Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell, CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) singer-songwriter

Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell, nome d'arte di Roberta Joan Anderson (Fort Macleod, 7 novembre 1943), è una cantautrice e pittrice canadese.
Dopo una gavetta tra café canadesi e locali statunitensi nei quali germogliava e veniva alla luce una nuova generazione di musicisti folk, Joni Mitchell ottenne il successo commerciale alla fine degli anni '60, definendo uno stile che farà epoca e sarà fonte d'ispirazione per tutte le cantautrici dei decenni successivi. Il suo impatto sul cantautorato al femminile, di cui è considerata una delle grandi capostipiti assieme a Carole King e Laura Nyro, è paragonabile a quello di artisti come Neil Young e Eric Andersen su quello dei colleghi uomini. Col passare del tempo, il folk verrà sempre più relegato al passato per dar spazio a nuove sonorità vicine al blues e al jazz che la porteranno a collaborazioni prestigiose con artisti come Metheny, Pastorius, Hancock, Brecker e Mingus.
Joni Mitchell non è solo nota per la sua musica sofisticata e i suoi testi estremamente ricercati e poetici, ma anche per la sua passione e talento per le arti pittoriche. È lei stessa infatti a dire: "Sono prima di tutto una pittrice, poi una musicista...". Cura personalmente la grafica e le copertine dei propri album, utilizzando la maggior parte delle volte quadri ma spesso anche elaborazioni fotografiche.

Biografia

L'infanzia

Nata a Fort Macleod da William Anderson e Myrtle McKee (lui pilota d'aviazione, lei insegnante elementare), Joni Mitchell si trasferisce con la famiglia a North Battleford nel Saskatchewan verso la fine della seconda guerra mondiale. All'età di nove anni si spostano nella piccola cittadina di Saskatoon, che Joni considererà al pari di una città natale.
Ispirata da un suo giovane amico che la introduce all'ascolto di Schubert e Mozart, a sette anni comincia a prendere lezioni di pianoforte, ma l'anno dopo decide di interrompere lo studio perché l'insegnante si dimostra contraria al suo intento di comporre delle proprie melodie anziché suonare quelle dei grandi maestri.
L'esperienza della poliomielite, contratta a nove anni, segna profondamente l'infanzia di Joni ed è lei stessa a dire che è stato questo evento a farle sviluppare uno spiccato senso artistico. Grazie al suo carattere determinato e alle premurose attenzioni della madre, Joni si riprende miracolosamente in breve tempo e ritorna alla sua vita a Saskatoon.
All'età di 12 anni incontra Arthur Kratzman, suo insegnante di inglese, che cambia in qualche modo il corso della sua vita. Joni aveva già una spiccata passione per la pittura e mentre appende alcuni dei suoi quadri sulla parete della scuola il signor Kratzman le fa i suoi complimenti dicendole: "Se sai dipingere con un pennello, sai anche dipingere con le parole". Joni comincia così a scrivere poesie e tempo dopo acquista un ukulele per 36 dollari, non avendo i mezzi per comprare una vera chitarra, e comincia a suonare alle feste e in qualche locale di Saskatoon.
Dopo il liceo si iscrive all'Alberta College of Art a Calgary e comincia a esibirsi regolarmente in un locale chiamato The Depression in Calgary. La scuola d'arte la delude: non trova quello che si aspettava, studia delle cose che lei ritiene inutili e poco interessanti. Nonostante in quel periodo la pittura rappresenti ancora la sua maggiore aspirazione, Joni lascia il college e si trasferisce a Toronto per diventare una cantante folk.

Gli inizi (1964 - 1968)

A Toronto, Joni Mitchell (in questo periodo ancora Joan Anderson) cerca in tutti i modi di iscriversi al sindacato dei musicisti, ma le sue finanze sono ridotte all'osso e senza il tesserino molti locali si rifiutano di farla esibire. Così trova lavoro per i grandi magazzini Simpson-Sear per tutta la seconda metà del 1964. Toronto era in quegli anni il crocevia della musica folk canadese e non solo. Joni ha l'occasione di incontrare gli ancora sconosciuti Neil Young e Leonard Cohen e numerosi altri artisti che ruotano attorno alle decine di coffee house, fulcro del movimento folk.
Nel febbraio 1965 dà alla luce una bambina, nata da una relazione con un ragazzo del college, e la situazione si fa critica: sola in una città che non è la sua, povera e con una bambina da mantenere. È in questo periodo che avviene l'incontro con Chuck Mitchell che si innamora di Joni e le promette di riconoscere la bambina come sua figlia. Poche settimane dopo la nascita della bambina, Joni e Chuck si sposano, ma subito Chuck cambia idea sulla bambina e Joni si vede costretta ad affidarla in adozione. Nell'estate del 1965 i due si trasferiscono a Detroit.
Joni e Chuck Mitchell diventano un duo folk e incominciano ad esibirsi in coppia in numerosi locali acquistando sempre più popolarità, sino a diventare la coppia folk più amata di Detroit. Nell'estate del 1966 Joni partecipa al Newport Folk Festival ottenendo alla fine dell'esibizione una standing ovation.
Il matrimonio e il sodalizio artistico della coppia dura ben poco e agli inizi del 1967 Joni si trasferisce a New York alla ricerca del successo solista. Comincia a crearsi attorno alla sua figura un piccolo ma devoto gruppo di ammiratori e il suo talento come autrice è sempre più riconosciuto.
Joni incontra Tom Rush che rimane piacevolmente colpito dai suoi testi e soprattutto dalla canzone Urge for Going. Rush propone il pezzo a Judy Collins che però declina l'offerta e decide quindi di registrarlo lui stesso. Solo quando viene registrata dal cantante country George Hamilton IV, la canzone diventa un hit. Il crescente interesse verso le doti di Joni Mitchell porta numerosi cantanti come Buffy Sainte-Marie, Dave Van Ronk e Judy Collins a incidere i suoi pezzi trasformandoli così in successi nazionali.

Il successo (1968 - 1970)

Nel quartiere degli artisti di Chelsea a New York, dove prende residenza, incontra Elliot Roberts che diviene presto il suo manager e la inserisce nel circuito degli artisti e dei locali più frequentati. Durante un'esibizione in Florida nasce la relazione sentimentale con David Crosby, ex Byrds. Crosby convince la Reprise Records affinché Joni possa registrare un album totalmente acustico.
Nel marzo 1968 esce il primo album solista di Joni Mitchell: Song to a Seagull (a volte noto semplicemente come Joni Mitchell). Intanto David Crosby promuove in qualsiasi maniera l'album e la cantante, presentandola ai suoi amici di Hollywood e introducendola nei locali più alla moda e in vista del paese. Il passaparola è veloce e il nome di Joni Mitchell si comincia a sentire alla radio o a leggere sulle riviste. Il successo, sia da parte della critica che dal caloroso pubblico, arriva con le esibizioni al Troubadour di Los Angeles, alla Royal Festival Hall di Londra e al Miami Pop Festival.
Ad aggiungere notorietà arriva nel dicembre 1968 la versione di Judy Collins di Both Sides Now scritta da Joni, che diventa una hit. Per la novella star Joni Mitchell arrivano i primi incassi, frutto delle vendite del primo album e dei diritti d'autore sulle sue canzoni interpretate da altri.
Nell'aprile 1969 la Reprise Records pubblica il secondo album: Clouds, nel quale Joni si riappropria delle canzoni date in prestito ad altri (soprattutto Both Sides Now e Chelsea Morning). Come per il primo album, le critiche e le reazioni del pubblico sono positive e il concerto tenuto alla Carnegie Hall sancisce definitivamente la posizione di successo e rispetto conquistata da Joni Mitchell.
Dopo aver accantonato il progetto per un album dal vivo, Joni si trasferisce a Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles con Graham Nash che aveva conosciuto tramite David Crosby. La coppia acquista una piccola casa che in seguito verrà teneramente descritta in Our House di Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
Dopo varie apparizioni televisive Joni programma la sua presenza al grande festival di Woodstock, celebrazione dell'amore e della pace. Ma dopo aver visto alla televisione le immagini del traffico sulla strada verso Woodstock, Elliot Roberts le consiglia di non andare, poiché il giorno dopo Joni avrebbe dovuto essere presente al celebre programma televisivo Dick Cavett Show.
Non essere stata a Woodstock non le impedisce di comporre e scrivere la canzone che meglio di tutte rappresenta lo spirito di quell'epocale evento. La canzone Woodstock diventa un vero e proprio simbolo: le immagini di amore a pace, di aerei da guerra che si trasformano in farfalle e l'esigenza di "fare ritorno al giardino" (And we've got to get ourselves / Back to the garden) dipingono alla perfezione l'evento, malgrado non vi avesse preso parte.
Nel marzo 1970 Joni ottiene un Grammy per la Miglior performance folk del 1969 con l'album Clouds. Immediatamente dopo la Reprise pubblica il suo terzo album: Ladies of the Canyon che le frutta ben presto il primo disco d'oro. L'album contiene alcuni tra i brani più popolari del periodo folk della Mitchell come Woodstock, Big Yellow Taxi e The Circle Game.

Blue (1971 - 1973)

Parlando di questo periodo Joni Mitchell afferma: «Ero isolata e cominciavo a sentirmi come un uccellino in una gabbia dorata. Non avevo occasione di incontrare le persone. Il successo può emarginarti in tante maniere.»
In un suo viaggio attraverso l'Europa tocca la Francia, la Spagna e la Grecia. Durante la sua permanenza sull'isola di Creta impara a suonare il dulcimer e immediatamente scrive alcune canzoni circa il suo vagabondare: Carey e California.
In aprile Joni appare nei cori dell'album di Carole King Tapestry e anche nel singolo di James Taylor, You've Got a Friend.
Il giugno 1971 vede la pubblicazione del quarto album della Mitchell: Blue. Le canzoni presenti in questo disco rappresentano la voglia dell'artista di liberarsi dell'immagine di icona hippie quale era diventata agli occhi del pubblico. Come ripetuto in molte interviste, voleva mostrarsi per quella che era veramente, quali emozioni provava. Per questa ragione Blue è considerato uno dei primi album "confessionali".
Joni Mitchell dice: «In quel periodo della mia vita non avevo difese personali, dunque difficilmente troverete una nota di falsità in quell'album.» Blue diventa un clamoroso successo di critica e pubblico per la sua particolarità e innovazione.
Nel lasciare la residenza di Laurel Canyon, Joni chiude un capitolo importante della sua vita lasciandosi alle spalle l'atteggiamento hippie e la vita in comunità. Compra una proprietà vicino alle acque della Columbia Britannica in Canada e per un periodo rimane ospite nella casa losangelina di David Geffen.
Visto l'enorme successo di Blue, decide di ritornare sul palco. Dopo un tour in coppia con Jackson Browne che tocca sia gli Stati Uniti che l'Europa, Joni dà alcuni spettacoli di beneficenza in supporto del candidato Democratico alle presidenziali George McGovern.
Il quinto album, For the Roses, viene pubblicato (dalla Asylum Records) nell'ottobre 1972. Il singolo You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio rimase per alcune settimane nella Billboard chart. In fatto di stile musicale For the Roses rappresenta l'ennesima svolta: ai suoni tipicamente folk vengono incorporati degli arrangiamenti orchestrali sino ad allora estranei alla Mitchell, prendendo dunque una sfumatura più pop e commerciale.
In questo modo Joni finalmente mette le cose in chiaro col pubblico, mostrandosi coi suoi difetti e i suoi pregi ed eliminando ogni artificio che la faceva sentire fasulla e a disagio.

