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Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell
An illuminating portrait of one of Canada's most brilliant and defiant musical icons.
From the moment Joni Mitchell's career began with coffee-house bookings, serendipitous encounters with established stars, and a recording contract that gave her full creative control over her music, the woman from the Canadian wheat fields has eluded industry cliches. When her peers were focused on feminism, Mitchell was plumbing the depths of her own human condition. When arena rock was king, she turned to jazz. When all others hailed Bob Dylan as a musical messiah, Mitchell saw a fraud burdened with halitosis. Unafraid to "write in her own blood," regardless of the cost, Mitchell has been vilified as a diva and embraced as a genius, but rarely has she been recognized as an artist and a thinker.
This new portrait of the reclusive icon examines how significant life events;failed relationships, the surrender of her infant daughter, debilitating sicknes have influenced her creative expression. Katherine Monk captures the rich legacy of her multifaceted subject in this offbeat account, weaving in personal reflections and astute cultural observations, and revealing the Mitchell who remains misunderstood.
From the moment Joni Mitchell's career began with coffee-house bookings, serendipitous encounters with established stars, and a recording contract that gave her full creative control over her music, the woman from the Canadian wheat fields has eluded industry cliches. When her peers were focused on feminism, Mitchell was plumbing the depths of her own human condition. When arena rock was king, she turned to jazz. When all others hailed Bob Dylan as a musical messiah, Mitchell saw a fraud burdened with halitosis. Unafraid to "write in her own blood," regardless of the cost, Mitchell has been vilified as a diva and embraced as a genius, but rarely has she been recognized as an artist and a thinker.
This new portrait of the reclusive icon examines how significant life events;failed relationships, the surrender of her infant daughter, debilitating sicknes have influenced her creative expression. Katherine Monk captures the rich legacy of her multifaceted subject in this offbeat account, weaving in personal reflections and astute cultural observations, and revealing the Mitchell who remains misunderstood.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
32 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 12, 2012
Rock star biographies don't usually require the reader to brush up on their knowledge of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, but Katherine Monk's book is subtitled "The Creative Odyssey of Joni MItchell" and the author is serious about finding the source and inspiration behind the iconic folk singer's creative drive. The result is a very thoughtful and very insightful book that takes the time to muse about the creative process and the internal conflicts it, by necessity, spawns. Yes, there is plenty about Mitchell's many past lovers but equal time is given to how all these liaisons and relationships continued to shape and propel Mitchell forward on her eternal quest for creative freedom and evolution. Mitchell was a tough cookie who retained total control over her output, even to her album covers which frequently featured her own artwork. She was an original whose path crossed some of the highest profile singer/songwriters of her time. Today's "star maker machinery" would likely not tolerate an original like Joni Mitchell.
July 4, 2014
An okay biography with not nearly enough about the first six albums. Not much of anything new, though. I wouldn't call it a rehash, but it wasn't exactly groundbreaking either. For the time being I'm going to pass on these interchangeable Joni books and wait for the epic many volumed autobiography to be written and released.
August 22, 2013
Katherine Monk has produced one of the more readable 'Joni' books - that she accomplished this herculean task without having interviewed the lady is somewhat ... icky? Still, of all the 'Joni' books - and I have read them all - this is the one I enjoyed the most.
Why then,you might ask,only 3 stars? Well, for the simple reason that Monk did not interview Joni. And because I am looking for a book that doesn't just state the facts. I want to KNOW the woman. I want to know how she felt the first time she kissed Blue. Met Kilauren. Gave up Kelly. Touched J.T.. I want to know her heart & soul & perhaps that makes me a little icky but there you go.
And Joni? If you ever read this, please write that autobiography!
Why then,you might ask,only 3 stars? Well, for the simple reason that Monk did not interview Joni. And because I am looking for a book that doesn't just state the facts. I want to KNOW the woman. I want to know how she felt the first time she kissed Blue. Met Kilauren. Gave up Kelly. Touched J.T.. I want to know her heart & soul & perhaps that makes me a little icky but there you go.
And Joni? If you ever read this, please write that autobiography!
February 26, 2013
Huge Joni fan and read most of book while listening to her music. Believe that Blue and Court/Spark are masterpieces and this book was filled with insights on Joni's loves, politics, art and philosophy. I agree with this statement- a family, a casserole, a painting, a song - we are all here to make something.
