by David Yaffe
107“picked up a copy of The New York Times”: David Geffen, ibid.
107“The boys weren’t going to”: Joni Mitchell, ibid.
108“The deprivation of not”: Dave Zimmer, Crosby, Stills & Nash: The Biography (New York: Da Capo Press, 1984), 101–102.
108“They showed up raving about it”: “Joni Mitchell Remembers the Time She Never Got to Woodstock,” MTV website, August 14, 1998, as posted on JoniMitchell.com.
110“So I stayed home in New York”: Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind.
111“By the time we got back”: Graham Nash, ibid.
111“She contributed more to people’s understanding”: David Crosby, ibid.
112“My relationship with Graham”: Cameron Crowe, “Joni Mitchell Defends Herself,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979.
112“I don’t know whether you know”: Graham Nash, interview by Terry Gross, “Graham Nash Has Wild Tales to Spare,” Fresh Air, December 25, 2013. Transcript on NPR.org.
112“It was an intense time”: Graham Nash, Woman of Heart and Mind.
113“Graham and I have been”: Joni Mitchell, ibid.
10. LADIES OF THE CANYON
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and David Crosby conducted in the years 2007, 2009, and 2015.
114“perhaps the first entry”: Don Heckman, “Ladies of the Canyon,” New York Times, April 5, 1970.
115“Sometimes a best friend”: “Footnotes to Conversation: Joni’s Introduction to the Song on October 12, 1967, at the Second Fret in Philadelphia,” JoniMitchell.com.
116“old rambling folky lyrics”: Jim Beebe, “Joni Mitchell Has Matured,” Toronto Daily Star, July 4, 1970.
116“Joni Mitchell is better able”: Geoffrey Cannon, “Heart’s Spokesman,” Guardian, April 28, 1970.
117“In 1968 we all stood”: Annie Burden, “Thoughts on the Song ‘Ladies of the Canyon’ and the Time,” JoniMitchell.com, May 4, 2008.
117“My husband, Gary, worked”: Ibid.
118“in gratitude I made her”: Trina Robbins, “Trina Talks About the Song ‘Ladies of the Canyon,’” JoniMitchell.com, April 19, 2008.
118“That is the core of the beast”: Estrella Berosini, “Estrella Talks About the Song ‘Ladies of the Canyon,’” JoniMitchell.com, March 25, 2008.
119“Hotels are rising on every hand”: William W. Yates, “Waikiki Beach Has Tidal Wave of New Visitors,” Chicago Tribune, January 10, 1960.
120“I have been hopelessly in love”: Heckman, “Ladies of the Canyon.”
11. SAND
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, David Crosby, and Ronee Blakley conducted in the years 2007, 2009, 2013, and 2015.
122“I had sworn my heart to Graham”: Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind, directed by Susan Lacy, CBC, 2003.
122“If you hold sand too tightly”: Graham Nash, Wild Tales (New York: Crown, 2013), 185.
123“Joni met us just outside of Panama”: Ibid., 182.
125“I can’t describe what Joan’s room”: Ibid., 140.
126“Free love—now we know”: “A Day in the Garden,” Entertainment Weekly Online, August 18, 1998.
12. BLUE
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and Russ Kunkel conducted in the years 2007, 2013, and 2015.
127“He wasn’t very well known”: Mark Bego, Joni Mitchell (Latham, MD: Taylor Trade, 2005), 84.
129“A constant stream of singers”: Carole King, A Natural Woman (New York: Grand Central, 2012), 209.
130“Studio C had a reddish wood Steinway”: Ibid.
131“the luxury of being able”: Malka Marom, “Self-Portrait of a Superstar,” Maclean’s, June 1974.
132“By the time of my fourth album”: Cameron Crowe, “Joni Mitchell Defends Herself,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979.
132“I lost my daughter”: Malka Marom, Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (Toronto: ECW Press, 2014), 56–57.
136“My individual psychological descent”: Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind, directed by Susan Lacy, CBC, 2003.
137“It’s taking personal responsibility for the failure”: Joni Mitchell, interview by Renee Montagne, “The Music Midnight Makes: In Conversation with Joni Mitchell,” NPR’s Morning Edition, December 9, 2014, transcript on NPR.org.
138“It is a song I’ve grieved to”: Eric R. Danton, “Beth Orton Covers Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’ for Holiday Playlist (Exclusive Premiere),” Wall Street Journal, November 5, 2014.
