Joni

I just finished reading an excellent book about Joni Mitchell. "Will You Take Me As I Am - Joni Mitchell's Blue Period" by Michelle Mercer. The book is a fascinating examination of Joni's development as an artist, focusing mainly on the years between the recording of Blue and Hejira.

Not a straightforward biography, the book delves into the influence of landscape on music, and the topic of "confessional" songwriting, but also explores her wanderlust, and relationships with Graham Nash, Leonard Cohen, James Taylor, and Sam Shepard, among others.

So, I'm feeling slightly Joni obsessed at the moment. I've hauled out all my old albums and I've been listening to my CDs with an ear for all the new Joni information and insight that I've absorbed. This is mostly a good thing, except that Joni's highly expressive, evocative music and poetic lyrics can have such an influence on my mood.

I'd like to write an essay about Joni and what she's meant in my life, but I've got other writing I need to be doing, and anyway dwelling on Joni might just take a little too much out of me right now.

"Like her, I had a dream to fly."