 |
| "I want my songs to feel like a wave has taken you over and washed you up on the shore" |
My favorite musicians, like much else concerning my tastes, have changed as I've matured. If you asked me at eight I would probably answered either "The Beatles" or "Hannah Montannah,"whereas now I'd probably tell you Joni Mitchell or Taylor Swift. These two may seem like an unharmonious match (no pun intended) what with Taylor's pop sensibility and (to be blunt) lack of Joni's three octave range, they're a lot more similar than you might think. Besides the fact that Taylor herself is a Joni fan and was once cast to play her in a biopic, the likeness is a little more profound. Both are female musicians who sing confessional songs about their feelings, putting the lyrics and emotions as a priority in their works. Both of their catalogues cover a wide range of feelings- from crying songs (see "A Case of You" by Joni or "White Horse" by Taylor) to road trip anthems (see "Big Yellow Taxi" and "California" by Joni or "Blank Space" by Taylor). But I've already written my thoughts on Tay so here are the many reasons why I adore Joni Mitchell's music.
1. Joni Mitchell has a beautiful voice
Even the word "beautiful" seems to be a little too broad, or shallow to describe the quality of Joni Mitchell's sound. She has, what I would call, one of the most singular female voices ever. Its raspy and pure, reaching deep and impossibly high pitches all at the same time. This magical quality, along with her amazing range, is what makes it so hard for people to cover her work (a task which works best when applying your own style to the lyrics). Joni's words would be beautiful by themselves, I would probably read them as poems if I got the lyrics in textual form with no context, but her voice both reflects and elevates the text in such a way that I can't imagine them independent from one another.
2. Joni Mitchell writes beautiful lyrics
I want to put a Joni Mitchell lyric as my senior quote because she is so profound and amazing. Her songs are easy to sing along to, but if you take a second to look at the lyrics I promise you will be completely blown away. She's very removed in the details she speaks of about her life, the most personal she gets being names that may or may not be fictional. but so intimate in the emotional confessions and images she pulls forth. She doesn't play the victim or the accuser, she surrenders herself to the complexities of life. Some of my favorite lyrics are from "Little Green," a song written about her daughter whom she had by herself and subsequently gave away for adoption. Its on "Blue" probably her most famous, and my favorite, album.
"Call her green and the winters cannot fade her/ Call her green for the children who've made her/ Little green, be a gypsy dancer"
I mean... theres nothing else really to say. Honestly, just put on "Blue" and spend your afternoon reading her lyrics (of all the albums-- "Heijra "is another favorite of mine).
3. Her music covers a lot of ground, subject wise
Joni Mitchell doesn't just write love songs, she writes people songs, she writes songs about Amelia Airheart and songs about aging and songs about foreign countries. And maybe these are love songs underneath the other subjects, but you can read into them whatever you want. She writes songs you can sing to small children or to someone you love more romantically. With so many beautiful pieces of music to her name, you're almost guaranteed to find a song about something so specific that it hits you hard how personal it is.
4. Joni Mitchell as a person is... complicated
I've talked about her music, but not much about Joni Mitchell as a person. Unlike Taylor Swift, Joni Mitchell came to prominence in a time where her every move and viewpoint wasn't recorded and scrutinized as an extension of her work. For that reason, its easy to see her music as her personality or vice versa. There's a lot about Joni Mitchell to be questioned. If you've read her recent New York Magazine cover article you can see that her racial views are quite ignorant and she can be quite offensive to others. Again its the issue of separating an artist's work from their persona, as many have struggled with in terms of Woody Allen or John Gaultier. I don't have a definitive viewpoint on that but there are many things about Joni's life story and personality that serve as inspirational. For one, she was a female musician who constantly had to fight male influence in a very male industry. She had a child on her own, without the support of anyone. She built a career on her music, rather than her sex appeal or personal relationships. She's more than a little bit kick ass in her refusal to let anyone other than herself dictate her legacy.
To conclude, Joni Mitchell is amazing musician and an iconic person. If you haven't listened to any Joni Mitchell- go do it. Because I promise that some part of you, when you hear "Both Sides Now" or "Circle Game" will open up and cry or laugh and identify with her beautiful voice and words.
No comments:
Post a Comment