April 19, 2013
I've been a fan of Joni's music all my life. This book was very personal -- as personal as Joni will allow you to get. She is a very private person, and this book opened the door with a few vignettes and stories that give a hint of Joni's own story. I truly enjoyed it.
September 13, 2014
I was really excited to see this in the Biography section of my local library. I was definitely disappointed. It was more a strange psychoanalysis of Joni by someone who has never met her, based only on her lyrics and interviews that other people had done with her. It also contained way more theory from psychologists and philosophers than I was expecting in a Joni Mitchell biography: it was more Jung than Young.
Through the Introduction and Acknowledgements, it becomes clear that the author, Katherine Monk, would really not have been interested to write a Joni Mitchell biography on her own--it was an assignment. I'm sure this happens, but it seems like Monk's only credentials for writing a Joni biography are that she's a writer and she's Canadian. She makes some strange remarks about being Canadian, such as saying that Joni has large Canadian teeth. I'm not really sure how that's a Canadian trait.
I enjoyed that the book gave background information on some of my favorite Joni songs, and I found myself going back to listen to some tracks with a new perspective, which was the best part about reading the book. Monk also gained some credibility with me when she mentioned that "A Case of You" is her favorite Joni song, because it's my favorite, to.
Monk has some original thoughts and backs them up with information from Joni's work or interviews, but it reads more like a really long undergrad paper than an engaging biography. It felt more like a discussion of Nietzsche with a little Joni thrown in!
Through the Introduction and Acknowledgements, it becomes clear that the author, Katherine Monk, would really not have been interested to write a Joni Mitchell biography on her own--it was an assignment. I'm sure this happens, but it seems like Monk's only credentials for writing a Joni biography are that she's a writer and she's Canadian. She makes some strange remarks about being Canadian, such as saying that Joni has large Canadian teeth. I'm not really sure how that's a Canadian trait.
I enjoyed that the book gave background information on some of my favorite Joni songs, and I found myself going back to listen to some tracks with a new perspective, which was the best part about reading the book. Monk also gained some credibility with me when she mentioned that "A Case of You" is her favorite Joni song, because it's my favorite, to.
Monk has some original thoughts and backs them up with information from Joni's work or interviews, but it reads more like a really long undergrad paper than an engaging biography. It felt more like a discussion of Nietzsche with a little Joni thrown in!
January 10, 2013
Probably closer to a 3.5 rating if that were an option. The book is Monk's attempt, as subtitle suggests, to deconstruct Mitchell's artistic impulse. We learn about her bout with polio, her transition from Joan Anderson to Joni Mitchell, and her relationships with a succession of '70s icons from Bob Dylan to Jackson Brown to David Crosby to Graham Nash to Leonard Cohen to James Taylor.
Monk traces Mitchell's evolution as a singer/songwriter with an emphasis on the artist's philosophical underpinnings, which include a heavy dose of Nietzche. Freud, Jung and Maslow also enter into the mix, which at times -- especially near the beginning of the book -- borders on psychobabble.
In the end Joni reads like a sincere homage by a young but serious fan. Monk's analysis might get a bit pedantic at times, but it is a thorough and fairly exhaustive examination of the life and times of a true rock icon. Mitchell has always remained true to herself, and Monk's biography recognizes and applauds that fact.
Monk traces Mitchell's evolution as a singer/songwriter with an emphasis on the artist's philosophical underpinnings, which include a heavy dose of Nietzche. Freud, Jung and Maslow also enter into the mix, which at times -- especially near the beginning of the book -- borders on psychobabble.
In the end Joni reads like a sincere homage by a young but serious fan. Monk's analysis might get a bit pedantic at times, but it is a thorough and fairly exhaustive examination of the life and times of a true rock icon. Mitchell has always remained true to herself, and Monk's biography recognizes and applauds that fact.
July 24, 2019
My 1 star rating is really not fair because I read so little of this book. The author's 11 pg introduction is the longest I recall reading in recent memory and it wasn't until I began to read it that I realized that the book was written with no direct involvement or communication from Ms Mitchell. I began skimming very early into the book and abandoned it somewhere past the 1/2 way point. From that limited experience, my impression is that it's very wordy, it seems to bring many things that have little to do Mitchell, and it is largely the author's opinions on the artist and the overall subject.
