School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

Joni Mitchell

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Joni Mitchell was born in 1943 as Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort Macleod, in the Canadian province of Alberta. She is one of the most important singer-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s: she wrote her own songs, sang them herself and told of her own life in them. The music guide AllMusic called her, in 2011, perhaps the most important female artist of the late twentieth century.

Music and breakthrough

At nine she contracted polio, which weakened her left hand. She therefore devised other tunings for her guitar, which later became her trademark: when strummed open, the strings already form a chord. Her debut Song to a Seagull (1968) was produced by David Crosby. Clouds (1969) contains her own version of Both Sides Now, and Ladies of the Canyon (1970) Big Yellow Taxi and Woodstock. Blue (1971) is a sober, personal album that Rolling Stone placed at number 3 in its list of best albums in 2020. With Court and Spark (1974) she moved towards jazz. On Hejira (1976) the bassist Jaco Pastorius plays, and Mingus (1979) she made together with Charles Mingus, who died before the record was finished.

Influence

Mitchell showed that a woman in pop did not have to be only a singer, but also a writer, guitarist and arranger. Her songs were recorded by many others, such as Both Sides Now by Judy Collins and Big Yellow Taxi by Counting Crows (2002). After a ruptured brain aneurysm in 2015, she was back on a stage in 2022, at the Newport Folk Festival.

Listening

Listening tip. Mitchell wrote Big Yellow Taxi (1970) about a car park in Hawaii where green mountains had once been visible. Listen to the guitar in an open tuning: the strings sound together as a chord, and the cheerful accompaniment is at odds with the angry lyric.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Mentioned in other articles

See also

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (en): Joni Mitchell
  2. Wikipedia (en): Both Sides
  3. Wikipedia (en): Big Yellow Taxi
Categories: ArtistsSinger-songwriters