A journey through Canadian Singer-Songwriter Joni Mitchell's Music
This week, the Kennedy Center Honors, presented by US President Joe Biden, were awarded to recipients in the performing arts whose achievements are recognised as highly influential in the United States. Five honours were awarded, including Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell and Lorne Michaels, producer of Saturday Night Live.
With this revisit of tradition, we take a look at Joni Mitchell's colourful career and music that has touched the lives of so many in Canada, the UK and beyond. A 9-time Grammy winner and inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Joni is a creative force to be reckoned with and has changed the face of music more than once with her unique sounds. Her humble beginnings in Saskatchewan, singing covers at nightclubs, led her to eventually demonstrate her song-writing prowess, leading her to be continually named one of the best songwriters of recorded music.
From folksy beginnings to tunes that called upon distinct jazz influences, Joni's evolution through music is as varied as the growth that a person goes through in the best-lived lives. Take a walk with us through the storied songs and soulful melodies of this great Canadian artist as we celebrate her many achievements.
Day After Day
One of her earlier recordings that she has since called her “firstborn”, this unassuming masterpiece in minor key melody set the stage for the career that was to come. Its pared-back guitar and haunting vocals evoke a tale of melancholia and loss, universal feelings that are easily relatable today.
River
Is there a sweeter or sadder song for this time of year? River was written for her critically acclaimed album entitled Blue and features her talents on piano. Since its release in 1971, it has been covered by over 400 artists from varying genres, coming in at her second-most covered song. Still, even with all the versions that came after, there is something beautiful about the original that covers simply can't match.
Big Yellow Taxi
Released in Joni’s studio album Ladies of the Canyon, Big Yellow Taxi is notable for its environmental angle, with the opening line “They paved paradise to put up a parking lot” jumping immediately into the criticism of the commercialisation of space in nature and positioning the track in opposition to globalisation and industrialisation.
Chelsea Morning
Inspired by Joni’s apartment in Chelsea, New York, this upbeat track creates a vivid scenery which recalls her previous training in painting and reminds us of how a work of art can come into being from a single delicious moment where light pours in like butterscotch.
Both Sides Now
Who can forget that iconic scene in Love, Actually where Emma Thompson’s character buries her swelling emotions triggered by a betrayal as Both Sides Now plays in the background? Heartwrenching and tragic in this moment yet with a dreamy quality that speaks to tender vulnerability, it was initially recorded by Judy Collins before appearing on her studio album Clouds. The song was written after Joni read a passage in Saul Bellow’s “Henderson the Rain King” whilst on a plane, where the main character was also on a plane.