December 26, 2013
Oh, why was this ever written? By her own account Monk was not a fan, and knew little about Joni Mitchell. She had to look for an "angle". She had no access to Mitchell, or "her people" (which partly explains why her research is limited to older biographies, interviews and the odd youtube clip). The angle that Monk finally found is deeply routed in the psychobabble which runs through this fairly dire book. Unless Nietzsche, Jung and Freud are your thing, I'd avoid this book. Maybe, not even then...
November 15, 2012
A beautiful critical look at what it means to be an artist and creator, through the lens of Joni Mitchell's fascinating life. All artists (musicians, writers, painters, you name it) should read, as should all folk music fans.
November 8, 2014
It's rare that I read a book on Joni Mitchell and learn something new. Monk hits the biographical highlights but spends more time on the philosophy and spirituality that have influenced Mitchell's work.
July 1, 2014
This is a must read for all those who have followed Joni Mitchell's creative path. Her creative genius is inspirational and mystifying.
June 19, 2017
The author makes some interesting connections, but the book reads like a graduate thesis lacking a critical eye.
May 5, 2022
One of the things I love about pop-culture critical writing is that sometimes it can make you care about an artist or genre or piece of art that you may have neglected or even disparaged throughout your life prior to reading. For me, Joni Mitchell is an artist with whom I'm relatively unfamiliar. I know the big hits ("Big Yellow Taxi," "Both Sides Now"), but I wouldn't say I'm really into her other work, just by virtue of never really being interested in it. But I found this book at a local Goodwill and decided to give it a try because it seemed to offer an intriguing premise.
"Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell," by Katherine Monk, offers a unique critical evaluation of the singer-songwriter and her work and life, while making connections between Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and (surprisingly) Friedrich Nietzsche on how each has influenced Mitchell either personally or creatively. Mitchell emerges as a unique artist whose muse has led her to create some evocative music and artwork over the years, and secure her place as a major artist in the music world. Monk, a Canadian writer and journalist, does a great job of covering Mitchell's artistic development, stemming in no small part from the trauma of contracting polio when she was a girl and surviving what could've been a death sentence. Mitchell rebounded from her bout with illness to express herself in song, and she has continued to create in her own individual way over the course of a career that has lasted some fifty years.
Monk writes about Mitchell's life, not as in-depth as a more conventional biography might but revealing the connections between her personal life and her art (the many romances she's had, the daughter she gave up for adoption, the feuds with Dylan and "Rolling Stone" magazine, etc.). Through it all, Mitchell emerges as a force to be reckoned with, and a creative voice unbound from the demands of popular culture to bend to the whims of public fashion. Monk uses Mitchell's artistic journey to illustrate an essential aspect of humanity: our desire and need to create separates us from the other creatures of the earth.
"Joni" helped me to see why Joni Mitchell matters in the story of popular music, in a way that I hadn't considered before. And that's really something that makes this book worth reading, whether you're a Joni super-fan or someone who's only heard "Big Yellow Taxi" on the radio. Because Katherine Monk will make you care about Mitchell's work and life in a way that you may not have considered before.
"Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell," by Katherine Monk, offers a unique critical evaluation of the singer-songwriter and her work and life, while making connections between Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and (surprisingly) Friedrich Nietzsche on how each has influenced Mitchell either personally or creatively. Mitchell emerges as a unique artist whose muse has led her to create some evocative music and artwork over the years, and secure her place as a major artist in the music world. Monk, a Canadian writer and journalist, does a great job of covering Mitchell's artistic development, stemming in no small part from the trauma of contracting polio when she was a girl and surviving what could've been a death sentence. Mitchell rebounded from her bout with illness to express herself in song, and she has continued to create in her own individual way over the course of a career that has lasted some fifty years.
Monk writes about Mitchell's life, not as in-depth as a more conventional biography might but revealing the connections between her personal life and her art (the many romances she's had, the daughter she gave up for adoption, the feuds with Dylan and "Rolling Stone" magazine, etc.). Through it all, Mitchell emerges as a force to be reckoned with, and a creative voice unbound from the demands of popular culture to bend to the whims of public fashion. Monk uses Mitchell's artistic journey to illustrate an essential aspect of humanity: our desire and need to create separates us from the other creatures of the earth.