Celebrità (1974 - 1975)

Per gran parte del 1973 Joni cerca dei musicisti capaci di suonare i suoi "strani accordi" e di capire i ritmi che vuole ottenere. Ingaggia gli L.A. Express, gruppo di Tommy Scott (col quale aveva già collaborato per For the Roses), per le sessioni estive di registrazione che confluiranno nel celeberrimo album Court and Spark. Il singolo Raised on Robbery viene pubblicato prima del Natale 1973 e il suono, radicalmente diverso rispetto alla produzione passata, sconvolge ed eccita gli animi.
Court and Spark viene pubblicato nel gennaio 1974. Nell'opinione dei fan, Joni con questo lavoro si avvicina a sonorità più pop senza però compromettersi. La canzone Help Me è il primo e unico singolo a raggiungere la Top 10. L'album raggiunge la seconda posizione nella Billboard chart e rimane stabile per quattro settimane.
Nel febbraio 1974 comincia il tour promozionale che toccherà Stati Uniti, Canada e Inghilterra, salutato da recensioni entusiastiche. Gli spettacoli del 14 e 17 agosto allo Universal Amphitheater di Los Angeles vengono registrati per un album live, che verrà messo in commercio in novembre, col titolo Miles of Aisles. Il successo di Miles of Aisles chiude un anno d'oro nella carriera di Joni Mitchell.
Assieme al suo nuovo compagno, John Guerin (batterista degli L.A. Express), acquista una casa in stile spagnolo a Bel Air. Nel gennaio 1975 arrivano 4 nomination ai Grammy: ne vincerà due.
Nella primavera 1975, Joni torna in studio per registrare delle versioni acustiche di alcuni brani scritti alla fine dell'ultimo tour. Dopo vari mesi la stessa band che l'aveva accompagnata in Court and Spark registra gli accompagnamenti per le canzoni. Nel novembre 1975 venne pubblicato sempre per la Asylum, il sesto album in studio: The Hissing of Summer Lawns. L'album è un ibrido che tocca molti generi come il folk, il jazz, il blues e il pop. La canzone The Jungle Line, trionfo di sperimentazione per quell'epoca, comprendeva un primitivo esempio di campionamento del suono di alcuni tamburi suonati dalla popolazione indigena del Burundi.
Il disco viene accolto abbastanza bene senza però l'entusiasmo dei precedenti. Joni aveva infatti smesso di comporre canzoni introspettive preferendo rivolgere la sua attenzione verso la società, operandone una tagliente critica. Alcune recensioni demoliscono l'album considerandolo un passo falso e questo ferisce l'artista. Anche la maggior parte dei fan rimane delusa e l'album vende pochissime copie. Nel gennaio 1976 parte il tour di supporto a The Hissing of Summer Lawns, ancora una volta con l'accompagnamento degli L.A. Express.

L'avvicinamento al jazz (1976 - 1977)

Il rapporto con John Guerin termina, così come il tour, e Joni comincia a frequentare la casa sulla costa di Neil Young, sperando di vivere nuove esperienze e con una voglia crescente di viaggiare. Nella casa di Young arrivano due amici intenzionati ad attraversare in auto tutto il paese sino al Maine: Joni decide di unirsi a loro e una volta arrivata a destinazione ritorna indietro da sola. Joni Mitchell racconta: "Scrivevo i brani mentre viaggiavo da sola in macchina attraverso gli Stati Uniti, per questo motivo non c'è il pianoforte in queste canzoni."
Le canzoni di cui parla Joni sono quelle che, assieme ad alcune già presentate live nel 1976, andranno a formare l'album Hejira. Joni registra l'album nell'estate 1976 con la band che l'accompagnava dal 1973, ma il suono che ottiene non la soddisfa più. Desiderava delle atmosfere che riflettessero lo spirito delle canzoni concepite "on the road".
Dopo aver terminato le registrazioni dei nove brani che compongono Hejira, un amico le presenta un giovane e talentuoso bassista, Jaco Pastorius. Joni entra immediatamente in sintonia con il suo peculiare stile: per anni era andata alla ricerca di un suono simile e sentire Pastorius suonare è l'avverarsi di un sogno. Il basso di Jaco viene sovrainciso su quattro delle nove canzoni di Hejira, e l'album viene pubblicato il 22 novembre.
Pochi giorni dopo i componenti di The Band danno inizio al loro concerto d'addio e Joni Mitchell partecipa all'evento, assieme a Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Eric Clapton e altri artisti di spicco. Il tutto viene registrato dall'abile cinepresa di Martin Scorsese e dopo un anno e mezzo trasformato nel celebre film-documentario The Last Waltz. In questa occasione Joni si esibisce cantando nei cori di Helpless di Neil Young e poi, accompagnata da The Band, suona Coyote, Shadows and Light e Furry Sings the Blues.
Hejira viene salutato come un ritorno alla lucidità da parte della Mitchell, rassicurando così critica e pubblico. Il disco arriva alla tredicesima posizione della Billboard chart e diventa disco d'oro dopo solo tre settimane di vendita.
Nell'estate del 1977 Joni comincia a lavorare a quello che sarà il suo unico doppio album in studio. Disposta a rischiare per portare a termine il contratto con l'Asylum, raggruppa alcune canzoni scartate dai precedenti progetti e le rielabora con la collaborazione della band che aveva partecipato ad Hejira (compreso Jaco Pastorius) con l'aggiunta del batterista Don Alias e il sassofonista Wayne Shorter. Pubblicato nel dicembre 1977 col titolo Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, il lavoro è un tripudio di sperimentalismo, improvvisazione jazz, ritmi tribali e melodie oniriche (da ricordare Paprika Plains, un pezzo della durata di 17 minuti che ripercorre un sogno fatto dalla Mitchell). Ciononostante, il doppio LP riuscì a raggiungere la posizione 25 della Billboard chart e divenendo disco d'oro in tre mesi.
Alcuni mesi dopo l'uscita di Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Joni viene contattata dal grande jazzista Charles Mingus, rimasto colpito dal suo coraggio artistico. Mingus desidera la sua collaborazione nell'interpretazione musicale dell'opera Quattro quartetti di T.S. Eliot. Questa richiesta di Mingus porterà il decisivo cambiamento nella musica di Joni Mitchell, segnando ancora una volta una rottura col passato e con le aspettative del pubblico e della critica.

Periodo jazz (1978 - 1980)

L'intenzione di Mingus era quella di riassumere il testo dell'opera di Eliot per poi comporre una partitura per orchestra, basso e chitarra. Joni avrebbe dovuto cantare alternandosi al narratore della storia. La Mitchell accetta inizialmente il progetto, ma desiste dopo aver letto l'opera; sarebbe stato più semplice riassumere la Bibbia, dice. Dopo alcune settimane Mingus la contatta per dirle che ha composto, espressamente per lei, sei melodie (provvisoriamente intitolate da Mingus Joni I-VI) per le quali avrebbe dovuto scrivere e cantare i testi.
Joni accetta la sfida e si reca a New York, al Regency Hotel dove Mingus alloggia. Il jazzista, affetto da tempo dalla Sclerosi laterale amiotrofica che lo costringe su una sedia a rotelle, trascorre insieme alla Mitchell lunghi pomeriggi discutendo sulla musica che volevano ottenere. Joni segue poi Mingus e la moglie Sue in Messico, dove il maestro intende incontrare dei santoni che secondo lui potrebbero aiutarlo nella guarigione dalla terribile malattia.
Nel gennaio 1979, Mingus muore prima di vedere l'album completato, anche se aveva già sentito e approvato tutti i testi scritti da Joni eccetto quello per God Must Be a Boogie Man. Dopo aver rivisto le versioni definitive delle canzoni, Joni intraprende l'arduo compito di scegliere una band adatta ad eseguire quel particolare tipo di musica. Alla fine scarta l'idea di una band acustica, nonostante quello fosse il desiderio del compianto Mingus e si serve di una formazione comprendente: Herbie Hancock alle tastiere, Wayne Shorter al sassofono, Don Alias alle percussioni, Peter Erskine alla batteria e Jaco Pastorius al basso.
All'inizio del maggio 1979 Joni si esibisce assieme ad altri artisti di fronte al Campidoglio a Washington D.C. per un'iniziativa benefica contro l'uso indiscriminato dell'energia nucleare. Sempre a maggio lei e la band eseguono tutte le canzoni composte assieme a Mingus al UC Jazz Festival a Berkeley.
In giugno viene pubblicato l'album Mingus che debutta alla posizione 17 della Billboard chart, ma non ottiene praticamente alcun passaggio radiofonico. Mingus è inoltre l'unico album della Mitchell a non aver venduto almeno mezzo milione di copie.
Nell'estate dello stesso anno Joni e la band (nella quale entrano Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny e Lyle Mays) iniziano il tour di supporto all'album Mingus che dura sei settimane e si conclude con cinque spettacoli al Greek Theater di Los Angeles. Queste esibizioni vengono registrate e filmate. A tour ultimato Joni passa circa un anno sui nastri dei concerti, creando un doppio album live e un film-concerto, entrambi intitolati Shadows and Light. Il doppio album, pubblicato nel settembre 1980, comprende anche una cover di Why Do Fools Fall in Love, vecchio successo di Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers.
Shadows and Light è un live epocale, che vede Joni Mitchell all'apice della forma e che regala momenti indimenticabili quali la performance di Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Amelia, Dreamland e Coyote.

Ritorno al pop (1981 - 1984)

Il 5 febbraio 1981 a Toronto Joni viene inserita nella Canadian Music Hall of Fame: a consegnarle il premio è l'allora Primo Ministro canadese Pierre Trudeau. Poco dopo essere stata insignita di un riconoscimento così importante e speciale, Joni lascia Toronto per dirigersi verso i Caraibi in cerca di un po' di riposo e ispirazione per nuove canzoni.
Il soggiorno caraibico, con la musica reggae che sente ovunque, influenza notevolmente il suo futuro progetto musicale. In questo periodo Joni scopre la musica dei Talking Heads e soprattutto quella dei Police, si innamora del ritmo e del suono creato da Sting e compagni. Una volta tornata negli Stati Uniti contatta Sting per una collaborazione, ma per gli impegni già presi da entrambi il progetto sfuma. Non cessa però la sua voglia di creare un album ben supportato dalla sezione ritmica, dopo le melodie eteree e improvvisate degli album jazz precedenti; ora sente il bisogno di riportare ordine e logica. Comincia così la ricerca dei musicisti adatti a seguire il suo nuovo spirito.
Dopo aver registrato alcune delle canzoni composte nei Caraibi assieme a diversi musicisti, Joni trova quello che faceva al caso suo: il batterista Vinnie Colaiuta e il bassista Larry Klein il quale era anche un tecnico del suono. Klein diviene in poco tempo collega, amico e compagno e influenza grandemente il suono finale del nuovo album.
Nel novembre 1982 la nuova etichetta di David Geffen (fondatore della Asylum), la Geffen Records, pubblica l'undicesimo album in studio della Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast. L'album viene accolto come un ritorno al pop; il disco infatti presenta un suono fresco e contiene numerose canzoni ritmate. Nonostante ciò, l'album debutta solo al venticinquesimo posto della Billboard e il singolo You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care), cover di Elvis Presley, arranca solo sino alla posizione 47.
Il 21 novembre 1982, la Mitchell sposa Larry Klein durante una cerimonia tenuta nella casa di Malibù del suo manager Elliot Roberts.
Nel 1983 Joni intraprende quello che sarà il suo tour più lungo. Comincia il 4 marzo 1983 ad Osaka in Giappone, poi tocca l'Australia, Irlanda, Inghilterra, Belgio, Francia, Germania, Italia, Scandinavia e Danimarca. Dopo questa prima parte del tour Joni e la band (chiamato Refuge) tornano negli States per un mese di vacanza e poi riprendono a suonare per tutti gli Stati Uniti e Canada.
Agli inizi del 1984 Joni e Larry lavorano sodo al montaggio delle pellicole registrate durante il tour, alternando spezzoni dei concerti a filmini girati dalla stessa Mitchell e ad altre immagini estratte da vari film come Viridiana di Luis Buñuel e Koyaanisqatsi di Godfrey Reggio. Il film viene intitolato Refuge of the Roads.
Verso la fine del 1984 Joni riprende a scrivere nuove canzoni, mentre Klein impara ad usare il famoso sintetizzatore Fairlight CMI. Sotto suggerimento di David Geffen, Joni e Larry entrano in contatto col mago dei sintetizzatori Thomas Dolby che poi lavorerà assieme a Joni per il suo album successivo. Joni ritiene che i suoni prodotti da quel sintetizzatore possano vestire bene i testi arrabbiati che ha appena terminato di scrivere.

