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Canadian Diva
Joni’s homepage
Biography
Interviews
Music
Lyrics
The Early Years Joni was born in Alberta as Roberta Joan Anderson on
November 9, 1943. She grew up in Saskatchewan, had a serious case of polio;
however, she recovered when she was nine. Joni always had an interest in music and art; took piano and art
lessons. She finished high school in 1964, played in coffee houses in
Calgary, then moved to Toronto to pursue a career as a folksinger, where she had to struggle and support herself by working at Simpsons-Sears.
Joni had a baby girl in 1965, gave her up for adoption, then married folk singer Chuck Mitchell.
She separated from Mitchell in 1967, then headed out to seek her fortune in New York.
The Joni Mitchell Album was followed by Clouds in 1969.
Joni – the early years
• Interview 2003 - “Joni enters onto the "bad girls' trail”
CLOUDS(You can listen to excerpts from the album, “Clouds”,
including “Both Sides, Now”)
“I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all”
Joni Mitchell &
Graham Nash
• Interview 2003 - Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell "get on"
Graham Nash
David Crosby
Stephen Stills
Joni goes to California to hang out and has affairs with David Crosby and Graham Nash - two members of the band - “Crosby, Stills, and Nash”.
While Joni is starting to publish her recordings, the Sixties happen - the “Summer of Love” in 1967 and the “Woodstock Festival” in 1969.
Young people everywhere are disenchanted with the war in Vietnam and ‘Peace and Love’ are the slogans of the day.
Five hundred thousand people show up to the music festival; astonishingly, it proves to be three days of Peace and Music, as promised.
Joni writes the song, “Woodstock”.
The Sixties
Jimi Hendrix
Woodstock 1969
Joni captures the spirit of Woodstock
• Interview 2003 - Joni captures the spirit of Woodstock!
By the time we got to WoodstockWe were half a million strongAnd everywhere there was song and celebrationAnd I dreamed I saw the bombersRiding shotgun in the skyAnd they were turning into butterflies Above our nation...
We are stardust, billion year old carbonWe are golden, caught in the devil’s bargain
And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden
A L B U M S Clouds Ladies of
the Canyon Blue
Court and SparkThe Hissing of Summer LawnsTurbulent Indigo
The Success Years
Joni continues making albums, getting Grammies, and going “gold" in the sales of her records.
She buys a house in Bel Air, California, where she still resides.
She experiments with jazz and releases Mingus. Joni puts on shows featuring her own art work. In 1982, Joni marries bass player Larry Klein. She separates from Klein in 1993. In 1997, she reunites with the daughter she gave
up for adoption. Travelogue, a compilation of earlier songs is
released in 2002.
Mingus1979
Shadows and Light1980
Dog Eat Dog1985
Court and Spark1992
Turbulent Indigo1994
Hits1996
Taming the Tiger1998
Dog Eat Dog
1985 Crazy Crow Music
“Land of snap decisions
Land of short attention spans
Nothing is savoured
Long enough to really understand
In every culture in decline
The watchful ones among the slaves
Know all that’s genuine will be
Scorned and conned and cast away
Dog eat dog…”
Joni Mitchell - Dog Eat Dog.mp3
The Definitive Biography!
Shadows and Light
Watch Joni’s video, “How Do You Stop”, from her 1994
album: Turbulent Indigo.(You must search for her video on this site.)