"Joni" helped me to see why Joni Mitchell matters in the story of popular music, in a way that I hadn't considered before. And that's really something that makes this book worth reading, whether you're a Joni super-fan or someone who's only heard "Big Yellow Taxi" on the radio. Because Katherine Monk will make you care about Mitchell's work and life in a way that you may not have considered before.
November 3, 2014
"She was more of an artist-astronaut, extracting the ore of human meaning from the act of personal creation." (p.xiii)
"...piloted by her own craft." (p.xiv)
"Nietzsche believed that to be a fully realized human being, one must overcome oneself: unchain the creator within, even if that means bulldozing the walls of institutional thinking." (p.xvi)
"The tougher things get, the less art seems to matter. And yet, at a time when the local entrepreneurial spirit has been steamrolled by offshore manufacturing, franchise shopping, and endless remakes of old movies, the creative impulse may well represent our best chance at a better tomorrow." (p.xviii)
"...she consumated a long-gestating belief that she had to use her yin and her yang." (p.5)
"...it's a reflection of the un-gendered creative soul that can accomodate both male and female energy- what Jung called the anima/animus dynamic- as well as the magic of the creative impulse." (p.6)
"This fearlessness could have come from a sudden revelation that forced her to rebel against her old familiar sense of self." (p.14)
"In Canada, it's best to keep quiet about your suspicions of personal greatness, because most of us find it distasteful." (p.15)
"I'm a little afraid of women...In my observation, what passes for feminine camaraderie is conspiracy." (p.19)
"...the crippling effects of imposter syndrome tend to affect women because female talent isn't reinforced in our society. Men feel entitled and deserving of their success, even if they score much lower in ability than a woman with low self esteem." (p.23)
"I do believe there's a significant connection between the creative creature and the collective unconscious, and this renders artists a brand of alien because they can see, hear, and feel things the rest of us cannot. They live in an alternate universe, where they can find the creative distance required for truly original thought." (p.42)
"An artist is born. They're born with an artistic attitude. They're born to be the axe for the frozen sea within us. They're born to be in conflict; they're born to be an alien and an outsider." (p.43)
"...if artists are doing their job well, they are the antennae of the planet- and they should be more sensitive to change, and by their very nature and predilection and interest should wade in where others fear to tread." (p.46)
"...most changes that are deep and profound aren't all that visible from the outside unless you're looking for them." (p.50)
"Reconciling the needs of art and commerce is probably the single biggest problem facing any artist." (p.104)
"...if you're watching yourself over your own shoulder all of the time, and if you're too critical of what you're doing; you can make yourself so unhappy. As a human, you're always messing up, always hurting people's feelings quite innocently." (p.113)
"I don't think of this as a career, it's more like a journey." (p.126)
"...she needed to get naked and crucify her own celebrity so people could see her humanity. It worked, but it involved suffering." (p.130)
"You wouldn't want to go around like that. To survive in the world you've got to have defenses...but they are in themselves a kind of pretension...everything became kind of transparent. I could see myself so clearly. And I saw others so clearly that I couldn't be around people." (p.131)
"I was so thin-skinned. Just all nerve endings. As a result, there was no capability to fake. The things that people love now- attitude and artifice and posturing- there was no ability to do those things." (p.131)
"Entering the chaos of formlessness and letting go can be frightening. Order, structure or form for experience thus needs to emerge organically out of playful experimentation." (p.134)
"...the writing process is fantastic psychotherapy- if you can survive"(p.135)
"As an artist, the human being can be both creation and creator-thawing the fluid life force of the creative impulse and giving us a new sense of personal control through free will." (p.137)
"...'inspiration' comes from inspirare, which is latin for 'breathe'- the basic autonomic function for being alive." (p.138)
"Original thinkers are always the enemy." (p.172)
"Mitchell was transformed by the idea of the penitent poet who sees his art as part of his larger creative purpose, whether it's embraced by the masses or not." (p.188)
"Romantic love tears off the clothes of intellect and forces us to rub up against the Other and, in doing so, understand ourselves a little bit better." (p.194)
"(The sexual act) reminds us that we are physical and, as such, mortal." (p.194)
"...she seems to assume an almost voyeuristic role in romance as a way of maintaining a safe distance, as well as a critical perspective. Like many women, she's used sex as a tool- even a machete." (p.195)
"I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world, and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy." (p.202)
"A good piece of art would be androgynous." (p.209)
