FEATURE:
A Woman in a Beret, a Smoke-Filled Café and a Magical Moment in Woodstock
IN THIS IMAGE: Joni Mitchell/IMAGE CREDIT: Georgia O’Keefe/Getty Images
Joni Mitchell at Seventy-Five: An Icon Who Can Paint Lyrical Images Like No Other
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I hate to open a feature talking about mortality…
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell in Amsterdam in 1972/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
but we are seeing icons pass and it is sad to realise we will never see the like of them again. Stunning songwriters like Leonard Cohen have gone and David Bowie, that ever-intriguing master, is no longer with us. I guess you can never predict when a big musician will leave the world but it is always poignant reflecting on what they provided and the fact we will not get to hear anything from them. Fortunately, in the case of Joni Mitchell, she is still with us and, let’s hope, not far from making some more music. She has not had the best of luck with her health. In 2009, she came out and stated she was suffering from Morgellons syndrome. It is a self-diagnosed skin condition that many believe is a delusional infestation. Mitchell said this thing was incurable and bugging her but that her health in general was as good as ever. In 2015, tragically, we almost lost her after she suffered a brain aneurysm. Mitchell was found unconscious in her L.A. home and regained consciousness whilst in transit to the hospital. There have not been a lot of updates since then but there were reports circulating she was in a coma. As of today, she is not but her health is far from perfect. It makes the idea of a new studio album unlike but not impossible.
Her last album, 2007’s Shine, was her first new work since 1998 and was a great relief to see. Many felt we would not see new material from Joni Mitchell and Shine, whilst simplistic in places, did have a sparseness and sound that harked back to her earliest work. It seems like we might be ambitious to demand new work but I am glad Mitchell is still with us and, gloomy as that sounds, she is an icon that has given the music world endless pleasure, brilliance and genius. Even when her work is a bit more basic – her later work does not match the scope and sharpness of her classic albums – I feel there is still so much to recommend. I have been listening to a lot of songs on Ladies of the Canyon (1970) and you get these sweeping stories and detailed studies. Characters, whether desolate or blissed-out, are set against vivid and tangible landscapes; painted and performed beautifully by Mitchell. That album contains poignant and desolate character studies like The Arrangement and takes inside apartments, mindsets and moods. Mitchell, even on early albums such as Ladies of the Canyon, was able to deliver with such a sense of command and gravitas that you jumped into the songs. From the down-on-their-luck and overlooked figure of her darker songs; there was the optimism of Woodstock and a generation trying to “get back to the garden” – a sense of hope and community in a rather testing situation.
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Whilst one might interpret Woodstock as hopeful there are, in fact, quite hard and strained messages that linger in the mind. Her 1970 work marked a bolder move and break from the slightly simpler stuff she was putting out at the start. Whilst not as accomplished and resonant as the material she would put out only a year later; you can sense this incredible mind starting to blossom and open up. Even a peppy and uplifting song like Big Yellow Taxi is an ecological study where parking lots are paving everything and it seems the natural world is disappearing. It is unsurprising an artist growing up around political tensions and wars would reflect these themes through music but it the consciousness and connection with what is around her that strikes me. I often associate modern songwriting with an insularity and a sense of looking down – artists not always opening their minds to concerns of the world and detailing characters. Although a lot of autobiography would come through soon; some of Mitchell’s best work arrives when she details lovers in cafés and elicit bonds in hotels; smoke-filled rooms and sweethearts passing by; a generation coming together or this strange figure moving and weaving through song. So many modern songwriters bring basic language to personal songs and they can be rather cloying. There are exceptions but few can write anywhere near as strikingly as Mitchell. Consider an album like Blue (1971) and the narrative shifts from widescreen third-person to a more confined and personal line.
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell with James Taylor at her Lookout Mountain cottage, 1971/PHOTO CREDIT: Joel Berstein
Although there are characters and one might think fictional figures are being spoke about; Blue is an intrinsically personal record that showed, even in her twenties, the songwriter could write in a hugely impressive and mature fashion. Mitchell once said her writing and self was as exposed as a wrapping on a packet of cigarettes. She was not hiding anything and her bones, scars and tears were there for the world to hear. Whilst there have been some genius break-up record – Blood on the Tracks by Bob Dylan is considered one of the best – there are few that are as arresting and enduring as Blue. Not only would that album signal a (brief) move from something character-based to personal but it was a huge creative leap. Backed by exceptional musicians and the piano (which came into her music in a more defining and prominent way); Mitchell has arrived as a songwriter – this was her taking a huge leap and, to many, she never made a bigger move. We have a lot of modern songwriters who are confessional and open but you never get that same sense of poetry and literary. Even when she discusses a break-up or loneliness; it is done so in such a moving and intelligent manner that one is hooked and invested.