138“It’s such a beautiful thing”: J. Freedom Du Lac, “How a ‘Thoroughly Depressing’ Joni Mitchell Song Became a Christmas Classic,” Washington Post, December 7, 2016.
138“near perfection of her arrangements”: Peter Reilly, “Joni Mitchell Sings Her Blues,” Stereo Review, October 1971.
139“I suspect this will be the most disliked”: Don Heckman, “Pop: Jim Morrison at the End, Joni at a Crossroads,” New York Times, August 8, 1971.
13. BETWEEN BREAKDOWN AND BREAKTHROUGH
This chapter draws on an interview with Leonard Cohen conducted in 2015.
140“Love does not begin and end”: David Leeming, James Baldwin: A Biography (New York: Arcade, 2015), 2.
143“private letters that were published”: Michael Watts, “Joni Mitchell: The Public Life of a Private Property,” Sunday Times of London, April 17, 1983.
143“Otherwise,” she said in 2013: Joni Mitchell, interview by Jon Pareles, New York Times TimesTalks, YouTube video, recorded at the Luminato Festival, June 16, 2013.
143“I was demanding of myself”: Joni Mitchell, A Woman of Heart and Mind, directed by Susan Lacy, CBC, 2003.
143“some of the most beautiful”: Timothy Crouse, “Joni Mitchell: Blue,” Rolling Stone, August 5, 1971.
145“The club thing was kind of fun”: Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind.
145“Tours are like bullfighting”: Jack Hafferkamp, “Ladies and Gents, Leonard Cohen,” Rolling Stone, February 4, 1971.
147“there’s good wine in every generation”: Michelle Mercer, Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period (New York: Free Press, 2009), 104.
148“At that period of my life”: Cameron Crowe, “Joni Mitchell Defends Herself,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979.
149“A restless woman travels”: “Critics’ Choices; Albums as Mileposts in a Musical Century,” New York Times, January 3, 2000.
149“You have to have a certain grab-ability”: Joni Mitchell, “Joe Smith Interviews Joni,” November 3, 1986, JoniMitchell.com.
14. THE SUNSHINE COAST
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Tony Simon, and Leonard Cohen conducted in the years 2007, 2013, and 2015.
150“a little stone house like a monastery”: Richard Ouzounian, “Joni Mitchell Opens Up to the Star After Years Away from Spotlight,” Toronto Star, June 11, 2013.
151“She could transform a shack”: Graham Nash, Wild Tales (New York: Crown, 2013), 131.
152“I bought every psychology book”: Ouzounian, “Joni Mitchell Opens Up.”
153“It was all about his struggles”: Ibid.
154“This is a song about Beethoven”: “Judgement of the Moon and Stars,” YouTube video, from a performance recorded on May 19, 1972.
15. FOR THE ROSES
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and Russ Kunkel conducted in the years 2013 and 2015.
156“It comes from the expression”: “Footnotes to ‘For the Roses’: Joni’s Introduction to the Song at Carnegie Hall on February 23, 1972,” JoniMitchell.com.
157“I was their first racehorse”: Robert Hilburn, “Out of the Canyon,” Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1991.
157“I’m a little in awe of cities”: Hubert Saal, “The Girls—Letting Go,” Newsweek, July 14, 1969.
157“came to stay with David Geffen”: Joni Mitchell, Woman of Heart and Mind, directed by Susan Lacy, CBC, 2003.
157“We were roommates”: Mark Bego, Joni Mitchell (Latham, MD: Tay
lor Trade, 2005), 107–108.
158“At a time when so many”: Robert Hilburn, “Joni Mitchell’s New For The Roses,” Los Angeles Times, November 21, 1972.
160“Joan, how would you like to see”: Cameron Crowe, “Joni Mitchell Defends Herself,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979.
160“unique feeling that one gets”: Stephen Davis, “Joni Mitchell: For the Roses,” Rolling Stone, January 4, 1973.
161“Her voice has a far greater range”: Don Heckman, “Concert Is Given by Joni Mitchell,” New York Times, February 25, 1972.
162“For all its individuality, the rock-music”: Hubert Saal, “The Girls—Letting Go,” Newsweek, July 14, 1969.
162The Newsweek article echoed the still-new idea: Carol Hansich, “The Personal Is the Political,” February 1969, CarolHanisch.org.
163“Love’s tension is Joni Mitchell’s medium”: Davis, “Joni Mitchell: For the Roses.”