"The downside of sensitivity is that when you get stuck on a topic, you can't get off it- it's another quality that artistic an autistic people share." (p.222)
"...piloted by her own craft." (p.xiv)
"Nietzsche believed that to be a fully realized human being, one must overcome oneself: unchain the creator within, even if that means bulldozing the walls of institutional thinking." (p.xvi)
"The tougher things get, the less art seems to matter. And yet, at a time when the local entrepreneurial spirit has been steamrolled by offshore manufacturing, franchise shopping, and endless remakes of old movies, the creative impulse may well represent our best chance at a better tomorrow." (p.xviii)
"...she consumated a long-gestating belief that she had to use her yin and her yang." (p.5)
"...it's a reflection of the un-gendered creative soul that can accomodate both male and female energy- what Jung called the anima/animus dynamic- as well as the magic of the creative impulse." (p.6)
"This fearlessness could have come from a sudden revelation that forced her to rebel against her old familiar sense of self." (p.14)
"In Canada, it's best to keep quiet about your suspicions of personal greatness, because most of us find it distasteful." (p.15)
"I'm a little afraid of women...In my observation, what passes for feminine camaraderie is conspiracy." (p.19)
"...the crippling effects of imposter syndrome tend to affect women because female talent isn't reinforced in our society. Men feel entitled and deserving of their success, even if they score much lower in ability than a woman with low self esteem." (p.23)
"I do believe there's a significant connection between the creative creature and the collective unconscious, and this renders artists a brand of alien because they can see, hear, and feel things the rest of us cannot. They live in an alternate universe, where they can find the creative distance required for truly original thought." (p.42)
"An artist is born. They're born with an artistic attitude. They're born to be the axe for the frozen sea within us. They're born to be in conflict; they're born to be an alien and an outsider." (p.43)
"...if artists are doing their job well, they are the antennae of the planet- and they should be more sensitive to change, and by their very nature and predilection and interest should wade in where others fear to tread." (p.46)
"...most changes that are deep and profound aren't all that visible from the outside unless you're looking for them." (p.50)
"Reconciling the needs of art and commerce is probably the single biggest problem facing any artist." (p.104)
"...if you're watching yourself over your own shoulder all of the time, and if you're too critical of what you're doing; you can make yourself so unhappy. As a human, you're always messing up, always hurting people's feelings quite innocently." (p.113)
"I don't think of this as a career, it's more like a journey." (p.126)
"...she needed to get naked and crucify her own celebrity so people could see her humanity. It worked, but it involved suffering." (p.130)
"You wouldn't want to go around like that. To survive in the world you've got to have defenses...but they are in themselves a kind of pretension...everything became kind of transparent. I could see myself so clearly. And I saw others so clearly that I couldn't be around people." (p.131)
"I was so thin-skinned. Just all nerve endings. As a result, there was no capability to fake. The things that people love now- attitude and artifice and posturing- there was no ability to do those things." (p.131)
"Entering the chaos of formlessness and letting go can be frightening. Order, structure or form for experience thus needs to emerge organically out of playful experimentation." (p.134)
"...the writing process is fantastic psychotherapy- if you can survive"(p.135)
"As an artist, the human being can be both creation and creator-thawing the fluid life force of the creative impulse and giving us a new sense of personal control through free will." (p.137)
"...'inspiration' comes from inspirare, which is latin for 'breathe'- the basic autonomic function for being alive." (p.138)
"Original thinkers are always the enemy." (p.172)
"Mitchell was transformed by the idea of the penitent poet who sees his art as part of his larger creative purpose, whether it's embraced by the masses or not." (p.188)
"Romantic love tears off the clothes of intellect and forces us to rub up against the Other and, in doing so, understand ourselves a little bit better." (p.194)
"(The sexual act) reminds us that we are physical and, as such, mortal." (p.194)
"...she seems to assume an almost voyeuristic role in romance as a way of maintaining a safe distance, as well as a critical perspective. Like many women, she's used sex as a tool- even a machete." (p.195)
"I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world, and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy." (p.202)
"A good piece of art would be androgynous." (p.209)
"The downside of sensitivity is that when you get stuck on a topic, you can't get off it- it's another quality that artistic an autistic people share." (p.222)
January 15, 2024
JONI MITCHELL STAN TIL THE DAY I DIE. Incredible writing by Katherine Monk
March 15, 2013
JONI - Katherine Monk
The creative odyssey of Joni Mitchell
by Katherine Monk
JONI
A BOOK REVIEW
Roberta Joan Anderson a Canadian, born November 7, 1943. From childhood, a special child.
