfilling in the best sense of the word."^[16]

For the Roses was named the seventh best album of 1972 in Robert Christgau's year-end list for Newsday.^[17] In his review for Creem, he said the music lacked the liveliness of Blue's "All I Want" and the lyrics' insularity diminished her voice, but he ultimately regarded the album as a "remarkable work" and the year's aesthetically boldest record. "Mitchell has integrated the strange shifts of her voice into an almost 'classical' sounding music", Christgau wrote, calling it "hypnotic when you give it a chance to work".^[18] It was voted number 148 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums 3rd Edition (2000).^[19]

In 2007, the Library of Congress added the album to its National Recording Registry. In an essay accompanying the selection, Cary O'Dell wrote that the record was "Mitchell's first overt foray into jazz, a genre that, for the next several years, would come to dominate her art."^[20]

• Joni Mitchell – vocals, guitar, piano
• Tom Scott – woodwinds, reeds
• Wilton Felder – bass
• Russ Kunkel – drums
• Bobbye Hall – percussion
• Bobby Notkoff – strings
• James Burton – electric guitar on "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire"
• Graham Nash – harmonica on "You Turn Me On I'm a Radio"
• Stephen Stills – rock and roll band on "Blonde in the Bleachers"

Technical

• Henry Lewy – sound engineer, production guidance
• Anthony Hudson – art direction, design
• Joel Bernstein – photography