Sperimentazione elettronica (1985 - 1989)

La Mitchell, che ha sempre prodotto da sola tutti i suoi album (impresa riuscita solo a pochi artisti), decide di rivolgersi a Dolby solo come consulente sulle tecniche di funzionamento del Fairlight, rifiutando il suggerimento di Geffen di ingaggiare Dolby come co-produttore del nuovo album. Dopo mesi di registrazioni e programmazioni, il nuovo album, intitolato Dog Eat Dog è ormai pronto per la pubblicazione. Nell'ottobre 1985 alla James Corcoran Gallery di Los Angeles si tiene il party per la pubblicazione dell'album, con una lista degli invitati che va da Christopher Cross a Jack Nicholson, da James Taylor a Sheena Easton. Per l'occasione la galleria espone molti nuovi quadri della Mitchell, e l'evento è un successo. In varie interviste rilasciate quella sera, Joni ammette di aver sfornato un album politico e molto arrabbiato nei confronti della nuova società moderna e consumistica.
Dal primo singolo, intitolato Good Friends, viene girato un video che debutta su MTV il 27 novembre 1985. Joni e Larry promuovono il disco attraverso le radio, nelle quali Joni canta, suona e si fa intervistare. Nonostante gli sforzi fatti, Dog Eat Dog è un flop colossale e fa guadagnare alla Mitchell la posizione più bassa in classifica della sua carriera. Il fiasco di Dog Eat Dog distoglie Joni dall'idea di intraprendere un nuovo tour e le fa decidere di rimanere a casa e dedicarsi alla pittura.
All'inizio del 1986 Larry Klein è contattato da Peter Gabriel per suonare il basso nel nuovo album So. Joni segue suo marito e l'incontro con Peter Gabriel nei suoi studi di Bath è l'occasione di un duetto, My Secret Place. La permanenza della Mitchell presso la residenza di Peter Gabriel è fonte di ispirazione per nuovi brani che poi confluiranno nel suo album del 1988.
Il 21 settembre 1987, Jaco Pastorius muore a causa dei traumi riportati dopo essere stato picchiato fuori da un locale alcune settimane prima. Pastorius aveva suonato e portato il suo enorme contributo artistico a 4 album di Joni Mitchell.
Ultimati i lavori per la costruzione dei suoi studi di registrazione privati a Bel Air, Joni Mitchell comincia le registrazioni del nuovo album continuando la sperimentazione con i sintetizzatori. Il suono derivante sarà però diverso rispetto a Dog Eat Dog. L'album è ultimato in breve tempo poiché la gran parte delle canzoni era già stata scritta ed esce nel marzo del 1988 col titolo di Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm. La lista degli ospiti comprende tra gli altri Peter Gabriel, Billy Idol, Tom Petty e Willie Nelson. Le reazioni della critica questa volta sono molto più positive e il singolo estratto dall'album (My Secret Place, duetto con Peter Gabriel) ottiene un discreto numero di passaggi radiofonici.
Nell'ottobre 1988 Joni e Larry partirono per l'Italia dove la Mitchell ritira a Sanremo il premio Tenco, vale a dire il maggiore riconoscimento italiano nell'ambito della canzone d'autore. Per l'occasione Joni si esibisce dal vivo sul palco sanremese cantando una nuova canzone intitolata Night Ride Home e alcuni classici del periodo Hejira.

Maturità e ritorno alle origini (1990 - 1995)

Per tutta la prima parte del 1990 Joni e Larry sono immersi nella preparazione del nuovo album. Ciò che Joni intende ottenere è qualcosa di meno sinfonico rispetto ai due album precedenti.
In primavera Joni viene invitata a partecipare al progetto di Roger Waters, The Wall, a cui prende parte con successo. Il 10 dicembre 1990 consegna ai Billboard Music Award un premio a Sinéad O'Connor per il singolo Nothing Compares 2 U.
Prima di Natale Joni consegna i mix finali del suo album alla Geffen che provvederà alla pubblicazione il 5 marzo 1991 col titolo Night Ride Home. L'accoglienza è estatica da parte di tutti. Le maggiori riviste musicali recensiscono l'album come uno dei suoi migliori dagli anni settanta. Il ritorno alle atmosfere più private e calme, con voce e chitarra acustica in primo piano, fanno immediatamente colpo sul pubblico che spedisce l'album in vetta alle classifiche. Il primo singolo estratto, Come In from the Cold, ottiene un ottimo passaggio radiofonico.
Nel novembre dello stesso anno la rivista Rolling Stone inserisce l'album Hejira tra i 100 migliori della storia. Nel settembre del 1992 il candidato Democratico Bill Clinton vince le presidenziali americane contro il Repubblicano George Bush. Argomento preferito della stampa in quel periodo era specificare il fatto che Clinton avesse chiamato sua figlia Chelsea come tributo a Joni Mitchell (per la canzone Chelsea Morning).
Quando nel marzo 1993 Joni viene invitata a prendere parte al Troubadours of Folk Festival, lei ha appena finito di registrare delle nuove canzoni. Alcuni anni dopo la Mitchell ha ammesso che il giorno stesso in cui cominciarano le registrazioni, lei e Larry Klein avevano deciso di divorziare. A tutt'oggi Joni Mitchell e Larry sono grandi amici e continuano a suonare assieme.
Nell'ottobre 1994 la Geffen pubblica il nuovo album di inediti, intitolato Turbulent Indigo. La copertina dell'album ospita un autoritratto di Joni Mitchell mutila di un orecchio, ovviamente nei panni di Van Gogh. Come per Night Ride Home le critiche e l'accoglienza del pubblico sono molto positive, forse anche più benevole. L'album è un deciso ritorno alle origini confessionali e folk. I temi trattati in questo disco sono soprattutto la religione e il rapporto con Dio e la società ostile.

Raccolte (1996 - 1999)

Gli anni tra il 1995 e il 1997 sono per Joni Mitchell quelli del riconoscimento e della gratificazione professionale. I premi arrivano a valanga da ogni parte, anche grazie al successo dell'album del 1994 Turbulent Indigo.
Il 25 marzo 1995 Billboard Magazine assegna a Joni il Century Award per i raggiungimenti e successi in campo creativo. I numeri dell'aprile 1995 di Mirabella e Vogue contengono delle interviste alla Mitchell. Sarà proprio nell'intervista concessa a Vogue che rivelerà per la prima volta di aver avuto una bambina e di averla dovuto dare in adozione per le sue ristrettezze economiche. In agosto la rivista musicale Mojo pubblica la sua lista dei 100 album migliori della storia: The Hissing of Summer Lawns si aggiudica la posizione 78 mentre Blue la 18.
Dopo alcuni mesi di lavoro, il 29 settembre 1996 la Reprise pubblica due raccolte: la prima chiamata Hits che contiene i maggiori successi commerciali della Mitchell e il secondo intitolato Misses che invece comprende i brani che Joni considera dei successi mancati.
A gennaio 1997 la Reprise pubblica un album di remix della popolare hit Big Yellow Taxi (che era già stata rifatta in versione hip-hop per la serie televisiva Friends), contenente sei diversi remix della canzone. Il 27 febbraio Joni si aggiudica invece il Premio per la miglior chitarrista acustico. Il 28 febbraio la vede invece vincitrice di tutti e due i Grammy per cui era candidata (Best Pop Album e Best Recording Package, entrambi per Turbulent Indigo). In maggio in Svezia le viene consegnato il Polar Music Prize, ovvero l'equivalente del premio Nobel nel campo della musica.
Il 18 settembre 1997 Joni è, assieme ad altri artisti, ammessa alla Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, divenendo così la prima donna canadese ad essere insignita di questo riconoscimento. Sempre nel 1997 Janet Jackson pubblica il suo album The Velvet Rope nel quale è contenuta la canzone di successo internazionale Got 'til It's Gone che presenta un campionamento di Big Yellow Taxi della Mitchell. Grazie ai numerosi campionamenti e alle cover innumerevoli di questo periodo si deve una riscoperta della discografia di Joni Mitchell da parte delle generazioni più giovani.
Dopo aver passato quasi tre anni a ritirare i meritati e tardivi riconoscimenti, una Joni Mitchell ormai cinquantaquattrenne ritorna in studio per registrare quello che resterà per oltre dieci anni il suo ultimo album di inediti.
In realtà il discorso è più complesso: nell'aprile del 1996 Joni Mitchell aveva annunciato il suo ritiro dalla scena musicale per incompatibilità con l'industria musicale rea di non darle più il dovuto supporto. Poco prima del concerto che avrebbe dovuto sancire il suo ritiro, un dimostratore della Roland presentò a Joni il nuovo modello della casa chiamato VG-8. Questa chitarra era in grado di immagazzinare vari suoni per la chitarre, ma cosa più importante e utile per la Mitchell, era in grado di memorizzare le diverse accordature. Joni Mitchell ha da sempre usato le cosiddette open tunings, accordature aperte, e per questa ragione passava spesso più tempo a riaccordare la chitarre che non a suonarla. La VG-8 della Roland apre nuovi orizzonti a Joni la quale decide che il pensionamento può aspettare ancora un po'.
Nel settembre 1998 la Reprise Records pubblica Taming the Tiger che comprende dieci nuove canzoni. Il titolo del disco, che significa "Domare la tigre", è una metafora alquanto azzeccata. Come lei stessa ha affermato: "La tigre è lo show business, la tigre la puoi cavalcare quando sei all'apice del successo, anche se è difficile da catturare. Ma forse il momento migliore per osservarla e comprenderla è quando te la ritrovi al tuo fianco perché non si preoccupa più di te. Questa è la tesi di Sophia Loren che io mi sento di condividere in pieno".
Questi anni vedono una Joni Mitchell più serena e in pace con se stessa. Ha una nuova relazione con il cantautore canadese Don Freed, ha rintracciato sua figlia Kilauren e ha riallacciato i legami con la vecchia madre. I rapporti con le major discografiche e la sua rabbia e ribrezzo nei confronti del music business sono però ancora piuttosto latenti e troveranno sfogo solo negli anni successivi.

