The Interview: Joni Mitchell

[steve2470]

http://www.macleans.ca/society/the-interview-joni-mitchell/



In a rare and wide-ranging interview spanning 90 minutes, singer-songwriter-artist Joni Mitchell spoke from her home in Los Angeles. Her latest project, a box set called Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced, combines her experience as a Grammy-winning musician, a painter and a dance enthusiast by collecting 53 songs into four discs from 40 years of recording.

Q: You just celebrated your 71st birthday in L.A. at the Hammer Museum. Were you happy with the way the tribute went?

A: It was wonderful but now I’ve got laryngitis because I partied too hard—for three days straight.

Q: You once said it was painful to go back and relive your work. This project had you reviewing 40 years of work. Was it distressing?

more at link

[PM Martin]

1. kick

[BeyondGeography]

2. Great read

"Your music doesn't make me feel happy or young." The shit she put up with...

I saw that interview with Jian and she hated him instantly. He kept interrupting her. It looked he wanted to get to the next question on his list and wasn't listening.

Joni's one of the last adults standing. Thanks for posting.

[niyad]

3. k and r and thanks for posting. wow--to read about joni and joan on the same morning.

YAYYY.

[cilla4progress]

4. A true icon.

She got me through my college years in the 1970s! Great to see her still looking luminescent!

[hifiguy]

5. Great piece.

Seems appropriate that this and the Joan Baez article should get posted the same day. Remarkable women and remarkable artists, both.

[KT2000]

6. big thank you

for posting this.!

[azurnoir]

7. Thank you

[KingCharlemagne]

8. Her songwriting (and alternate guitar tunings) opened my ears to what artistry

song-writing could aspire to. "Free Man in Paris" is probably my favorite song of hers, followed by "Big Yellow Taxi." Thanks for posting this. Brightened my day a little.

[appalachiablue]

9. Good article. Just saw her on PBS Tavis Smiley yesterday, she contacted him for the

interview. Much about her musical production issues. She looked great in a voluminous bronze colored outfit. What a unique woman and incredible talent. Read that she's dealing with a controversial health disorder called Mongellons Syndrome. Bizarre.

[robbob]

10. I love her shadows and light concert

The whole thing is up on YouTube. Pat Methany on guitar, the legendary Jaco Pastorius on bass, late great Michael Brecker on sax. Unbelievable. Joni playing with some of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, who you can tell are happy and honoured to be sharing the stage with her.

I think it's my all time favorite live concert recording. I've watched it at least a dozen times.

[hifiguy]

17. I have or had that on video somewhere.

Being a bass guitarist my first focus was on Jaco, who somehow manages to completely tear it up while remaining in a supporting role (he was the musical director of that band), but it wasn't long before I was completely bewitched by Joni's amazing voice and songs. That was one of the best bands ever to tread the stage.

[Triana]

11. Fascinating read. Bookmarked. Thank you. n/t

[SomethingFishy]

12. Wow, threads on Joni and Joan all in one day..

I'm a swooning!

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

13. A great singer, great poet, great musician.

[cbayer]

14. The picture took me aback. It's the same thing that happens when I look in the mirror, lol.

She has been and still is my heroine. She has seen me through the best and worst of times.

Thank you so much for sharing this.

[LuvLoogie]

15. Early Joni

[LuvLoogie]

16. Best live recording of Coyote

[robbob]

26. Beg to differ

Check the live Shadows and Light concert which I posted above. I love The Band but Jaco is in a league of his own and their version of Coyote blows my mind. The harmonics interplay between Jaco and Pat is a thing of beauty.

<on edit> I believe it's the first song they do after the short introduction, so you don't have to search for it...
<on edit again> opps, sorry, first tune is "In France they kiss on main street".

[LuvLoogie]

29. Shadows and light was a great tour

but Joni Mitchell's performance of Coyote with The Band was better. I love Jaco and Pat, but I found Jaco's, admittedly tasteful, noodling to be distracting from the vocal, lyrical point of the song. Robbie's phrasing didn't step on the vocal, which I find mesmerizing on the Last Waltz version.

Joni assembled a great band for her tour; she is a great musician herself. But she is foremost a songwriter whose guitar and piano work is expert and original, but subtle.

When you do a major tour of songs encompassing the span of your carreer, however, you need to keep the audience energized for an hour and a half +. And she treated the audience by featuring Jaco, Pat et al at several points during the show.

I just feel that the Last Waltz performance had better velocity and brightness. The vocal was allowed to soar, move and sustain without feeling rushed.

[LuvLoogie]

18. Can you tell I love Joni?

[Archae]

19. Wasn't she "Joanie Phonie" in the "Lil Abner" comic strip?

I still remember the time Al Kapp got into an argument with John Lennon and Yoko Ono at their "Bed-In."

[deurbano]

20. Joan Baez, I think.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

21. That was Joan Baez.

[Archae]

23. Thanks.

I couldn't remember, nor do I remember why Kapp lampooned her.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

25. It's Al Capp and here's an example of his work.

[greatlaurel]

22. Interesting interview with a great woman. Her artisitry is superlative.

Thanks for posting.

[CreekDog]

24. Thanks for posting

I feel blessed that she influenced so much of what I grew up listening to.

[steve2470]

27. bump for pm crowd nt

[Smarmie Doofus]

28. Fascinating. But...... no video?

That's painful.

K and R anyway.

[IcyPeas]

30. Here's an interview (video) from 2013