Joni Mitchell: 1968-1970 Emerging Popular Artist, 1971-1973 Confessional Poet

And lived like old Crusoe On an island of noise In a cobblestone sea And the beaches were concrete And the stars paid a light bill And the blossoms hung false

On their store window trees...

("Song to a Seagull") Joni Mitchell moved to New York City in 1967, and took up residence in the arty Chelsea district. She met Elliot Roberts in the fall and he began to manage her career, helping to open up the circuit for her in New York City. While performing at a club in Florida, Joni met ex-Byrds member David Crosby, who was quite taken with her. David was a great help in convincing the record company to agree to let Joni record a solo acoustic album without all the folk-rock overdubs that were in vogue at the time.

His clout earned him a producer's credit in March 1968, when Reprise records released

her debut album. She continued her steady touring to promote the LP, and that stimulus, in addition to the performers who were covering her songs and exposing her to bigger and bigger audiences as a major "songwriter," was causing a major buzz. At Elliot's suggestion, she moved to southern California late in 1967, and moved in with David, who became an enthusiastic promoter of Joni's and had her play at the homes of his Hollywood friends, where she got noticed by press and radio people, who in turn wrote and spoke of her talent. She played the Troubadour in L.A., getting raves from the crowds and critics; she was also a big hit in London at the Royal Festival Hall in September, and at the Miami Pop Festival on the last weekend of 1968. Accompanying her at the fest was Hollies singer-songwriter Graham Nash, whom Joni had met through their mutual friend, David Crosby. Also in December of '68, Judy Collins version of "Both Sides Now" peaked in the national music charts top ten, and brought Joni "lots of those little royalty pennies." This songwriting success helped create an eager anticipation for Joni's second LP, "Clouds", which was released in April '69. It contained Joni's own versions of songs already recorded and being performed by other artists; "Chelsea Morning,""Both Sides Now", and "Tin Angel." Joni's concert at Carnegie Hall in February, and a later show in Berkeley, CA were recorded for a live album, but the project was shelved in favor of a third LP of original studio performances.

I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all...

("Both Sides Now")

She moved to Laurel Canyon, L.A. purchasing a small house where she and Graham eventually lived together for a time with "two cats in the yard..." She made an appearance that summer on The Johnny Cash Show. The series was a U.S. summer replacement series that rated very highly on ABC-TV. Joni appeared 2 more times on Johnny's show, once more later in the first season, and once in 1971. Joni toured as the opening act for her friends Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and while at the Atlantic City Pop Festival in August, she left the stage angrily due to the inattentiveness of the large crowd. She said she'd enjoyed the intimacy of the clubs and was now finding it difficult to concentrate and perform in front of huge crowds. Joni was scheduled to perform at Woodstock on Sunday of that weekend of love, but when the traffic jams were seen by all of America on TV that Friday, her manager advised her not to go. He was concerned that she might have trouble getting back to the city in time for a major TV appearance on the Dick Cavett Show that Monday. Still, she did create the definitive chronicle of the festival with her song "Woodstock," which was a hit for C, S, and N the next year.

By the time we got to Woodstock We were half a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration And I dreamed I saw the bombers Riding shotgun in the sky And they were turning into butterflies Above our nation...

("Woodstock") She did an equinox festival at Big Sur in September, and this was filmed and released as "Celebration At Big Sur" (Joni's first film appearance). She was also set to do her "Songs To Aging Children Come" in the film version of Arlo Guthrie's song epic, "Alice's Restaurant", but when the movie producers demanded a half share of the song's publishing rights just for the privilege of appearing in their major Hollywood feature film, she refused. The song was sung in the film anyway by a look-a-like hippie girl with long blonde hair and a ringing soprano.

People hurry by so quickly Can't they hear the melodies In the chiming and the clicking And the laughing harmonies Songs to aging children come Aging children, I am one...

"Songs To Aging Children Come"

Joni won the Grammy in March 1970 for Best Folk Performance of 1969 for her album,"Clouds." Reprise released Joni's third album, "Ladies Of The Canyon" soon after. It was an instant smash on FM radio, and sold briskly thru the summer and fall, eventually becoming Joni's first gold album (500,000 copies). Reviewers and listeners began to note the confessional qualities in Joni's songs, and conjecture "who's that about?." Joni made a decision to stop touring for a year and just live and write and paint, but after a few months she was persuaded to perform at the last minute at the Isle of Wight Festival. Held in August, this festival became a financial and logistical disaster, and the audience there had strong anti-performer feelings. When a stoned-out guy that Joni knew from her months in Crete jumped on stage and took over her mic ranting about how "Desolation Row is this festival...", he had to be dragged off stage. The crowd saw him as one of their own and booed his eviction until Joni chastised them tearfully about acting like tourists and not giving the performers the respect they deserved.

Now me I play for fortune And those velvet curtain calls I've got a black limosine And two gentlemen Escorting me to the halls And I play if you have the money Or if you're a friend to me But the one man band By the quick lunch stand He was playing real good, for free...