Anni recenti (2000 - 2014)

Nel febbraio del 2000 Joni Mitchell pubblica un'opera alquanto inaspettata. L'album è chiamato Both Sides Now e contiene delle reinterpretazioni in chiave orchestrale di vecchie canzoni romantiche degli anni trenta, quaranta e cinquanta. Oltre ai classici d'epoca la Mitchell inserisce anche due rivisitazioni di due delle sue canzoni più sentimentali: A Case Of You e Both Sides, Now.
A solo un mese dalla pubblicazione di Both Sides Now Joni Mitchell rivela la sua intenzione di abbandonare definitivamente la musica: "Voglio concentrarmi sulla pittura: ultimamente sento che non ho più molto tempo, e mentre ho assecondato le mie ambizioni musicali in modo soddisfacente, per la pittura ho ancora molto da esplorare. Del resto, il mondo della musica mi sta mettendo da parte, mi sta scomunicando. Vedere il meglio di ciò che ho fatto relegato in un angolo buio non mi lascia molte speranze per la cultura".
Nonostante queste dichiarazioni, il 19 novembre 2002 la Nonesuch Records pubblica il doppio album Travelogue. Il procedimento utilizzato da Joni è lo stesso adottato per Both Sides, Now; l'unica differenza è che ad essere reinterpretati con l'accompagnamento orchestrale sono i classici della carriera ormai quarantennale della stessa Mitchell.
Come successo dopo la pubblicazione di Both Sides, Now, Joni Mitchell si dichiara infuriata e schifata dall'industria discografica: "Fa schifo. Il music business spero che finisca giù nel cesso. Potrei anche decidere di non registrare più". Dopo il doppio album orchestrale Travelogue seguono ben quattro raccolte, rispettivamente: The Complete Geffen Recordings (23 settembre 2003); The Beginning of Survival (27 luglio 2004); Dreamland (14 settembre 2004) e Songs of a Prairie Girl (26 aprile 2005). Nel 2007 esce finalmente un nuovo album di inediti da titolo Shine che ottiene consensi di pubblico e critica, è il suo diciannovesimo e ultimo album di inediti. Nel mese di novembre 2014 esce un box set di 4 CD con 53 canzoni totalmente rimasterizzate dal titolo Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced. La raccolta rappresenta una sintesi della sua visione sull'amore nelle sue molteplici manifestazioni.

Discografia

Album in studio

• 1968 - Song to a Seagull (noto anche come Joni Mitchell)
• 1969 - Clouds
• 1970 - Ladies of the Canyon
• 1971 - Blue
• 1972 - For the Roses
• 1974 - Court and Spark
• 1975 - The Hissing of Summer Lawns
• 1976 - Hejira
• 1977 - Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
• 1979 - Mingus
• 1982 - Wild Things Run Fast
• 1985 - Dog Eat Dog
• 1988 - Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm
• 1991 - Night Ride Home
• 1994 - Turbulent Indigo
• 1998 - Taming the Tiger
• 2000 - Both Sides Now
• 2002 - Travelogue
• 2007 - Shine

Live

• 1975 - Miles of Aisles
• 1980 - Shadows and Light

Raccolte

• 1996 - Hits
• 1996 - Misses
• 2003 - The Complete Geffen Recordings
• 2004 - The Beginning of Survival
• 2004 - Dreamland
• 2005 - Songs of a Prairie Girl
• 2014 - Love Has Many Faces

Filmografia

Concerti pubblicati in VHS / DVD

• 1979 - Shadows and Light
• 1984 - Refuge of the Roads
• 1998- Painting With Words and Music

Documentari

• 2003 - Woman of Heart and Mind

Joni Mitchell in concerto nel 1974

Whoknoze - Opera propria

Joni Mitchell performing in concert photo by Paul C Babin

Ci sono cose da confessare che arricchiscono il mondo e cose che non devono essere dette.  

Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell, CC (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Drawing from folk, pop, rock, and jazz, Mitchell's songs often reflect social and environmental ideals as well as her feelings about romance, confusion, disillusionment, and joy. She has received many accolades, including nine Grammy Awards. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".
Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before busking in the streets and nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. In 1965, she moved to the United States and began touring. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were covered by other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell, with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock", helped define an era and a generation. Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", the highest entry by a female artist. In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music". In 2017, NPR ranked Blue Number 1 on a list of Greatest Albums Made By Women.
Mitchell's fifth album, For the Roses, was released in 1972. She then switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced melodic ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris" and became her best-selling album.
Around 1975, Mitchell's vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto. Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she explored jazz, melding it with influences of rock and roll, R&B, classical music and non-western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working closely with noted jazz musicians, among them Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, as well as Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings. She later turned again toward pop, embraced electronic music, and engaged in political protest. In 2002, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards.
Mitchell is the sole producer credited on most of her albums, including all her work in the 1970s. A blunt critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th, and reportedly last, album of original songs in 2007. With roots in visual art, Mitchell has designed most of her own album covers. She describes herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance".

Life and career

1943–1963: Early life and career beginnings

Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada, the daughter of Myrtle Marguerite (McKee) and William Andrew Anderson. Her mother's ancestors were Scottish and Irish; her father was from a Norwegian family that possibly had some Sami ancestry. Her mother was a teacher while her father was a Royal Canadian Air Force flight lieutenant who instructed new pilots at RCAF Station Fort Macleod. She later moved with her parents to various bases in western Canada. After the war she settled with her family in Saskatchewan. She later sang about her small-town upbringing in several of her songs, including "Song for Sharon".^{[citation needed]}
At school Mitchell struggled; her main interest was painting. During this time she briefly studied classical piano.
At age nine, Mitchell contracted polio in an epidemic, and was hospitalised for weeks. Following this incident she focused on her creative talent, and considered a singing or dancing career for the first time. By nine, she was a smoker; she denies claims that smoking has affected her voice. At 11, she moved with her family to the city of Saskatoon, which she considers her hometown. She responded badly to formal education, preferring a freethinking outlook One unconventional teacher did manage to make an impact on her, stimulating her to write poetry, and her first album includes a dedication to him. In Grade 12, she dropped out (she later picked up her studies) and hung out downtown with a rowdy set until deciding that she was getting too close to the criminal world.
At this time, country music began to eclipse rock, and Mitchell wanted to play the guitar. As her mother disapproved of its hillbilly associations, she settled initially for the ukulele. Eventually she taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. The polio had weakened her left hand, so she devised alternative tunings to compensate; she later used these tunings to create non-standard approaches to harmony and structure in her songwriting.
Mitchell started singing with her friends at bonfires around Waskesiu Lake, northwest of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Her first paid performance was on October 31, 1962, at a Saskatoon club that featured folk and jazz performers. At 18, she widened her repertoire to include her own favorite performers like Édith Piaf and Miles Davis. Though she never performed jazz herself in those days, she and her friends sought out gigs by jazz musicians. Mitchell said, "My jazz background began with one of the early Lambert, Hendricks and Ross albums." That album, The Hottest New Group in Jazz, was hard to find in Canada, she says. "So I saved up and bought it at a bootleg price. I considered that album to be my Beatles. I learned every song off of it, and I don't think there is another album anywhere—including my own—on which I know every note and word of every song."
But art was still her chief passion at this stage, and when she finished high school at Aden Bowman Collegiate in Saskatoon, she took art classes at the Saskatoon Technical Collegiate with abstract expressionist painter Henry Bonli, and then left home to attend the Alberta College of Art in Calgary for the 1963–64 school year. Here she felt disillusioned about the high priority given to technical skill over free-class creativity, and also felt out of step with the trend towards pure abstraction, and the tendency to move into commercial art. After a year, at age 20, she dropped out of school, a decision that much displeased her parents, who could remember the Great Depression and valued education highly.^{[citation needed]}
She continued to play gigs as a folk musician on weekends, at her college and at a local hotel. Around this time she took a $15-a-week job in a Calgary coffeehouse, "singing long tragic songs in a minor key". She sang at hootenannies and made appearances on some local TV and radio shows in Calgary. In 1964, at the age of 20, she told her mother that she intended to be a folk singer in Toronto, and she left western Canada for the first time in her life, heading east for Ontario. On the three-day train ride there, Mitchell wrote her first song, "Day After Day". She stopped at the Mariposa Folk Festival to see Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Saskatchewan-born Cree folk singer who had inspired her. A year later, Mitchell too played Mariposa, her first gig for a major audience, and years later, Sainte-Marie herself covered Mitchell's work.

1964–1969: Folk breakthrough

Lacking the $200 needed for musicians' union fees, Mitchell managed a few gigs at the Half Beat and the Village Corner in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood, but she mostly played non-union gigs "in church basements and YMCA meeting halls". Rejected from major folk clubs, she resorted to busking, while she "worked in the women's wear section of a downtown department store to pay the rent." During this era, she lived in a rooming house, directly across the hall from poet Duke Redbird. Without a lot of name recognition, Mitchell also began to realize each city's folk scene tended to accord veteran performers the exclusive right to play their signature songs—despite not having written the songs—which Mitchell found insular, contrary to the egalitarian ideal of folk music. She found her best traditional material was already other singers' property and would no longer pass muster. She said, "You'd come into a town and you'd be told, you can't sing that, you can't sing that."^{[citation needed]} She resolved to write her own songs.
In late 1964, Mitchell discovered that she was pregnant by her Calgary ex-boyfriend Brad MacMath. She later wrote, "[he] left me three months pregnant in an attic room with no money and winter coming on and only a fireplace for heat. The spindles of the banister were gap-toothed fuel for last winter's occupants." At the time, "the pill" was legally unavailable in Canada, as was abortion, yet there was a strong social stigma against women giving birth out of wedlock.
In "Chinese Cafe", from the 1982 album Wild Things Run Fast, Mitchell sang, "Your kids are coming up straight / My child's a stranger / I bore her / But I could not raise her." These lyrics did not receive wide attention at the time. The existence of Mitchell's daughter was not publicly known until 1993, when a roommate from Mitchell's art-school days in the 1960s sold the story of the adoption to a tabloid magazine. By that time, Mitchell's daughter, renamed Kilauren Gibb, had already begun a search for her biological parents. Mitchell and her daughter met in 1997. After the reunion, Mitchell said that she lost interest in songwriting, and she later identified her daughter's birth and her inability to take care of her as the moment when her songwriting inspiration had really begun. When she could not express herself to the person she wanted to talk to, she became attuned to the whole world and she began to write personally.^{[citation needed]}
Sometime in late April 1965, Joni left Canada for the first time, going with American folk singer Chuck Mitchell to the US, where the two began playing music together. Joni, 21 years old, married Chuck in an official ceremony in his hometown in June 1965 and took his surname. She said, "I made my dress and bridesmaids' dresses. We had no money... I walked down the aisle brandishing my daisies."
While living at the Verona apartments in Detroit's Cass Corridor, Chuck and Joni were regular performers at area coffee houses, including the Chessmate on Livernois, near Six Mile Road; the Alcove bar, near Wayne State University; the Rathskeller, a restaurant on the campus of the University of Detroit; and the Raven Gallery in Southfield. She began playing and composing songs in alternative guitar tunings taught to her by a fellow musician, Eric Andersen, in Detroit. Oscar Brand featured her several times on his CBC television program Let's Sing Out in 1965 and 1966. The marriage and partnership of Joni and Chuck Mitchell dissolved in early 1967, and Joni moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist. She played venues up and down the East Coast, including Philadelphia, Boston, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. She performed frequently in coffeehouses and folk clubs and, by this time creating her own material, became well known for her unique songwriting and her innovative guitar style.
Folk singer Tom Rush had met Mitchell in Toronto and was impressed with her songwriting ability. He took "Urge for Going" to the popular folk artist Judy Collins, but she was not interested in the song at the time, so Rush recorded it himself. Country singer George Hamilton IV heard Rush performing it and recorded a hit country version. Other artists who recorded Mitchell's songs in the early years were Buffy Sainte-Marie ("The Circle Game"), Dave Van Ronk ("Both Sides Now"), and eventually Judy Collins ("Both Sides Now", a top ten hit for her, and "Michael from Mountains", both included on her 1967 album Wildflowers). Collins also covered "Chelsea Morning", another recording that eclipsed Mitchell's own commercial success early on.
While Mitchell was playing one night in the Gaslight South, a club in Coconut Grove, Florida, David Crosby walked in and was immediately struck by her ability and her appeal as an artist. He took her back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends. Soon she was being managed by Elliot Roberts, who, after being urged by Buffy Sainte-Marie, had first seen her play in a Greenwich Village coffee house. He had a close business association with David Geffen. Roberts and Geffen were to have important influences on her career. Eventually she was signed to the Warners-affiliated Reprise label by talent scout Andy Wickham. Crosby convinced Reprise to let Mitchell record a solo acoustic album without the folk-rock overdubs in vogue at that time, and his clout earned him a producer's credit in March 1968, when Reprise released her debut album, known either as Joni Mitchell or Song to a Seagull.
Mitchell toured steadily to promote the LP. The tour helped create eager anticipation for Mitchell's second LP, Clouds, which was released in April 1969. This album contained Mitchell's own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists: "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", and "Tin Angel". The covers of both LPs, including a self-portrait on Clouds, were designed and painted by Mitchell, a blending of her painting and music that she continued throughout her career.