I was never a big fan of Joni Mitchell.
Growing up she wanted to play boys games, cowboys. A real tom-boy. Always wanted to be the star performer, the male lead and was always denied by the boys who told her she could only be Dale Evans. And that Dale stayed home and cooked. She wouldn't play. Her father preferring he had a boy, taught her boy things, she never trusted women.
Not that she was a lesbian. No. She became the ideal image of a woman. The new found freedom that was budding during the hippy era, along with black lib and gay lib. A new kind of woman was emerging. It was time for the women's liberation movement, and the new drug culture that ensued.
She became pregnant and gave the baby up at birth, for adoption. To be reunited later in her life, Kelly Dale.
Later, she took her name from a man in a brief marriage. Chuck Mitchell. She became pregnant again with her second husband Larry Klein but she miscarried.
She impersonated a black man at a party once in rebellion. An identity crisis. She felt like a white woman in a black mans body. Entirely incorrect for a white person at the time to impersonate a black man. Releasing her creative and artistic style.
Her weird relationships with Neil Young, Polio, Carl Jung and philosophy, Nietzsche, UFO's. Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty became her drinking buddies. They dated. The LA scene. Bob Dylan, her love hate relationship with Leonard Cohen.
Meeting David Crosby, from the defunct Byrd's,
David Crosby who discovered her raw talent, and became her producer. Molding her into the success she became. Luckily, she held full control over all her artisitic endeavours.
She was slightly off key in her music which caused tension amongst other band members. She invented a music language all her own, inverting the natural order of the scale with over fifty different toning schemes. Emotionally stimulating.
I'm lost on that subject but maybe, this was the reason that I had a distaste for her music from the very beginning, who knows?
Woodstock the festival, that she never attended, the famous song she wrote about it.
After she leaves Hollywood and the Laurel Canyon she builds a house on British Columbia's life altering sunshine coast where she says "She got back to the garden."
Katherine Monk has an easy to read style. She kept me interested from page one to page two. Her loves, her marriages, the promiscuousness, the inner control freak.
Who would have thought Joni had such depth and would be this interesting? I loved this book. I'd give it two thumbs up. I've got to check out other books about her on Amazon.com.
Great Read.
Michael Estey
The creative odyssey of Joni Mitchell
by Katherine Monk
JONI
A BOOK REVIEW
Roberta Joan Anderson a Canadian, born November 7, 1943. From childhood, a special child.
I was never a big fan of Joni Mitchell.
Growing up she wanted to play boys games, cowboys. A real tom-boy. Always wanted to be the star performer, the male lead and was always denied by the boys who told her she could only be Dale Evans. And that Dale stayed home and cooked. She wouldn't play. Her father preferring he had a boy, taught her boy things, she never trusted women.
Not that she was a lesbian. No. She became the ideal image of a woman. The new found freedom that was budding during the hippy era, along with black lib and gay lib. A new kind of woman was emerging. It was time for the women's liberation movement, and the new drug culture that ensued.
She became pregnant and gave the baby up at birth, for adoption. To be reunited later in her life, Kelly Dale.
Later, she took her name from a man in a brief marriage. Chuck Mitchell. She became pregnant again with her second husband Larry Klein but she miscarried.
She impersonated a black man at a party once in rebellion. An identity crisis. She felt like a white woman in a black mans body. Entirely incorrect for a white person at the time to impersonate a black man. Releasing her creative and artistic style.
Her weird relationships with Neil Young, Polio, Carl Jung and philosophy, Nietzsche, UFO's. Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty became her drinking buddies. They dated. The LA scene. Bob Dylan, her love hate relationship with Leonard Cohen.
Meeting David Crosby, from the defunct Byrd's,
David Crosby who discovered her raw talent, and became her producer. Molding her into the success she became. Luckily, she held full control over all her artisitic endeavours.
