The Art of Musical Storytelling

Part 1 of my deep dive into the creative process of Joni Mitchell, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in history.

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Listen to my playlist Joni Mitchell: Love From Both Sides

It’s a peculiar thing that one of the greatest singer-songwriter’s in history had no intention of ever being a singer, or a songwriter. Ever since she was a child, Joni Mitchell wanted to be a painter. This calling led her from her home in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to the Alberta College of Art. However, her time at art school was short lived, when after becoming pregnant, she fled for the anonymity and opportunity of Toronto.

While in Toronto, her passion for painting had to be put to the side, and making money became the priority. Unsurprisingly, there was little opportunity for an unmarried, pregnant, art school drop out, so Joni turned to her most recent way of making money, singing. While at school, Joni had performed at a local coffee house in Calgary simply, as she put it, to make some money for cigarettes and to go to the movies.

The music scene was more developed in Toronto than Calgary, and so work did not come easily to an unknown Joni. Unable to afford the union dues, she was relegated to performing non-union gigs in church basements and YMCA meeting halls. Unable to support herself, no less a child, she made the difficult decision to put her daughter up for adoption.

Joni never was able to get her daughter back, but she was able to get steady work in coffeehouses in Detroit… as a duo with her new husband Chuck Mitchell. People were quick to catch on that there’s a large gulf in talent between Joni and her husband, and after issues in their relationship, their marriage ended in divorce less than two years after it began.

Now single, Joni devoted all of her time to her music, and her songs became famous before she did. Anyone who saw her perform was struck by her songwriting, Joni’s own hits were hits for other popular artists first, most notably The Circle Game by Tom Rush, and Both Sides Now by Judy Collins.

While her songs were hits on the radio, Joni was on the road. Touring extensively across the Eastern seaboard in 1967, and in 1968 to promote her debut album, Songs to a Seagull. The following year, her sophomore album Clouds would see her increase in popularity, before becoming a household name with 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon, featuring Joni’s most popular song, Big Yellow Taxi.

Feeling like she was getting famous too fast, Joni fled to Greece, a place she could be anonymous once again. When she did return (much to the delight of her manager), she had written not only her most vulnerable album, but arguably the most vulnerable album by anyone up to that point, Blue. While reception to the album was mixed, Blue has gone on to be considered one of the greatest albums ever made. Rolling Stone, who were initially critical of the album, ranked the album as #3 of the 500 greatest albums of all time. On June 22, 2021, exactly 50 years to the day of its release, Blue charted at #1 on iTunes.

After raging against the machine in the “greedy 80s” as she described them, Joni’s popularity surged into the 1990s, with a young generation of songwriters citing her influence, she won a Grammy for Best Pop Album for 1994’s Turbulent Ingo, and every publication in the world jumping onto her popularity by awarding her some form of honorary award.

Shortly after reuniting with her daughter in 1997, Joni Mitchell didn’t write another new song for a decade, instead enjoying her newfound life as a mother and grandmother. After suffering an aneurysm in 2015, it was thought Mitchell would never sing again, however, the odds were never something she paid much attention to. Mitchell returned to the stage in 2022. Ever the artist, Mitchell continues to both sing and paint to this day, and she will continue to do so until the day she dies.