1970–1974: Mainstream success

In March 1970, Clouds produced her first Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance. The following month, Reprise released her third album, Ladies of the Canyon. Mitchell's sound was already beginning to expand beyond the confines of acoustic folk music and toward pop and rock, with more overdubs, percussion, and backing vocals, and for the first time, many songs composed on piano, which became a hallmark of Mitchell's style in her most popular era. Her own version of "Woodstock", slower than the cover by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, was performed solo on a Wurlitzer electric piano. The album also included the already-familiar song "The Circle Game" and the environmental anthem "Big Yellow Taxi", with its now-famous line, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot."
Ladies of the Canyon was an instant smash on FM radio and sold briskly, eventually becoming Mitchell's first gold album (selling over a half million copies). She made a decision to stop touring for a year and just write and paint, yet she was still voted "Top Female Performer" for 1970 by Melody Maker, a leading UK pop music magazine. On the April 1971 release of James Taylor's Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon album, Mitchell is credited with backup vocals on the track "You've Got a Friend". The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience appeared on her next album, Blue, released in June 1971. Comparing Joni Mitchell's talent to his own, David Crosby said, "By the time she did Blue, she was past me and rushing toward the horizon".
Blue was an almost instant critical and commercial success, peaking in the top 20 in the Billboard Album Charts in September and also hitting the British Top 3. The lushly produced "Carey" was the single at the time, but musically, other parts of Blue departed further from the sounds of Ladies of the Canyon. Simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowed a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions ("All I Want", "A Case of You"), while others such as "Blue", "River" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard" were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. Her most confessional album, Mitchell later said of Blue, "I have, on occasion, sacrificed myself and my own emotional makeup, ... singing 'I'm selfish and I'm sad', for instance. We all suffer for our loneliness, but at the time of Blue, our pop stars never admitted these things." In its lyrics, the album was regarded as an inspired culmination of her early work, with depressed assessments of the world around her serving as counterpoint to exuberant expressions of romantic love (for example, in "California"). Mitchell later remarked, "At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong."
Mitchell decided to return to the live stage after the great success of Blue, and she presented new songs on tour which appeared on her next album, her fifth, For the Roses. The album was released in October 1972 and immediately zoomed up the charts. She followed with the single, "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio", which peaked at No. 25 in the Billboard Charts in February 1973.^{[citation needed]}
Court and Spark, released in January 1974, saw Mitchell begin the flirtation with jazz and jazz fusion that marked her experimental period ahead. Court and Spark went to No. 1 on the Cashbox Album Charts. The LP made Mitchell a widely popular act for perhaps the only time in her career, on the strength of popular tracks such as the rocker "Raised on Robbery", which was released right before Christmas 1973, and "Help Me", which was released in March of the following year, and became Mitchell's only Top 10 single when it peaked at No. 7 in the first week of June. "Free Man in Paris" was another hit single and staple in her catalog.
While recording Court and Spark, Mitchell had tried to make a clean break with her earlier folk sound, producing the album herself and employing jazz/pop fusion band the L.A. Express as what she called her first real backing group. In February 1974, her tour with the L.A. Express began, and they received rave notices as they traveled across the United States and Canada during the next two months. A series of shows at L.A.'s Universal Amphitheater on August 14–17 were recorded for a live album. In November, Mitchell released that album, Miles of Aisles, a two-record set including all but two songs from the L.A. concerts (one selection each from the Berkeley Community Theatre, on March 2, and the L.A. Music Center, on March 4, were also included in the set). The live album slowly moved up to No. 2, matching Court and Spark's chart peak on Billboard. "Big Yellow Taxi", the live version, was also released as a single and did reasonably well (she released another version of the song in 2007).
In January 1975, Court and Spark received four nominations for Grammy Awards, including Grammy Award for Album of the Year, for which Mitchell was the only woman nominated. She won only the Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals.

1975–1980: Jazz explorations

Mitchell went into the studio in early 1975 to record acoustic demos of some songs that she had written since the Court and Spark tour. A few months later she recorded versions of the tunes with her band. Her musical interests were now diverging from both the folk and the pop scene of the era, toward less structured, more jazz-inspired pieces, with a wider range of instruments. The new song cycle was released in November 1975 as The Hissing of Summer Lawns. On "The Jungle Line", she made an early effort at sampling a recording of African musicians, something that became more commonplace among Western rock acts in the 1980s. "In France They Kiss on Main Street" continued the lush pop sounds of Court and Spark, and efforts such as the title song and "Edith and the Kingpin" chronicled the underbelly of suburban lives in Southern California.
During 1975, Mitchell also participated in several concerts in the Rolling Thunder Revue tours featuring Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and in 1976 she performed as part of The Last Waltz by the Band. In January 1976, Mitchell received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the album The Hissing of Summer Lawns, though the Grammy went to Linda Ronstadt.
In early 1976, Mitchell traveled with friends who were driving cross country to Maine. Afterwards, she drove back to California alone and composed several songs during her journey which featured on her next album, 1976's Hejira. She stated that "This album was written mostly while I was traveling in the car. That's why there were no piano songs ..." Hejira was arguably Mitchell's most experimental album so far, due to her ongoing collaborations with jazz virtuoso bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius on several songs, namely the first single, "Coyote", the atmospheric "Hejira", the disorienting, guitar-heavy "Black Crow", and the album's last song "Refuge of the Roads". The album climbed to No. 13 on the Billboard Charts, reaching gold status three weeks after release, and received airplay from album oriented FM rock stations. Yet "Coyote", backed with "Blue Motel Room", failed to chart on the Hot 100. Hejira "did not sell as briskly as Mitchell's earlier, more "radio-friendly" albums, [but] its stature in her catalogue has grown over the years". Mitchell herself believes the album to be unique. In 2006 she said, "I suppose a lot of people could have written a lot of my other songs, but I feel the songs on Hejira could only have come from me."
In mid-1977, Mitchell began work on new recordings that became her first double studio album. Close to completing her contract with Asylum Records, Mitchell felt that this album could be looser in feel than any album she'd done in the past. She invited Pastorius back, and he brought with him fellow members of jazz fusion pioneers Weather Report, including drummer Don Alias and saxophonist Wayne Shorter. Layered, atmospheric compositions such as "Overture/Cotton Avenue" featured more improvisatory collaboration, while "Paprika Plains" was a 16-minute epic that stretched the boundaries of pop, owing more to Mitchell's memories of childhood in Canada and her study of classical music. "Dreamland" and "The Tenth World", featuring Chaka Khan on backing vocals, were percussion-dominated tracks. Other songs continued the jazz-rock-folk collisions of Hejira. Mitchell also revived "Jericho", written years earlier (a version is found on her 1974 live album) but never recorded in a studio setting. Don Juan's Reckless Daughter was released in December 1977. The album received mixed reviews but still sold relatively well, peaking at No. 25 in the US and going gold within three months. The cover of the album created its own controversy: Mitchell was featured in several photographs, including one where she was disguised as a black man, wearing a curly afro wig, a white suit and vest, and dark sunglasses. The character, whom she called Art Nouveau, was based on a pimp who, she says, once complimented her while walking down an LA street – and was a symbol of her turn toward jazz and streetwise lyrics.
A few months after the release of Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell was contacted by the esteemed jazz composer, bandleader and bassist Charles Mingus, who had heard the orchestrated song "Paprika Plains", and wanted her to work with him. She began a collaboration with Mingus, who died before the project was completed in 1979. She finished the tracks, and the resulting album, Mingus, was released in June 1979, though it was poorly received in the press. Fans were confused over such a major change in Mitchell's overall sound, and though the album topped out at No. 17 on the Billboard album charts—a higher placement than Don Juan's Reckless Daughter—Mingus still fell short of gold status, making it her first album since the 1960s to not sell at least a half-million copies.
Mitchell's tour to promote Mingus began in August 1979 in Oklahoma City and concluded six weeks later with five shows at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre and one at the Santa Barbara County Bowl, where she recorded and filmed the concert. It was her first tour in several years, and with Pastorius, jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, and other members of her band, Mitchell also performed songs from her other jazz-inspired albums. When the tour ended she began a year of work, turning the tapes from the Santa Barbara County Bowl show into a two-album set and a concert film, both to be called Shadows and Light. Her final release on Asylum Records and her second live double-album, it was released in September 1980, and made it up to No. 38 on the Billboard Charts. A single from the LP, "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?", Mitchell's duet with The Persuasions (her opening act for the tour), bubbled under on Billboard, just missing the Hot 100.

1981–1993: Pop, electronics and protest

For a year and a half, Mitchell worked on the tracks for her next album. During this period she recorded with bassist Larry Klein, whom she married in 1982. While the album was being readied for release, her friend David Geffen, founder of Asylum Records, decided to start a new label, Geffen Records. Still distributed by Warner Bros. (who controlled Asylum Records), Geffen negated the remaining contractual obligations Mitchell had with Asylum and signed her to his new label. Wild Things Run Fast (1982) marked a return to pop songwriting, including "Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody", which incorporated the chorus and parts of the melody of the famous The Righteous Brothers hit, and "(You're So Square) Baby I Don't Care", a remake of the Elvis chestnut, which charted higher than any Mitchell single since her 1970s sales peak when it climbed to No. 47 on the charts. The album peaked on the Billboard Charts in its fifth week at No. 25.
In early 1983, Mitchell began a world tour, visiting Japan, Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia and then going back to the United States. A performance from the tour was videotaped and later released on home video (and later DVD) as Refuge of the Roads. As 1984 ended, Mitchell was writing new songs, when she received a suggestion from Geffen that perhaps an outside producer with experience in the modern technical arenas that they wanted to explore might be a worthy addition. British synthpop performer and producer Thomas Dolby was brought on board. Of Dolby's role, Mitchell later commented: "I was reluctant when Thomas was suggested because he had been asked to produce the record [by Geffen], and would he consider coming in as just a programmer and a player? So on that level we did have some problems ... He may be able to do it faster. He may be able to do it better, but the fact is that it then wouldn't really be my music."
The album that resulted, Dog Eat Dog, released in October 1985, turned out to be only a moderate seller, peaking at No. 63 on Billboard's Top Albums Chart, Mitchell's lowest chart position since her first album peaked at No. 189 almost eighteen years before. One of the songs on the album, "Tax Free", created controversy by lambasting "televangelists" and what she saw as a drift to the religious right in American politics. "The churches came after me", she wrote, "they attacked me, though the Episcopalian Church, which I've seen described as the only church in America which actually uses its head, wrote me a letter of congratulation."
Mitchell continued experimenting with synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers for the recordings of her next album, 1988's Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm. She also collaborated with artists including Willie Nelson, Billy Idol, Wendy & Lisa, Tom Petty, Don Henley, Peter Gabriel, and Benjamin Orr of the Cars. The album's first official single, "My Secret Place", was in fact a duet with Gabriel, and just missed the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The song "Lakota" was one of many songs on the album to take on larger political themes, in this case the Wounded Knee incident, the deadly battle between Native American activists and the FBI on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the previous decade. Musically, several songs fit into the trend of world music popularized by Gabriel during the era. Reviews were mostly favorable towards the album, and the cameos by well-known musicians brought it considerable attention. Chalk Mark ultimately improved on the chart performance of Dog Eat Dog, peaking at No. 45.
In 1990, Mitchell, who by then rarely performed live anymore, participated in Roger Waters' The Wall Concert in Berlin. She performed the song "Goodbye Blue Sky" and was also one of the performers on the concert's final song "The Tide Is Turning" along with Waters, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Van Morrison and Paul Carrack.
Throughout the first half of 1990, Mitchell recorded songs that appeared on her next album. She delivered the final mixes for the new album to Geffen just before Christmas, after trying nearly a hundred different sequences for the songs. The album Night Ride Home was released in March 1991. In the United States, it premiered on Billboard's Top Album charts at No. 68, moving up to No. 48 in its second week, and peaking at No. 41 in its sixth week. In the United Kingdom, the album premiered at No. 25 on the album charts. Critically, it was better received than her 1980s work^{[citation needed]} and seemed to signal a move closer to her acoustic beginnings, along with some references to the style of Hejira.^{[citation needed]} This album was also Mitchell's first since Geffen Records was sold to MCA Inc., meaning that Night Ride Home was her first album not to be initially distributed by WEA (now Warner Music Group).