("For Free") Joni struggled with a way to remain creative while dealing with the pressures of a career with a required touring schedule. The songs she wrote during the months she took off for travel and life experience would appear on her next album, "Blue."

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling looking for the key to set me free Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling It's the unraveling and it undoes all the joy that could be...

(All I Want - Joni Mitchell) In early 1970 Joni Mitchell decided to retire from performing, and she took time off to travel and reflect on the celebrity that she'd sought and found, but hadn't enjoyed since the first flickers of fame had approached her with a gasp in their voices. She performed at a few festivals in the summer of 1970, but did not take on a regular concert schedule for most of the year, yet was still voted Top Female Performer for 1970 by MELODY MAKER, the U.K.'s leading pop music magazine.

Joni told writer Larry LaBlanc "In January I did my last concert. I played in London and I came home. In February I finished up my record. I gave my last concert with the idea I'd take the year off, because I need new material. I need new things to say in order to perform, so there's something in it for me. You just can't sing the same songs.

"I was being isolated, starting to feel like a bird in a gilded cage. I wasn't getting a chance to meet people. A certain amount of success cuts you off in a lot of ways." She traveled throughout Europe, visiting France, Spain, and Greece. On the ancient isle of Crete she took up the dulcimer and rapidly wrote a series of songs dealing with her adventures, including "Carey" and "California". On her songwriting she said "I do a lot of night-writing. I need solitude to write. I used to be able to write under almost any condition but not anymore because I have to go inside myself so far, to search through a theme. "First of all I'll write something down and then I think: 'Oh, I like how the words sound together but it doesn't say anything.' When I finish a new song I take it and play it for my friends who are fine musicians and writers. I'm very impressed by their reaction to it. If they like it, I'm knocked out. I guess I write for those people. They're really my audience."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOKESEtmhis

"Oh, I am a lonely painter I live in a box of paints I'm fightened by the devil And I'm drawn to those that ain't afraid I remember that time you told me, you said 'Love is touching souls' Well surely you touched mine 'Cause part of you pours out of me In these lines from time to time ..."

("Case of You") In April, Joni was heard on background vocals on Carole King's masterpiece "Tapestry", and the next month she had a featured appearance on James Taylor's album, "Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon", including the number 1 single "You've Got a Friend." (written by Carole King).

The album, "Blue" was released in June 1971, but it had nearly reached the record buying public in a quite different form. In early March of 1971, the masters for the album were sent by Reprise to their record plants, and at least a few reel to reel copies of the album were recorded with a different song list. But word came down before many reels were produced that Joni had decided to recall the master tape and substitute two new songs - "All I Want" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard" - for two of the older ones. The two songs deleted were "The Urge For Going", which appeared in 1972 as the B-side to "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio", and "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)", which has yet to appear on any record. The emotionally naked songs on "Blue" were a result of Joni's wanting to shed the image of the hippie goddess she'd picked up in the past, and to be appreciated for her true self. If she was going to get this kind of rapturous attention, she felt that the reasons should be free of artifice. She says today that "At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses, so there's hardly a dishonest note in the vocals." "Blue" was an almost instant critical and commercial success, and peaked in the top 20 in the Billboard Album charts in September. Joni sold her house in Laurel Canyon, and purchased a piece of property by the water in British Columbia where she could have the privacy and quiet that could never be found in Hollywood. She stayed with her friend, David Geffen, when she was in L.A., and they became occasional roommates. She made the decision to return to the stage after the great success of "Blue" and she presented many new songs on that tour that would appear later in 1972 on "For the Roses." That LP was her first to incorporate orchestral arrangements into her evolving folk-pop sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB7lDmHRd-I

"Remember the days when you used to sit And make up your tunes for love And pour your simple sorrow To the soundhole and your knee And now you're seen On giant screens And at parties for the press And for people who have slices of you From the company..."

The U.S. tour with Jackson Browne carried on thru the spring, and in the summer before going to Europe for some performances, Joni did a few benefits for Democratic presidential candidate, George McGovern. Joni's 5th album, "FOR THE ROSES" was released in October 1972 and immediately zoomed up the charts. She followed with the single, "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio", which peaked at #25 in the Billboard charts for two weeks beginning 2/3/73, becoming her first bona fide hit single. The album was critically acclaimed with The New York Times saying "Each of Mitchell's songs on "FOR THE ROSES" is a gem glistening with her elegant way with language, her pointed splashes of irony and her perfect shaping of images. Never does Mitchell voice a thought or feeling commonly. She's a songwriter and singer of genius who can't help but make us feel we are not alone."

"I am a woman of heart and mind With time on her hands No child to raise You come to me like a little boy And I give you my scorn and my praise You think I'm like your mother Or another lover or your sister Or the queen of your dreams Or just another silly girl When love makes a fool of me..."

("Woman of Heart and Mind")

Original Text by: Wally Breese (https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2033)

Edited by: Ember Sappington

Media Collected by: Ember Sappington