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell at her Laurel Canyon home (date unknown; around 1968-1970)/PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Diltz/CORBIS
You can hear the spirit of Joni Mitchell in Laura Marling: a songwriter who has the same affinity for language and able to write in a broad and stunning way. Blue is seen as Mitchell’s finest record and you cannot argue against that. Whilst the mood is largely sombre and emotive; there are stunning line and wonderful poetry. Blue’s eponymous track states “Songs are like tattoos” and the immortal “Acid, booze and ass/Needles, guns and grass/Lots of laughs” is (a thought) that provokes the imagination and makes you smile. Songs on Blue documented this passionate and liberation woman who was travelling this road and, at the same time, was scared and excite. She could take a line like “I am on a lonely road, and I am traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling” and make it sound thrilling yet heartbreaking. She was part of the 1970s culture and this liberated, impassioned woman who was drinking in everything around her and wanted her voice to be heard. There was a lot of personal perspective but Mitchell was always inspired by people and scene around and bringing those into music. It is that personal angle that gives the songs more weight and conviction. Not willing to disguise hardship and fraught feelings; this was someone who wanted the listener to be involved and understand her mind.
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Even when she was talking about the ups and downs of rootlessness and uncertainty; it seemed like she was speaking to the world and could understand those listening. Listen to songs like River (Blue) and how she wishes she had a river (“I could skate away on”). Maybe the Christmas song is a regret at the lack of snow and winteriness around her; maybe it is that need for escape or a chance to embrace something precious – in a single line, she could convey such intrigue and wonder. The Circle Game (Ladies of the Canyon’s closing track) talks of seasons go around and a carousel of time; not being able to return – only look behind – and go around and around. The use of this charming and traditional setting is a perfect way of talking about life and how it is a circle. In other tracks, Mitchell could document like no other the torment of staying alone and pining for love or embracing it and fear being rejected – Help Me (Court and Spark) perfectly expresses that decision and the unpredictable nature of love. Even when the subject matter was a little more straightforward and common (such as passion and trust) she has a way of writing in a fresh and unique manner. Her vocal prowess and the way she could elongate, twist and emphasise helped bring the layers and magic from the songs.
IMAGE CREDIT: Getty Images
The more Mitchell steps into Jazz territory – albums such as Court and Spark (1974) were more progressive and experimental than Blue and earlier work – the more vivid and fascinating her visions became. There are people who say her more focused and personal work yielded the most profound lyrics whilst some prefer the songwriter when she was letting her mind wander and taking a different road. Look back to an early album like Clouds (1969) and Chelsea Morning poses the following: “Oh won’t you stay/We’ll put on the day, And we’ll talk in present tenses”. There is then a quirky line about rainbows running away and Mitchell bringing her suitor “incense owls by night”. You can feel that clash of the romantic and alluring with the odd and charming. We have modern-day writers like Laura Marling who can write in a similarly grand and accomplished way but nothing (she has produced) can match the greatness of Joni Mitchell. This fascinating article from Sean O’Hagan in 2013 where he was writing in The Guardian talked about Mitchell’s lyrics and how her creative mind was like no other. The seeds of brilliance were planted early on:
“For a long time, I’ve been playing in straight rhythms,” Mitchell told her friend, Malka Marom, in 1973, in the first of the three extended interviews that are included in Both Sides Now, a new book published next month. “But now, in order to sophisticate my music to my own taste, I push it into odd places that feel a little unusual to me, so that I feel I’m stretching out”…
IN THIS IMAGE: A self-portrait of Joni Mitchell/IMAGE CREDIT: Joni Mitchell/Getty Images
“Sophistication – melodic, lyrical, compositional – is an undervalued currency in popular music, though it illuminates the finest songs written by artists as diverse as Lennon and McCartney, Randy Newman, Ray Davies, Brian Wilson, Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield as well as the songwriters for hire of an earlier era – Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, George Gershwin. It also defines the best songs that Joni Mitchell wrote at her creative peak, which, for me, stretched from the release of Blue (1971), through For the Roses (1972), Court and Spark (1974) and The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975), to the pared and broodingly atmospheric Hejira (1976)”.
The music arrangements and their sophistication are often overlooked by some. Many focus on the voice and how divisive it can be. Some find her tones and way of singing grating or unappetising: for those with a more refined and educated palette; nobody could sing her songs as powerful and purely. Much more accessible and rounded a voice than Bob Dylan; Mitchell was able to absorb and inspire listeners with her incredible words and striking voice. Her compositions became more layered, deep and ambitious. In interviews; Mitchell professed her love for some of Bob Dylan’s songs but did not think he was all that when it came to compositions and the music. Maybe Dylan was a bit more straight and linear but Mitchell, one cannot deny, could take her music into new realms and project so much emotion, colour and story.