1994–2001: Resurgence and vocal development

To wider audiences, the real "return to form" for Mitchell came with 1994's Grammy-winning Turbulent Indigo. While the recording period also saw the divorce of Mitchell and bassist Larry Klein, their marriage having lasted almost 12 years, Indigo was seen as Mitchell's most accessible set of songs in years. Songs such as "Sex Kills", "Sunny Sunday", "Borderline" and "The Magdalene Laundries" mixed social commentary and guitar-focused melodies for "a startling comeback". The album won two Grammy awards, including Best Pop Album, and it coincided with a much-publicized resurgence in interest in Mitchell's work by a younger generation of singer-songwriters.
In 1996, Mitchell agreed to release a greatest Hits collection when label Reprise also allowed her a second album, called Misses, to include some of the lesser known songs from her career. Hits charted at No. 161 in the US, but made No. 6 in the UK. Mitchell also included on Hits, for the first time on an album, her first recording, a version of "Urge for Going" which preceded Song to a Seagull but was previously released only as a B-side.
Two years later, Mitchell released her final set of "original" new work before nearly a decade of other pursuits, 1998's Taming the Tiger. She promoted Tiger with a return to regular concert appearances, including a co-headlining tour with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison.
On the album, Mitchell had played a custom guitar equipped with a Roland hexaphonic pickup which connected to a Roland VG-8 modeling processor. The device allowed Mitchell to play any of her many alternate tunings without having to re-tune the guitar. The guitar's output, through the VG-8, was transposed to any of her tunings in real-time.^{[citation needed]}
It was around this time that critics also began to notice a real change in Mitchell's voice, particularly on her older songs; the singer later admitted to feeling the same way, explaining that "I'd go to hit a note and there was nothing there". While her more limited range and huskier vocals have sometimes been attributed to her smoking (she has been described^[where?] as "one of the world's last great smokers"), Mitchell believes that the changes in her voice that became noticeable in the 1990s were due to other problems, including vocal nodules, a compressed larynx, and the lingering effects of having had polio. In an interview in 2004, she denied that "my terrible habits" had anything to do with her more limited range and pointed out that singers often lose the upper register when they pass fifty. In addition, she contended that in her opinion her voice became a more interesting and expressive alto range when she could no longer hit the high notes, let alone hold them like she did in her youth.
The singer's next two albums featured no new songs and, Mitchell has said, were recorded to "fulfill contractual obligations", but on both she attempted to make use of her new vocal range in interpreting familiar material. Both Sides Now (2000) was an album composed mostly of covers of jazz standards, performed with an orchestra, featuring orchestral arrangements by Vince Mendoza. The album also contained remakes of "A Case of You" and the title track "Both Sides, Now", two early hits transposed down to Mitchell's now dusky, soulful alto range. It received mostly strong reviews and spawned a short national tour, with Mitchell accompanied by a core band featuring Larry Klein on bass plus a local orchestra on each tour stop. Its success led to 2002's Travelogue, a collection of re-workings of her previous songs with lush orchestral accompaniments.

2002–2005: Retirement and retrospectives

Mitchell stated at the time that Travelogue would be her final album. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone, she voiced discontent with the current state of the music industry, describing it as a "cesspool". Mitchell expressed her dislike of the record industry's dominance and her desire to control her own destiny, possibly by releasing her own music over the Internet.
During the next few years, the only albums Mitchell released were compilations of her earlier work. In 2003, her Geffen recordings were collected in a remastered four-disc box set, The Complete Geffen Recordings, including notes by Mitchell and three previously unreleased tracks. A series of themed compilations of songs from earlier albums were also released: The Beginning of Survival (2004), Dreamland (2004), and Songs of a Prairie Girl (2005), the last of which collected the threads of her Canadian upbringing and which she released after accepting an invitation to the Saskatchewan Centennial concert in Saskatoon. The concert, which featured a tribute to Mitchell, was also attended by Queen Elizabeth II. In the Prairie Girl liner notes, she writes that the collection is "my contribution to Saskatchewan's Centennial celebrations".
In the early 1990s, Mitchell signed a deal with Random House to publish an autobiography. In 1998 she told The New York Times that her memoirs were "in the works", that they would be published in as many as four volumes, and that the first line would be "I was the only black man at the party." In 2005, Mitchell said that she was using a tape recorder to get her memories "down in the oral tradition".
Although Mitchell stated that she would no longer tour or give concerts, she has made occasional public appearances to speak on environmental issues. Mitchell divides her time between her longtime home in Los Angeles, and the 80-acre (32 ha) property in Sechelt, British Columbia, that she has owned since the early 1970s. "L.A. is my workplace", she said in 2006, "B.C. is my heartbeat". According to interviews, today she focuses mainly on her visual art, which she does not sell and displays only on rare occasions.

2006–2015: Late recordings

In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen in October 2006, Mitchell "revealed that she was recording her first collection of new songs in nearly a decade", but gave few other details. Four months later, in an interview with The New York Times, Mitchell said that the forthcoming album, titled Shine, was inspired by the war in Iraq and "something her grandson had said while listening to family fighting: 'Bad dreams are good—in the great plan.'" Early media reports characterized the album as having "a minimal feel ... that harks back to [Mitchell's] early work" and a focus on political and environmental issues.
In February 2007, Mitchell returned to Calgary and served as an advisor for the Alberta Ballet Company premiere of "The Fiddle and the Drum", a dance choreographed by Jean Grand-Maître to both new and old songs. She worked with the French-Canadian TV director Mario Rouleau, well known for work in art and dance for television, such as Cirque du Soleil. She also filmed portions of the rehearsals for a documentary that she is working on. Of the flurry of recent activity she quipped, "I've never worked so hard in my life."
In mid-2007, Mitchell's official fan-run site confirmed speculation that she had signed a two-record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music label. Shine was released by the label on September 25, 2007, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, her highest chart position in the United States since the release of Hejira in 1976, over thirty years previously, and at number 36 on the United Kingdom albums chart.
On the same day, Herbie Hancock, a longtime associate and friend of Mitchell's, released River: The Joni Letters, an album paying tribute to Mitchell's work. Among the album's contributors were Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell herself, who contributed a vocal to the re-recording of "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)" (originally on her album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm). On February 10, 2008, Hancock's recording won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. It was the first time in 43 years that a jazz artist took the top prize at the annual award ceremony. In accepting the award, Hancock paid tribute to Mitchell as well as to Miles Davis and John Coltrane. At the same ceremony Mitchell won a Grammy for Best Instrumental Pop Performance for the opening track, "One Week Last Summer", from her album Shine.
In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mitchell was quoted as saying that singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with whom she had worked closely in the past, was a fake and a plagiarist. The controversial remark was widely reported by other media. Mitchell did not explain the contention further, but several media outlets speculated that it may have related to the allegations of plagiarism surrounding some lyrics on Dylan's 2006 album Modern Times. In a 2013 interview with Jian Ghomeshi, she was asked about the comments and responded by denying that she had made the statement while mentioning the allegations of plagiarism that arose over the lyrics to Dylan's 2001 album Love and Theft in the general context of the flow and ebb of the creative process of artists.

2016–present: Health issues and recovery

Mitchell has said that she has Morgellons syndrome, and in 2010 said she planned to leave the music industry to work toward giving more credibility to people diagnosed with Morgellons.
In 2015, Mitchell had a brain aneurysm, which required her to undergo physical therapy, and take part in daily rehabilitation. Mitchell made her first public appearance following the aneurysm when she attended a Chick Corea concert in Los Angeles in August 2016. She has made a few other appearances, and in November 2018, David Crosby said that she was learning to walk again.

Rejection of Baby Boom counter-culture

Despite her prominence among the young musicians of the 1960s and 1970s, and her writing of "Woodstock" (the eponymous concert of which she did not perform at because her manager thought it was more advantageous to appear on The Dick Cavett Show), she did not align herself with the Baby Boom era's protest movements or its cultural manifestation, the associated 1960s counter-culture. She has said that the parents of the boomers were unhappy, and "out of it came this liberated, spoiled, selfish generation into the costume ball of free love, free sex, free music, free, free, free, free we're so free. And Woodstock was the culmination of it." But "I was not a part of that," she explained in an interview. "I was not a part of the anti-war movement, either. I played in Fort Bragg. I went the Bob Hope route because I had uncles who died in the war, and I thought it was a shame to blame the boys who were drafted."

Legacy

External video

Dr. Joni Mitchell, 15:12, January 7, 2005, CBC Digital Archive

Joni Mitchell on Q – Part 1, 32:43, June 11, 2013, q on CBC

Guitar style

While some of Mitchell's most popular songs were written on piano, almost every song she composed on the guitar uses an open, or non-standard, tuning; she has written songs in some 50 tunings, playing what she has called "Joni's weird chords". The use of alternative tunings allows guitarists to produce accompaniment with more varied and wide-ranging textures. Her right-hand picking/strumming technique has evolved over the years from an initially intricate picking style, typified by the guitar songs on her first album, to a looser and more rhythmic style, sometimes incorporating percussive "slaps".
In 1995, Mitchell's friend Fred Walecki, proprietor of Westwood Music in Los Angeles, developed a solution to alleviate her continuing frustration with using multiple alternative tunings in live settings. Walecki designed a Stratocaster-style guitar to function with the Roland VG-8 virtual guitar, a system capable of configuring her numerous tunings electronically. While the guitar itself remained in standard tuning, the VG-8 encoded the pickup signals into digital signals which were then translated into the altered tunings. This allowed Mitchell to use one guitar on stage, while an off-stage tech entered the preprogrammed tuning for each song in her set.
Mitchell was also highly innovative harmonically in her early work (1966–72), incorporating modality, chromaticism, and pedal points. On her 1968 debut album Song to a Seagull, Mitchell used both quartal and quintal harmony in "Dawntreader" and quintal harmony in Seagull.
In 2003 Rolling Stone named her the 72nd all greatest guitarist of time; she was the highest-ranked woman on the list.

