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While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.
Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Last summer’s surprise set by Joni Mitchell at the Newport Folk Festival has been turned into a live album
Joni Mitchell
, original name
Roberta Joan Anderson
, (born November 7, 1943, Fort McLeod, Alberta, Canada), Canadian experimental
singer-songwriter
whose greatest popularity was in the 1970s. Once described as the “Yang to
Bob Dylan
’s Yin, equaling him in richness and profusion of imagery,” Mitchell, like her 1960s contemporary, turned pop music into an art form.
Mitchell studied commercial art in her native Alberta before moving to
Toronto
in 1964 and performing at local folk clubs and coffeehouses. After a brief marriage to folksinger Chuck Mitchell, she relocated to
New York City
, where in 1967 she made her
eponymous
debut album (also known as
Songs to a Seagull
). Produced by
David Crosby
, this concept album was acclaimed for the maturity of its lyrics.
With each successive release, Mitchell gained a larger following, from
Clouds
(which in 1969 won a Grammy Award for best folk performance) to the mischievous euphoria of
Ladies of the Canyon
(1970) to
Blue
(1971), which was her first million-selling album. By the early 1970s Mitchell had branched out from her acoustic base to experiment with
pop
,
rock
, and
jazz
, notably on
Court and Spark
(1974), which ultimately became her best-selling album.
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
(1975) further indicated a transition to a more complex, layered sound. Whereas earlier albums were more confessional in their subject matter,
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
, on which she satirized the role of the 1970s housewife, showed Mitchell’s movement toward social observation. Although she had a number of pop hits, especially in 1970 with “
Big Yellow Taxi” and “
Woodstock” (this
song
about
the famous festival
spawned
three hit cover versions by other artists), Mitchell’s impact was as a long-term “album artist.” With its carefully precise yet improvisational feel, her
music
is at times difficult to listen to. She does not opt for straight melody or satisfying conclusions. “My music is not designed to grab instantly. It’s designed to wear for a lifetime, to hold up like a fine cloth,” she once said.
With
Hejira
(1976) and
Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
(1977), she continued to disregard commercial considerations, while
Mingus
(1979) was considered by many as beyond the pale. An album that began as a collaboration with the jazz bassist
Charles Mingus
ended up as a treatment of his themes after his death. Mitchell moved ever further beyond her own experience, delving not only deeper into jazz but also into Black history; the album was as much a voice for the dispossessed as it was a biography of Mingus. Though fans were confused,
Mingus
remains a brave homage that does not fit neatly into either the rock or jazz
genre
.
Having proved that she could make commercially successful albums and win critical acclaim, Mitchell became a
prestige
artist. Moreover, because her songs had become hits for others, she was a source of considerable publishing revenue for her record companies. As a result, they went along with her musical experiments. After
Mingus
, however, Mitchell stood back a little from the pop world. From the beginning of her career she had illustrated her own album covers, so it was not surprising that in the 1980s she began to develop her visual art, undecided about whether to concentrate more on painting or music.
Although not as
prolific
as in the 1960s and ’70s, Mitchell continued to create penetrating imaginative music, from the Thomas Dolby-produced
Dog Eat Dog
(1985) to the more reflective
Night Ride Home
(1991) and the
Grammy Award
-winning
Turbulent Indigo
(1994). Having dealt with international political and social issues such as
Ethiopian famine
on
Dog Eat Dog
, she returned by the early 1990s to more personal subject matter—singing about true love, for instance, on
Turbulent Indigo
. Though unworried about pop chart trends, in 1997 she enjoyed major success with a new, younger audience when
Janet Jackson
sampled from Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” for the massive hit “Got ’Til It’s Gone.” In 1997 she published a new collection of her work,
Joni Mitchell: The Complete Poems and Lyrics
.
Taming the Tiger
(1998) further mined her personal life for inspiration, notably on the track “Stay in Touch,” a nod to the daughter she gave up for adoption in 1965 and with whom she reunited in 1997. She covered standards on
Both Sides Now
(2000) and reworked a wide-ranging selection of her
oeuvre
on
Travelogue
(2002). On
Shine
(2007), her first album recorded for the
Starbucks
coffee chain’s music label, she returned to themes of environmental and
social justice
. Mitchell also issued several retrospective
compilations
, including
The Beginning of Survival
(2004),
Dreamland
(2004),
Songs of a Prairie Girl
(2005), and the 53-song omnibus
Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced
(2014). Her continuing influence was shown by the release of the tribute album
Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration
(2019), on which such artists as
Chaka Khan
,
Diana Krall
,
Rufus Wainwright,
Norah Jones
,
James Taylor
, and
Emmylou Harris
performed Mitchell’s songs.
One of the first women in modern rock to achieve enviable longevity and critical recognition, Mitchell was a major inspiration to everyone from Bob Dylan and
Prince
to a later generation of female artists such as
Suzanne Vega and
Alanis Morissette
. Although she regularly
collaborated
with producers and arrangers—such as
Jaco Pastorius, Mike Gibbs, and Larry Klein—Mitchell maintained coproducer credit and always had control over her material. Her songs were covered by a range of stars, including Dylan,
Fairport Convention
,
Judy Collins
,
Johnny Cash
, and
Crosby, Stills and Nash
. Mitchell was awarded the Polar Music Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 1996, and she was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1997. In 2002 she won a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement, and two years later she was made a Companion of the Order of
Canada
. In 2021 Mitchell received a Kennedy Center Honor, and two years later she was named the recipient of the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.