163“I kept on telling Joni”: David Geffen, Woman of Heart and Mind.
16. STAR-CROSSED
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein, and Judy Collins conducted in the years 2015 and 2017.
170“If I have to feel lonely”: Malka Marom, Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (Toronto: ECW Press, 2014), 64.
17. COURT AND SPARK: SOMETHING STRANGE HAPPENED
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Russ Kunkel, Max Bennett, Larry Carlton, and Annie Ross conducted in the years 2013, 2014, and 2015.
176“On first listening, Joni Mitchell’s”: Jon Landau, “Joni Mitchell: Court and Spark,” Rolling Stone, February 28, 1974.
178“The significance of such a quantifiably”: Sean Nelson, Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark (New York: Continuum, 2007), 16–17.
179“I always kept my goals very short”: Malka Marom, “Self-Portrait of a Superstar,” Maclean’s, June 1974.
180the premiere issue of People magazine: “The Press: People’s Premiere,” Time, March 14, 1974.
180“citing Bob Dylan as an example”: Peter Lyle, “Why Do So Many Escape Mitchell’s Web?” Guardian, September 12, 2007.
182“The music business has always been”: Joni Mitchell, interview by Brian Stewart, “Interview,” CBC Magazine, February 11, 2000.
183“about as modest as Mussolini”: Cameron Crowe, “Joni Mitchell Defends Herself,” Rolling Stone, July 26, 1979.
184“What came first? The music or the misery?”: Nick Hornby, High Fidelity (New York: Riverhead Books, 1996), 24.
188“That’s the music that I play”: Cameron Crowe, “The Durable Led Zeppelin,” Rolling Stone, March 13, 1975.
188“Later Jimmy was aglow”: Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga (New York: William Morrow, 1985), 246.
188“Prince attended one of my concerts in Minnesota”: Ethan Brown, “Influences: Joni Mitchell,” New York, May 9, 2005.
189“Before Prozac, there was you”: Globe and Mail, October 1994.
18. MILES OF AISLES
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Robben Ford, and Max Bennett conducted in the years 2013–2015.
191“I felt like having come through”: Barbara Gail Rowes, “Joni Mitchell’s Search for Satisfaction,” Circus, June 1974.
19. THE QUEEN OF QUEENS
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Robben Ford, Max Bennett, Joan Baez, Kinky Friedman, and Boyd Elder conducted in the years 2013–2015.
205“There’s nothin’ down here”: Sam Shepard, True West (New York: Samuel French, 1981), 58–59.
205“Her word maneuverings tend to verge”: Sam Shepard, The Rolling Thunder Logbook (New York: Viking Press, 1977), 122.
206“How could I compete with her?”: Chris O’Dell, Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009), 328.
207“We came here to give you love”: Les Ledbetter, “Knocking on Hurricane’s Door,” Rolling Stone, January 15, 1976.
209“I had talked to Hurricane on the phone . . . Fine”: Phil Sutcliffe, “Joni Mitchell,” Q Magazine, May 1988.
20. HEJIRA AND THE ART OF LOSING
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and Max Bennett conducted in the years 2013–2015.
219“Hejira presents the Queen of El Lay more explicitly”: Perry Meisel, “An End to Innocence: How Joni Mitchell Fails,” The Village Voice, January 1977.
21. CRAZY WISDOM
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Robben Ford, and Sharon Bell Veer conducted in the years 2013 and 2015.
225“I was introduced to Buddhism”: Malka Marom, Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (Toronto: ECW Press, 2014), 193.
226“When I asked Trungpa Rinpoche”: Pema Chödrön, “Unconditionally Steadfast,” Tricycle, Fall 1999.
231“I don’t know if it’s the best”: Joni Mitchell, interview by Jon Pareles, New York Times TimesTalks, YouTube video, recorded at the Luminato Festival, June 16, 2013.
232“He had this wide, fat swath”: Joni Mitchell, “The Life and Death of Jaco Pastorius,” Musician, December 1987.
233They became lovers in a noncommittal way: Bill Milkowski, Jaco: The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius, rev. ed. (New York: Backbeat Books, 2006), 95.
241“It was a relief”: Doug Fischer, “The Trouble She’s Seen,” Ottawa Citizen, October 8, 2006.
22. MIRRORED BALL
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Garth Hudson, and Michael Gibbs conducted in the years 2007, 2014, and 2015.