Influence

Mitchell's approach to music struck a chord with many female listeners. In an era dominated by the stereotypical male rock star, she presented herself as "multidimensional and conflicted ... allow[ing] her to build such a powerful identification among her female fans". Mitchell asserted her desire for artistic control throughout her career, and still holds the publishing rights for her music. She has disclaimed the notion that she is a "feminist"; in a 2013 interview she rejected the label, stating, "I'm not a feminist. I don't want to get a posse against men. I'd rather go toe-to-toe; work it out." David Shumway notes that Mitchell "became the first woman in popular music to be recognized as an artist in the full sense of that term.... Whatever Mitchell's stated views of feminism, what she represents more than any other performer of her era is the new prominence of women's perspectives in cultural and political life."
Mitchell's work has had an influence on many other artists, including Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Ellie Goulding, Corinne Bailey Rae, Gabrielle Aplin, Mikael Åkerfeldt from Opeth, Marillion members Steve Hogarth and Steve Rothery, their former vocalist and lyricist Fish, Paul Carrack, and Haim,. Madonna has also cited Mitchell as the first female artist that really spoke to her as a teenager; "I was really, really into Joni Mitchell. I knew every word to Court and Spark; I worshipped her when I was in high school. Blue is amazing. I would have to say of all the women I've heard, she had the most profound effect on me from a lyrical point of view."
Several artists have had success covering Mitchell's songs. Judy Collins's 1967 recording of "Both Sides, Now" reached No. 8 on Billboard charts and was a breakthrough in the career of both artists (Mitchell's own recording did not see release until two years later, on her second album Clouds). This is Mitchell's most-covered song by far, with over 1,200 versions recorded at latest count. Hole also covered "Both Sides, Now" in 1991 on their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, retitling it "Clouds", with the lyrics altered by frontwoman Courtney Love. Pop group Neighborhood in 1970 and Amy Grant in 1995 scored hits with covers of "Big Yellow Taxi", the third-most covered song in Mitchell's repertoire (with over 300 covers). Recent releases of this song have been by Counting Crows in 2002 and Nena in 2007. Janet Jackson used a sample of the chorus of "Big Yellow Taxi" as the centerpiece of her 1997 hit single "Got 'Til It's Gone", which also features rapper Q-Tip saying "Joni Mitchell never lies". "River", from Mitchell's album Blue became the second-most covered song of Mitchell's in 2013 as many artists chose it for their holiday albums. Rap artists Kanye West and Mac Dre have also sampled Mitchell's vocals in their music. In addition, Annie Lennox has covered "Ladies of the Canyon" for the B-side of her 1995 hit "No More I Love You's". Mandy Moore covered "Help Me" in 2003. In 2004 singer George Michael covered her song "Edith and the Kingpin" for a radio show. "River" has been one of the most popular songs covered in recent years, with versions by Dianne Reeves (1999), James Taylor (recorded for television in 2000, and for CD release in 2004), Allison Crowe (2004), Rachael Yamagata (2004), Aimee Mann (2005), and Sarah McLachlan (2006). McLachlan also did a version of "Blue" in 1996, and Cat Power recorded a cover of "Blue" in 2008. Other Mitchell covers include the famous "Woodstock" by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Eva Cassidy, and Matthews Southern Comfort; "This Flight Tonight" by Nazareth; and well-known versions of "A Case of You" by Tori Amos, Michelle Branch, Jane Monheit, Prince, Diana Krall, James Blake, and Ana Moura. A 40th anniversary version of "Woodstock" was released in 2009 by Nick Vernier Band featuring Ian Matthews (formerly of Matthews Southern Comfort). Fellow Canadian singer k.d. lang recorded two of Mitchell's songs ("A Case of You" and "Jericho") for her 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel which is composed entirely of songs written by Canadian artists.
Prince's version of "A Case of U" appeared on A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, a 2007 compilation released by Nonesuch Records, which also featured Björk ("The Boho Dance"), Caetano Veloso ("Dreamland"), Emmylou Harris ("The Magdalene Laundries"), Sufjan Stevens ("Free Man in Paris") and Cassandra Wilson ("For the Roses"), among others.
Several other songs reference Joni Mitchell. The song "Our House" by Graham Nash refers to Nash's two-year affair with Mitchell at the time that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young recorded the Déjà Vu album. Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" was said to be written about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's infatuation with Mitchell, a claim that seems to be borne out by the fact that, in live performances, Plant often says "Joni" after the line "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar and cries and sings". Jimmy Page uses a double dropped D guitar tuning similar to the alternative tunings Mitchell uses. The Sonic Youth song "Hey Joni" is named for Mitchell. Alanis Morissette also mentions Mitchell in one of her songs, "Your House". British folk singer Frank Turner mentions Mitchell in his song "Sunshine State". The Prince song "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" contains the lyric – " 'Oh, my favorite song' she said – and it was Joni singing 'Help me I think I'm falling' ". "Lavender" by Marillion was partly influenced by "going through parks listening to Joni Mitchell", according to vocalist and lyricist Fish, and she was later mentioned in the lyrics of their song "Montreal" from Sounds That Can't Be Made. John Mayer makes reference to Mitchell and her Blue album in his song "Queen of California", from his 2012 album Born and Raised. The song contains the lyric "Joni wrote Blue in a house by the sea".
In 2003, playwright Bryden MacDonald launched When All the Slaves Are Free, a musical revue based on Mitchell's music.
Mitchell's music and poems have deeply influenced the French painter Jacques Benoit's work. Between 1979 and 1989 Benoit produced sixty paintings, corresponding to a selection of fifty of Mitchell's songs.
Maynard James Keenan of the American progressive rock band Tool has cited Mitchell as an influence, claiming that her influence is what allows him to "soften [staccato, rhythmic, insane mathematical paths] and bring [them] back to the center, so you can listen to it without having an eye-ache." A Perfect Circle, another band featuring Keenan as lead vocalist, recorded a rendition of Mitchell's "The Fiddle and the Drum" on their 2004 album eMOTIVe, a collection of anti-war cover songs.

Awards and honours

Mitchell's home country of Canada has bestowed several honours on her. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in 1996. Mitchell received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame in 2000. In 2002 she became only the third popular Canadian singer-songwriter (Gordon Lightfoot and Leonard Cohen being the other two), to be appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour. She received an honorary doctorate in music from McGill University in 2004. In January 2007 she was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. In June 2007 Canada Post featured Mitchell on a postage stamp.
Mitchell has received nine Grammy Awards during her career (eight competitive, one honorary), the first in 1969 and the most recent in 2016. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, with the citation describing her as "one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era" and "a powerful influence on all artists who embrace diversity, imagination and integrity".
In 1995, Mitchell received Billboard's Century Award. In 1996, she was awarded the Polar Music Prize. In 1997, Mitchell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did not attend the ceremony.
In tribute to Mitchell, the TNT network presented an all-star celebration at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on April 6, 2000. Mitchell's songs were sung by many performers, including James Taylor, Elton John, Wynonna Judd, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Krall, and Richard Thompson. Mitchell herself ended the evening with a rendition of "Both Sides, Now" with a 70-piece orchestra. The version was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Love Actually.
In 2008, Mitchell was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone's "100 greatest singers" list and in 2015 she was ranked ninth on their list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.
On February 12, 2010, "Both Sides, Now" was performed at the 2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Vancouver.
To celebrate Mitchell's 70th birthday, the 2013 Luminato Festival in Toronto held a set of tribute concerts entitled Joni: A Portrait in Song – A Birthday Happening Live at Massey Hall on June 18 and 19. Performers included Rufus Wainwright, Herbie Hancock, Esperanza Spalding, and rare performances by Mitchell herself.
Due to health problems she could not attend the San Francisco gala in May 2015 to receive the SFJAZZ Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2018, Mitchell was honoured by the city of Saskatoon, when two plaques were erected to commemorate her musical beginnings in Saskatoon. One was installed by the Broadway Theatre beside the former Louis Riel Coffee House, where Mitchell played her first paid gig. A second plaque was installed at River Landing, near the Remai Modern art gallery and Persephone Theatre performing arts centre. As well, the walkway along Spadina Crescent between Second and Third Avenues was formally named the Joni Mitchell Promenade.

ASCAP Pop Awards

 

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result	2005	"Big Yellow Taxi"	Most Performed Song	Won

Grammy Awards

Year	Category	Work	Result
1969	Best Folk Performance	Clouds	Won
1974	Album of the Year	Court and Spark	Nominated
	Record of the Year	"Help Me"	Nominated
	Pop Female Vocalist	Court and Spark	Nominated
	Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s)	"Down to You"	Won
1976	Pop Female Vocalist	The Hissing of Summer Lawns	Nominated
1977	Best Album Package	Hejira	Nominated
1988	Pop Female Vocalist	Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm	Nominated
1995	Best Pop Album	Turbulent Indigo	Won
	Best Album Package	Turbulent Indigo	Won
2000	Best Female Pop Vocal Performance	Both Sides, Now	Nominated
	Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album	Both Sides, Now	Won
2002	Lifetime Achievement Award	–	Won
2007	Album of the Year	River: The Joni Letters	Won*
	Best Pop Instrumental Performance	"One Week Last Summer"	Won
2016	Best Album Notes	Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced	Won

*Although officially a Herbie Hancock release, Mitchell also received a Grammy due to her vocal contribution to the album.

Juno Awards

Year	Nominee / work	Award	Result
1980	Herself	Female Vocalist of the Year	Nominated
1981			Nominated
		Canadian Hall of Fame	Won
1982		Folk Artist of the Year	Nominated
		Female Artist of the Year	Nominated
1983			Nominated
1995		Songwriter of the Year	Nominated
	Turbulent Indigo	Best Roots & Traditional Album	Nominated
2000	Taming the Tiger	Best Pop/Adult Album	Nominated
2001	Both Sides, Now	Best Vocal Jazz Album	Won
2008	Herself	Producer of the Year	Won

 

Photo of Joni Mitchell. 1974

 Asylum Records - Billboard page 2

Quotes

• That's one thing that's always, like, been a difference between, like, the performing arts, and being a painter, you know. A painter does a painting, and he paints it, and that's it, you know. He has the joy of creating it, it hangs on a wall, and somebody buys it, and maybe somebody buys it again, or maybe nobody buys it and it sits up in a loft somewhere until he dies. But he never, you know, nobody ever, nobody ever said to Van Gogh, 'Paint a Starry Night again, man!' You know? He painted it and that was it.
  • Miles of Aisles (1974)

• I need to explore and discover and so that has given me, really, to some what seems like courage, but really it's just in my stars, there's nothing I can do about it . . . . I guess I'll just take my award and run now.
  • Said on being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, www.chartattack.com (January 29, 2007)

• I don't like being too looked up at or too looked down on. I prefer meeting in the middle to being worshipped or spat out.
  • The New York Times (February 4, 2007)

Woman of Heart and Mind: A Life Story (2003)

• Any time I make a record it's followed by a painting period. It's good crop rotation.

• I was demanding of myself a deeper and greater honesty, more and more revelation in my work in order to give it back to the people where it goes into their lives and nourishes them and changes their direction and makes light bulbs go off in their head and makes them feel. And it isn't vague, it strikes against the very nerves of their life and in order to do that you have to strike against the very nerves of your own.
  • On the writing period of Blue

• There's been a tremendous amount of growth. An actress is not expected to continue to play her ingenue roles, you know, I've written myself roles to grow into gracefully, but there is no growing into gracefully in the pop world. Basically the reason I'm so unruly in this business is because I never wanted to be a human jukebox.