She was slightly off key in her music which caused tension amongst other band members. She invented a music language all her own, inverting the natural order of the scale with over fifty different toning schemes. Emotionally stimulating.
I'm lost on that subject but maybe, this was the reason that I had a distaste for her music from the very beginning, who knows?
Woodstock the festival, that she never attended, the famous song she wrote about it.
After she leaves Hollywood and the Laurel Canyon she builds a house on British Columbia's life altering sunshine coast where she says "She got back to the garden."
Katherine Monk has an easy to read style. She kept me interested from page one to page two. Her loves, her marriages, the promiscuousness, the inner control freak.
Who would have thought Joni had such depth and would be this interesting? I loved this book. I'd give it two thumbs up. I've got to check out other books about her on Amazon.com.
Great Read.
Michael Estey
January 16, 2018
This book starts out very thick and cerebral, delving into the intricacies of uniqueness and creativity. The author speaks of the travails of the artist being of this world while feeling apart from it. Her self consciousness made her feel selfish and she didn't try to deny it. She didn't feel superior, just different. She didn't spend much time trying to psychoanalyze herself, she just let it out through her music.
About a quarter of the way through, the writing becomes more balanced with the timeline of Mitchell's life and the analysis of how her life experiences affected her musical creativity. Childhood polio affected her hands in such a way that she couldn't easily play the guitar in standard tuning so she learned to in open tuning and even create her own.
About a quarter of the way through, the writing becomes more balanced with the timeline of Mitchell's life and the analysis of how her life experiences affected her musical creativity. Childhood polio affected her hands in such a way that she couldn't easily play the guitar in standard tuning so she learned to in open tuning and even create her own.
June 16, 2013
Pretentious grad-school drivel (and as far as I can tell, the author doesn't even have the excuse of being in grad school). The book is indeed about about Mitchell's "creative odyssey," primarily her influences, and most of all, about how Leonard Cohen and Nietzsche affected her being and her work. But the author goes on and on about these two, long past the point she needs to. Oddly, she does very little discussion or criticism of Mitchell's songs except to mention her unique and difficult guitar tunings. Disappointing.
July 4, 2013
As a young woman I loved Joni's music. She could verbalize my feelings and experiences in a musical poetic clear way. I crossed paths with her and a couple of her lovers. But this book wasn't what I expected it to be. I should have read the notes more closely. The author didn't even get to interview her. She relied of previous interviews and her interpretations of Joni's music and life. I have no need to finish this book.
February 13, 2016
Only interesting for the occasional stumbling over a famous 60s musical "name". I skimmed this very fast--& still felt cheated. Sort of a mediation/riff on what might have happened in JM's life...and how she MIGHT have felt about it all. JM comes across as pretty self-centered and unattractive in the quoted words from various interviews. Apparently this author never met her. A waste of time to read & I gave up.
July 18, 2017
Sometimes read more like a thesis than a biography, like when she was diving a little too deep into trying to back up her theories about Joni's music with quotes from various philosophers. She takes people to task sometimes for sounding sycophantic but glass houses, etc. A little too precious with the metaphors as well. Still, the parts about Joni's life were interesting.
November 10, 2014
Love Joni Mitchell, did not love this book.
May 5, 2017
Informative, but Joni deserves better.
March 9, 2018
I questioned a lot of this, because I felt like at times there just wasn't enough that was purely Joni and her music or really even her life. But, it was well written.
September 29, 2018
not my fave
i think i just need to hear it right from her
Joni is an enigma in the collective of Canadian pop culture
i think i just need to hear it right from her
Joni is an enigma in the collective of Canadian pop culture
April 6, 2022
I was thinking to myself if I read the word "oeuvre" one more time I'm going to scream. Also describes everything you want to know (and most things you don't want to know) about Friedrich Nietzsche. This book has a lot of flowery, pretentious prose that lacks punch. Joni herself refused to be interviewed for it.
April 30, 2023
I really enjoyed this book that goes into the ideas behind the Joni's work. Rather than fan fiction and gossip, this book charts the life by way of the ideas behind the songs and celebrates the artist and her vision. A great read. I couldn't put it down.
June 13, 2021
One of the best biographies I have read so far. It goes beyond Joni's life story, and addresses the creative process in all people throughout Joni's life stages and questionings as an artist.
Read
April 5, 2025DNF
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