Appreciation: Joni Mitchell

Last week, on Wednesday, November 7, 2018, was the 75th birthday for the legendary songwriter and singer Joni Mitchell.

She was born Roberta Joan Anderson, on November 7, 1943, in Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada. 

I haven’t had the time to write more lengthy about Joni Mitchell. (This was much due to the elections. Timing.) Anyone can do his reading on Mitchell’s roughly 50-year career—including being in her early-20s when she wrote “Both Sides, Now”—and her personal life (including a daughter, born during the 1960s, not revealed until Mitchell was past age 50).

(I wrote and posted, this past March, on the milestone birthdays of other music greats: James Taylor, 70; Quincy Jones, 85; George Benson, 75; and Chaka Khan, 65. To some people looking at those numbers, their ages, it can feel a bit strange. But, as the passing of time shows—well, it does add up. And, so, Joni Mitchell is now 75.)


Mitchell’s career was most prominent during the late-1960s and thoughout the 1970s. She delved into more mainstream pop fare during the 1980s (Dog Eat Dog, 1985; Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm, which garnered her a 1988 Grammy nomination for Female Pop Vocal Performance for the entire LP). Mitchell’s 1990s albums Turbulent Indigo (1995 Grammy for Best Pop Album) and Taming of the Tiger (1998) were more remarkable. I did enjoy her 2002 comment, in Rolling Stone, on what had become of the music industry. While describing it as a “corrupt cesspool,” Mitchell added, “I'll be glad if the industry goes down the crapper.”

In 2008, jazz great Herbie Hancock won the 2007 Grammy for Album of the Year for River: The Joni Letters, an LP which paid tribute specifically to the songs of Mitchell. She even recorded, with Hancock, on “Tea Leaf Prophecy.” (Wikipedia mentions Mitchell shared in some credit with that Grammy: “Although officially a Herbie Hancock release, Mitchell also received a Grammy due to her vocal contribution to the album.”)


In 2015, Joni Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm. She has been mostly absent from the public. (I don’t have a feeling she will record again. But, I want to be wrong.) In the following picture, Mitchell was at the recent concert tribute in her honor. Rolling Stone reported here: Joni Mitchell at 75: Friends and Admirers Honor an Icon at Moving Tribute Show.

Below are five tracks I appreciate from the following albums: Ladies of the Canyon (1970); Blue (1971); Court and Spark (1974 Grammy nominee for Album of the Year which also included Record of the Year nominee “Help Me”); Turbulent Indigo (1995); and her stirring 2000 re-recording of “Both Sides, Now” (which nabbed her a Grammy nomination for Female Pop Vocal Performance from the album Both Sides Now).