“What you are about to read is not your average account of the life and work of Joni Mitchell,” writes longtime music critic Ann Powers in the introduction to her new book, “Traveling: The Story of Joni Mitchell,” out Tuesday (Death Street Books). “Instead, it is the story of a long journey through a life that changed popular music. It is the story of a homesick wanderer forging ahead on a path of her own making, as I follow in her footsteps and toward the sound of her voice.”
Mitchell’s rebellious spirit infuses her groundbreaking biography of Powers, as she interweaves her own story with that of the iconic 80-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, whose work includes beloved songs like “Both Sides Now” and “The Circle Game” as well as groundbreaking albums like “Blue,” “Court and Spark” and “Hejira.”
Breakthrough albums such as 1971’s “Blue” helped cement Mitchell’s status as one of the most distinctively voiced singers of her generation.
The Canadian-born artist began her career as a folk singer in Toronto and helped launch the confessional singer-songwriter movement in the ’70s. Powers seems to bleed onto the page as he describes his process of unravelling the complexities of Mitchell and her vast, ever-evolving body of work.
“She’s a giant and a monument,” Powers says of the subject she has been researching for the past seven years. “Writing about her is very difficult and complicated. I wanted to, in a way, free her from her own legend and place Joni’s work and life within historical moments and stages of her development as an artist.”
As a young man, Mitchell performed with a wide range of musicians, including Stevie Wonder.
Some consider Mitchell, like singer Judy Collins, the “Queen of Laurel Canyon,” but it was in New York in 1967 that Mitchell really got her footing. It was there that she met Collins, whose covers garnered early praise. “Joni was so inspired by the hustle and bustle of New York,” Powers told The Post from her home in Nashville. “There she learned to create characters and scenes, to write songs that weren’t about emotion or predicaments.” On songs like “Chelsea Morning” and “Tin Angel,” Mitchell “captured the hustle and bustle of the city,” Powers says. “New York opened up her rhythm. She felt it in the pulse of the city. You can hear it in her music.”
And so, in August 1969, in a New York hotel room, Mitchell wrote what would become the theme song to the legendary Woodstock festival in upstate New York. Though she was scheduled to appear on “The Dick Cavett Show,” she was persuaded to miss the three-day gathering, instead watching TV news coverage. Friends Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young recorded her heartfelt rendition of “Woodstock” for the end credits of the Oscar-winning documentary about the festival. “I think her sense of distance is what makes the song so great,” says Powers. “Joni was so removed from the experience that she had to mythologize it, make it into an allegory. And, of course, the song’s placement in the film cemented its central role.”
Mitchell’s love of New York resurfaced in the late 1970s, when she immersed herself in the city’s jazz scene, collaborating with Charles Mingus, Wayne Shorter, Don Alias, Jaco Pastorius, and Latin musicians. “When I was doing jazz, I was listening to so many different kinds of music, even when I was walking down the street. In songs like ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,’ for which she wrote lyrics to a Mingus tune, she sings about meeting street musicians and the serendipitous magic of New York.”
Noted pop music writer Ann Powers. Emily Allen
Throughout Traveling, Powers critiques certain artistic decisions by Mitchell that she considers missteps and, in some cases, cultural appropriation. “As a fan, critic and chronicler, I tried to understand how to respond to aspects of her history and of myself that deserve criticism,” Powers says, highlighting the cover of her 1977 album Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, which features Mitchell as a black man in makeup and an Afro wig. “I thought back on how we tend to give a lot of space to our most beloved icons. There are similar moments in the careers of Madonna and Bob Dylan, where choices they made deserve criticism.”
At the same time, Powers’ goal as an author was to “reveal Joni as a technological innovator in the studio, highlighting her early experimentation with tape loops and synthesizers. In the 1970s, she was influenced by Stevie Wonder and R&B and was interested in incorporating new sounds into her music.”
Joni Mitchell gained early acclaim singing covers of songs by Judy Collins (left). Corbis via Getty Images Mitchell’s album Clouds strongly reflects her years in New York.
Powers said of her subjects’ reactions to her evaluation: “If Joni reads the book, I hope she knows that I have so much respect for her unbridled creativity. I am in awe of her will, drive and curiosity. By providing such an eclectic and diverse portrait of her that reveals her many journeys, I hope she will take to heart Joni’s determination to never remain one person. As she changed and grew, her music changed as part of her own evolution, and I admire that so much.”