245“The road has taken”: Robbie Robertson, The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese, United Artists, 1978.
251“Five days a week I used to go up there”: Bert Cartwright, “The Mysterious Norman Raeben,” the Wayback Internet Archive.
23. DON JUAN’S RECKLESS DAUGHTER
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Chaka Khan, and Wallace Roney conducted in the years 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
257“The album offers what is”: Janet Maslin, “Joni Mitchell: Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter,” Rolling Stone, March 9, 1978.
257“So there came Halloween”: Phil Sutcliffe, “Joni Mitchell,” Q Magazine, May 1988.
24. MINGUS
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Sue Mingus, and Rafi Zabor conducted in the years 2007, 2013, 2014, and 2015.
262“was to be degenerating”: Mark Bego, Joni Mitchell (Latham, MD: Taylor Trade, 2005), 193.
270“This guy was the sweeeetest guy”: Vic Garbarini, “Joni Mitchell Is a Nervy Broad,” Musician, January 1983.
270“And we came out near a manhole”: Garbarini, “Joni Mitchell Is a Nervy Broad.”
272“There’s a guy who’s driving a Cadillac”: Gene Santoro, Myself When I Am Real: The Life and Music of Charles Mingus (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 152.
277“In other words, I am three”: Charles Mingus, Beneath the Underdog (New York: Knopf, 1971), 1.
25. NERVY BROAD
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell conducted in 2015.
279Louis Menand once floated a theory: Louis Menand, “The Iron Law of Stardom,” The New Yorker, March 24, 1997.
280“We ain’t no fucking L.A. Express”: Dave Blackburn, “A Conversation with Alex Acuna,” JoniMitchell.com, December 4, 2013.
281“I’ve heard it too often in supermarkets and elevators”: Carla Hall, “The New Joni Mitchell: The Songbird of Woodstock Soars into Jazz,” Washington Post, August 25, 1979.
282Charles Mingus had famously called her a “nervy broad”: Vic Garbarini, “Joni Mitchell Is a Nervy Broad,” Musician, January 1983.
282“Because of my wordiness”: John Ephland, “Alternate Tunings,” Down Beat, December 1996.
283“I haven’t seen a royalty check in twenty years”: Brantley Bardin, “Joni Mitchell Q and A,” Details, July 1996.
284“We’ve talked about getti
ng married”: Hall, “The New Joni Mitchell.”
284“this gauntlet called fame”: Joni Mitchell, “Canadian Music Hall of Fame Award,” YouTube video, recorded February 5, 1981.
26. WILD THINGS RUN FAST
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and Larry Klein conducted in the year 2015.
291“For my twentieth birthday”: Carla Hall, “The New Joni Mitchell: The Songbird of Woodstock Soars into Jazz,” Washington Post, August 25, 1979.
298“I called up the president”: Mick Brown, “Happy Talkin’ Joni,” Guardian, April 22, 1983.
301“I thought the words were bothering him”: John Ephland, “Alternate Tunings,” Down Beat, December 1996.
27. DOG EAT DOG
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein, Thomas Dolby, and Peter Asher conducted in the years 2007, 2013, and 2015.
28. EMERGENCY ROOMS
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein, and Peter Asher conducted in the years 2013 and 2015.
29. SAVE THE BOMBS FOR LATER
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein, and Thomas Dolby conducted in the years 2013 and 2015.
324“Well, the thing is”: David Wild, “A Conversation with Joni Mitchell,” Rolling Stone, May 30, 1991.
325“Will you listen a minute?”: “Joni Mitchell Scolding Audience at Isle of Wight Festival 1970,” YouTube video, posted by “Senor Silencio,” May 8, 2016.
332“At night we could see”: Craig MacInnis, “Joni Mitchell Fields the Silliest Questions with Humor,” Toronto Star, March 23, 1988.
30. TURBULENCE
This chapter draws on interviews with Joni Mitchell and Larry Klein conducted in the years 2014 and 2015.
336“I won a Grammy”: Mary Aikins, “Heart of a Prairie Girl,” Reader’s Digest, July 2005.
340“I finally found a story”: Wally Breese, “Biography: 1990–1995 Return to Roots,” JoniMitchell.com, January 1998.
341“This is another song that takes place”: “Cherokee Louise,” YouTube video, recorded on January 26, 1995.
344“It was abusive to employ”: Al Brumley, “Feud Takes a Public Turn,” Dallas Morning News, September 24, 1997.