Songs

• In our possessive coupling
  So much could not be expressed
  So now I'm returning to myself
  These things that you and I suppressed.
  • "Hejira"

• You go down to the pick up station
  Craving warmth and beauty
  You settle for less than fascination
  A few drinks later you're not so choosy
  When the closing lights strip off the shadows
  On this strange new flesh you've found
  Clutching the night to you like a fig leaf
  You hurry
  To the blackness
  And the blankets
  To lay down an impression
  And your loneliness.
  • "Down to You" from Court and Spark

• Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine,
  You taste so bitter and so sweet
  Oh I could drink a case of you, darling
  And I would still be on my feet
  I would still be on my feet.
  • "A Case of You" from Blue

• Rows and flows of angel hair,
  And ice cream castles in the air,
  And feather canyons ev’rywhere,
  I’ve looked at clouds that way.
  But now they only block the sun,
  They rain and snow on ev’ryone,
  So many things I would have done
  But clouds got in my way.
  • "Both Sides Now"

• I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now,
  From up and down, and still somehow
  It’s cloud illusions I recall,
  I really don’t know clouds at all.
  • "Both Sides Now"

• Tears and fears and feeling proud,
  To say "I love you" right out loud,
  Dreams and schemes and circus crowds,
  I’ve looked at life that way.
  But now old friends are acting strange
  They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
  Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
  In living ev’ry day.
  • "Both Sides Now"

• I’ve looked at love from both sides now
  From give and take, and still somehow,
  It’s love’s illusions I recall
  I really don’t know love at all.
  • "Both Sides Now"

• And the seasons they go round and round,
  And the painted ponies go up and down,
  We’re all captive on the carousel of time
  We can’t return we can only look behind
  From where we came
  And go 'round and 'round and 'round
  In the circle game.
  • "Circle Game"

• I came upon a child of god,
  He was walking along the road
  And I asked him, where are you going
  And this he told me:
  "I’m going on down to Yasgur’s farm I’m going to join in a rock ’n’ roll band
  I’m going to camp out on the land,
  I’m going to try an’ get my soul free.
  • "Woodstock"

• I don't know who I am / but you know, life is for learning.
  • "Woodstock"

• We are stardust,
  We are golden,
  And we’ve got to get ourselves
  Back to the garden.
  • "Woodstock"

• By the time we got to Woodstock
  We were half a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration.
  And I dreamed I saw the bombers
  Riding shotgun in the sky
  And they were turning into butterflies
  Above our nation.
  • "Woodstock"

• They paved paradise
  And put up a parking lot
  With a pink hotel, a boutique
  and a swinging hot spot.
  • "Big Yellow Taxi"

• Don't it always seem to go
  That you don't know what you've got
  Till it's gone.
  They paved paradise,
  And put up a parking lot.
  • "Big Yellow Taxi"

• They took all the trees
  And put them in a tree museum
  And they charged all the people
  A dollar and a half just to see 'em.
  • "Big Yellow Taxi"

• Hey farmer, farmer,
  Put away that DDT now
  Give me spots on my apples
  But leave me the birds and the bees
  Please!
  • "Big Yellow Taxi"

• I remember the time you told me, you said
  "Love is touching souls,"
  Surely you've touched mine, cause
  Part of you pours out of me
  In these lines from time to time.
  • "A Case of You" from Blue

• I wanna be strong,
  I wanna laugh along,
  I wanna belong to the living.
  Alive, alive, I wanna get up and jive,
  Wanna wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive.
  • "All I Want" from Blue

• Secrets and sharing soda,
  That's how our time began.
  Love is a story told to a friend
  It's second hand.
  • "Conversation"

• Some are friendly
  Some are cutting
  Some are watching it from the wings
  Some are standing in the centre giving to get something.
  • "People's Parties"

• Laughing and crying, you know it's the same release.
  • "People's Parties"

• Friends have told her "Not so proud"
  Neighbors trying to sleep are yelling "Not so loud"
  Lovers in anger, "Block of ice"
  Harder and harder just to be nice.
  • "Shades of Scarlett Conquering" from The Hissing of Summer Lawns

• It's coming on Christmas,
  They're cutting down trees.
  They're putting up reindeer
  And singing songs of joy and peace.
  I wish I had a river
  I could skate away on
  • "River" from Blue

About Joni Mitchell

• She is of course well past the stage of having to prove herself artistically. She is in possession of one of the most extraordinary song catalogs of the past half-century. Her chords break harmonic rules, have no technical names and defy Western musical theory. Her voice is an instrument that has grown sublimely heavier and huskier over the decades. . . .Once you get past the security gates, Ms. Mitchell's house feels like a pocket of middle-class comfort in the midst of zillionaire Beverly Hills. In some ways life is still as it was in 1974, when she bought the house: She has no computer, no voice mail, no cellphone and no e-mail. At one point, when we tried to remember one of her lyrics, we scrolled through my iPod. She said it was the first time she had listened to one.
  • The New York Times (February 4, 2007)

• Joni, you have more class than Richard Nixon, Mick Jagger, and Gomer Pyle combined!
  • Audience member, recorded on Miles of Aisles

• That's the music that I play at home all the time, Joni Mitchell. Court and Spark I love because I'd always hoped that she'd work with a band. But the main thing with Joni is that she's able to look at something that's happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what more can I say? It's bloody eerie. I can relate so much to what she says. "Now old friends are acting strange/They shake their heads/They say I've changed".
  • Jimmy Page in Rolling Stone magazine (March 13, 1975)

Mitchell in 1975

Asylum Records - Billboard, page 1, 15 November 1975

Trade ad for Joni Mitchell's album The Hissing of Summer Lawns.

 Mitchell performing in 1983 

Capannelle - originally posted to Flickr as Joni Mitchell

 

Joni Mitchell-A Case of You - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YuaZcylk_o

 Joni Mitchell and Peter Bogner listening to premix of Herbie Hancock's Gershwin's World (Venice Beach, California in 1999)

 Miley.cida - Own work

Lyrics

Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star and I said,
Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar

On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet oh
I could drink a case of you darling and I would
Still be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time that you told me, you said
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine 'cause
Part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet oh
I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours, she knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds and she said
"Go to him
stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"

Oh but you are in my blood you're my holy wine
You're so bitter
bitter and so sweet oh
I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
hmm

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

A Case of You lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Blue

Released: 1971

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 Joni Mitchell's star on Canada's Walk of Fame

 Tabercil - Self-photographed

 

Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94bdMSCdw20

Lyrics

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And they put up a parking lot

Hey farmer farmer
Put away that D.D.T. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
'Till it's gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Big Yellow Taxi lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Ladies of the Canyon

Released: 1970

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

Joni Mitchell - California - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lm39YkGrHp8

 

Lyrics

Sitting in a park in Paris, France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of land to see
But I wouldn't stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here.

Oh, but California
California, I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a sunset pig
California, I'm coming home.

I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue, the red red rogue
He cooked good omelets and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you, California
Oh California, I'm coming home
Oh make me feel good rock'n roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California, I'm coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues

So I bought me a ticket
I got on a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue
They said, How long can you hang around?
I said a week, maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California
California, I'm coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California, I'm coming home

Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?
Will you take me as I am?
Take me as I am

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

California lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Blue

Released: 1971

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

RIVER ~ JONI MITCHELL ~ (Lyrics) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpFudDAYqxY

Lyrics

It's coming on Christmas,
They're cutting down trees.
Putting up reindeer
Singing songs of joy and peace,
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

But it don't snow here,
Stays pretty green.
I'm gonna make a lot of money
Gonna quit this crazy scene.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby cry.

She tried hard to help me,
She put me at ease.
She loved me so naughty,
made me weak in the knees.
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

I'm so hard to handle,
I'm selfish and I'm sad.
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I've ever had.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on

I wish I had a river so long,
I would teach my feet to fly.
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.
I made my baby say goodbye.
Say goodbye.

It's coming on Christmas,
They're cutting down trees.
Putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace,
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on.

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

River lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Blue

Released: 1971

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (HD) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCnf46boC3I

Lyrics

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud's illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and ferries wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way

But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud,
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way

But now old friends they're acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Both Sides Now lyrics © Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Clouds

Released: 1969

Nominations: Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

All I Want - Joni Mitchell (original) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq2jhs19_V8

Lyrics

I am on a lonely road and
I am traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be
Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me
I wanna be strong I wanna laugh along
I wanna belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
Do you want, do you want, do you wanna dance with me baby
Do you wanna take a chance on
Maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby, well come on

All I really really want is our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you
I wanna talk to you, I wanna shampoo you
I wanna renew you again and again
Applause, applause, life is our cause
When I think of your kisses my mind see-saws
Do you see, do you see, do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Looking for the key to set me free
Oh the jealousy
The greed is the unraveling it's the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
I wanna fun, I wanna shine like the sun
I wanna be the one that you want to see
I wanna knit you a sweater
Wanna write you a love letter
I wanna make you feel better, I wanna
Make you feel free
Hm hm hm, hm
Wanna make you feel all free
All I wanna make you feel free

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

All I Want lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Blue

Released: 1971

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

Joni Mitchell - Carey (Live London 1983) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnQK53FMxGw

Lyrics

The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey
But it's really not my home
My fingernails are filthy
I've got beach tar on my feet
And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne

Oh Carey get out your cane (Carey get out your cane)
And I'll put on some silver (I'll put on some silver)
Oh you're a mean old Daddy, but I like you fine

Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe
And I will buy you a bottle of wine
And we'll laugh and toast to nothing and
Smash our empty glasses down
Let's have a round for these freaks and these soldiers
A round for these friends of mine
Let's have another round for the bright red devil, who
Keeps me in this tourist town

Come on Carey get out your cane (Carey get out your cane)
And I'll put on some silver (I'll put on some silver)
Oh you're a mean old Daddy, but I like you
I like you,  I like you, I like you

Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam
Or maybe I'll go to Rome
And rent me a grand piano and put some flowers 'round my room
But let's not talk about fare-thee-wells now
The night is a starry dome
And they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll
Beneath the Matalla Moon

Come on Carey get out your cane (Carey get out your cane)
And I'll put on some silver (I'll put on some silver)
You're a mean old Daddy, but I like you

The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here,  but it's
Really not my home
Maybe it's been too long a time since I was
Scramblin' down in the street
Now they got me used to that clean white linen and that
Fancy French cologne

Oh Carey, get out your cane (Carey get out your cane)
I'll put on my finest silver (I'll put on some silver)
We'll go to the Mermaid Cafe,  have fun tonight
I said, oh, you're a mean old Daddy, but you're out of sight

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Carey lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Blue

Released: 1971

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

3:06

Joni Mitchell - Blue

JMYTMusic

YouTube - Sep 18, 2010

 

 

Joni Mitchell - Help Me (1974) - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOEE-kR-Txg

Lyrics

Help me
I think I'm falling
In love again
When I get that crazy feeling, I know
I'm in trouble again
I'm in trouble

'Cause you're a rambler and a gambler
And a sweet-taIking-ladies man
And you love your lovin'
But not like you love your freedom

Help me
I think I'm falling
In love too fast
It's got me hoping for the future
And worrying about the past
'Cause I've seen some hot hot blazes
Come down to smoke and ash
We love our lovin'

But not like we love our freedom
Didn't it feel good
We were sitting there talking
Or lying there not talking
Didn't it feel good
You dance with the lady
With the hole in her stocking

Didn't it feel good
Didn't it feel good
Help me
I think I'm falling
In love with you

Are you going to let me go there by myself
That's such a lonely thing to do
Both of us flirting around
Flirting and flirting

Hurting too
We love our lovin'
But not like we love our freedom

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Help Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Court and Spark

Released: 1974

Genre: Singer-Songwriter

Nominations: Grammy Award for Record of the Year

 

 

Free Man In Paris - Joni Mitchell - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQj6h8KpkiQ

Lyrics

The way I see it, he said
You just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down

I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors

And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Behind the popular song

I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If l had my way
I'd just walk out those doors

And wander
Down the Champs Elysees
Going cafe to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow

But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Free Man in Paris lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Court and Spark

Released: 1974

Genre: Singer-Songwriter

 

 

Joni Mitchell ~ Woodstock - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aOGnVKWbwc

Lyrics

I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Woodstock lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Artist: Joni Mitchell

Album: Ladies of the Canyon

Released: 1970

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk

 

 

Joni Mitchell - The Circle Game - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9VoLCO-d6U

Lyrics

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when you're older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return, we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

The Circle Game lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Crazy Crow Music / Siquomb Music Publishing

Artists: Joni Mitchell, L.A. Express

Album: Ladies of the Canyon

Released: 1970

Genres: Singer-Songwriter, Folk