“The sophistication of her songwriting and, in particular, her musical arrangements is the essential element that sets Joni Mitchell apart from her contemporaries and her peers, whether the troubadours of the early 70s Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter scene or lyrical heavyweights such as Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and even Bob Dylan. And yet in the music industry, Mitchell has never really been afforded the kind of respect heaped on her male counterparts. Rolling Stone magazine once listed her at No 62 in its 100 greatest artists of all time, just below Metallica. She was belatedly inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, but did not attend the ceremony. At 70, she remains a defiant outsider and recluse, who has often expressed her disgust at the music business. And who can blame her?”
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell captured in 2015/PHOTO CREDIT: Norman Jean Roy for The Cut
Although she was not a fan of Dylan’s compositions all of the time; the respect she held for the masterful songwriter was clear:
“There wasn’t much room for poetic description in those older melodic songs,” she noted in a 2003 Canadian documentary, Woman of Heart and Mind. “That’s why I liked the more storytelling quality of Dylan’s work and the idea of the personal narrative. He would speak as if to one person in a song… That was the key that opened all the doors”.
I love how Mitchell, like every icon, was able to switch between albums and did not rest on her laurels. She could have, after Blue, stayed on that course and written in that manner for years. The reviews might have been good but, as Mitchell would have said, that would not be emotionally sustainable! The fragility she felt around the time gave the songs their beauty and truth but they were taking a lot from the creator. Joni Mitchell released six albums between 1968’s Song to a Seagull and 1974’s Court and Spark – 1973 was the only year she did not release a record – and you can feel an evolution and change between the albums. Whilst her musical palette was widening and the artist was maturity; it is the growth and intensity coming through that seemed to define her lyrics by the time of Court and Spark – as O’Hagan documented in his article:
“Despite all these scattered clues, though, Court and Spark came as a surprise. Gone was the fragile, confessional songstress in a flowing dress; instead, here was a confident, full-throated singer in designer threads with a slick electric band in tow. Gone, too, were the acoustic songs sung with just a guitar, piano or dulcimer backing, replaced by an electric, jazz-inflected, intricately arranged sound, courtesy of Tom Scott’s LA Express, that weaved around lyrics that were acutely observational or dazzlingly impressionistic, rather than soul-baringly confessional. When her friend, Malka Marom, author of Both Sides Now, asked her if the band’s presence meant that she might risk the vulnerable singer-songwriter image she had cultivated, Mitchell replied defiantly: “Well, I don’t want to be vulnerable any more.”
Not for the first or last time, Joni Mitchell had moved on and, in doing so, had remade herself in the manner of a true artist”.
IMAGE CREDIT: Getty Images
Through every year and revelation; the songwriting got bolder and was always curious as to what was around her. Although 1975’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns got a bit of a press kicking; it has inspired many modern-day songwriters:
“Among those who did get The Hissing of Summer Lawns, though, were Morrissey – who called it “the first album that completely captivated me” – and Prince. “Hissing got thrashed,” a defiant but still bruised Mitchell recalls in Both Sides Now. “But meanwhile out there was Prince. That was his first Joni record, and it was his Joni record of all time. So, though it got thrashed by the press, the young artists coming up could see there was something going on there.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell photoed in 1976/PHOTO CREDIT: Norman Seeff
What was going on was another refinement of style, another burnishing of lyrical and musical sophistication. Both the title track and Edith and the Kingpin dissect the compromises made by women bound by marriage to powerful men. The former has poetry aplenty, her observational skill honed to near perfection as she elaborates the consequences of a hollowed-out life behind the high walls of a mansion in the Hollywood hills: “He gave her his darkness to regret, and good reason to quit him/ He gave her a roomful of Chippendale that nobody sits in”.
In honour of Joni Mitchell’s seventy-five years on the planet; I have ended this piece with a seventy-five-song playlist that, I feel, explores every aspect and sinew of her lyrical body. Whilst her compositions and vocals were (are) magical and like nothing else; how she could present these stories and create such powerful words has inspired me. It is hard to think of a songwriter since Joni Mitchell who has been able to write in the same way and has that distinct pen. That is why, as I was saying, it is hard to lose these icons of music. We hope there are many more years left in Mitchell and she returns to full health very soon. Who knows; even though she is comfortable into her seventy and her glory days are behind; maybe we will all be able to look forward to the day Joni Mitchell…
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell captured in 2015/PHOTO CREDIT: Norman Jean Roy for The Cut
RETURNS to the studio!