Leslie Mendelson Covers Joni Mitchell’s ‘People’s Party’ In Live Performance Video
By Scott Bernstein Feb 22, 2021 • 8:44 am PST

Singer-songwriter Leslie Mendelson released the In The Meantime EP last summer which included her take on Joni Mitchell’s “People’s Parties.” Mendelson shared video featuring her live performance of the cover.
In The Meantime also contains new versions of three songs from If You Can't Say Anything Nice..., an album Leslie issued in April 2020, as well as a cover of John Martyn’s “Head And Heart.” Mendelson was inspired to release the five-song collection after playing a series of livestream concerts in support of If You Can’t Say Anything Nice…. “Years from now with distance from it all, I’d love to think this EP will be a moving little reminder of these times we lived through in 2020,” Leslie said when In The Meantime came out.
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Joni Mitchell recorded “People’s Parties” for her 1974 album, Court And Spark. Mitchell said the following as an introduction to “People’s Parties” at a concert in Anaheim on March 5, 1974:
This’s a song about a party. This’s a strange kind of party -it was in a room with mirrors on the ceilings and on the floors and the walls. And it was a candlelit supper actually so like with all of this reflection going on it was almost like intergalactic travel you know. Plus like to add to the the spacey feeling of the room all of the chairs were transparent. And the tables clear plastic and the plates were clear and the chopsticks were transparent. And they served white wine and wonton soup without the wontons. Towards the end of the evening I got the feeling that I was sort of transparent. I’d been smiling so much at everybody all night that I was had the charlie horses in my cheeks and it seemed like everybody was trying so hard you know.
Leslie Mendelson took the stage at an empty Rockwood Music Hall in New York City on January 25, 2021. Watch Leslie’s “People’s Party” performance from that night, which premiered via Petal Motel: