Joni Mitchell

November 7th, 2012

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On this date in 1943, Roberta Joan Anderson was born in Fort Mcleod, Alberta, Canada. The budding singer-songwriter in her teens first captivated Toronto audiences with her unique folk music style. In the mid-1960s, she exported her musical talents to the U.S., where she toured extensively. Under her immortalized stage name, Joni Mitchell recorded her first album, self-titled, in 1968. The following year she won her first Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance for her legendary album “Clouds.” She won a Grammy in 1974 for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist for the song “Down to You.” Mitchell won two Grammys in 1995 for “Turbulent Indigo” (Best Pop Album and Best Album Package). Other Grammy wins include Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album in 2000 for “Both Sides,” “Now,” Best Pop Instrumental Performance in 2007 for “One Week Last Summer” and Album of the Year in 2007 for “River: The Joni Letters.” Mitchell won the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2002. Other highly acclaimed albums include “Ladies of the Canyon” (1970), “Blue” (1971), “Court and Spark” (1974), “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” (1976), “Taming the Tiger” (1998), “Dreamland” (2004) and “Songs of a Prairie Girl” (2005). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Mitchell in 1997 and the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame followed suit in 2007.

Mitchell told the Washington Post: “My mother raised me on words. Where other parents would quote from the Bible, she would quote from Shakespeare” (“Songwriting and Poetry,” by Min S. Yee, Sept. 14, 1969). Mitchell wrote these lyrics for her song, “Tax Free” (1985): “Preacher preaching love like vengeance, Preaching love like hate, Calling for large donations, Promising estates, Rolling lawns and angel bands, Behind the pearly gates, You know he will have his in this life, But yours will have to wait, He's immaculately tax free . . . ” Mitchell, who lives in Los Angeles and British Columbia, in a radio interview stated: “Not that I was an atheist, but I couldn't tell in the Old Testament God from the devil. They were both vain and violent. I couldn't get a grasp on that concept” (“Words and Music – Joni Mitchell and Morrissey,” Reprise Records, Oct. 18, 1996).

“Shine on the Catholic Church
And the prisons that it owns
Shine on all the Churches
They all love less and less

. . .

Shine on mass destruction
In some God's name!”

— Joni Mitchell lyrics to “Shine,” a song from her 2007 album of the same title

Compiled by Bonnie Gutsch - www.ffrf.org