A celebration of the wonders of musical genius, the 250th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a good day to contemplate my muse, Joni Mitchell (herself inspired by Mozart to begin piano at age 7).If I'm trying to start writing a poem, and creativity lags, I can put Joni on the Bose, and words will come. They can't help themselves.
The 1971 “Blue” album has been a favorite of mine for 3 decades. My favorite song, “Carey” is on this album. "The wind is in from Africa . . ." -- oh melt me.
Another sweet song on “Blue” is “Green,” and who knew, besides Joni, who or what it was about?
Back in 1996, shocking the world and her family, Joni Mitchell announced that she wanted to find the daughter she gave up for adoption when she was in college, unbeknownst to almost everyone. Turns out that the song “Green” was about giving up this baby.
". . . Child with a child pretendingWeary of lies you are sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry, but you're not ashamed
Little Green, have a happy ending.
. . ."
Joni and her daughter, Kilauren Gibb, found each other in March of 1997 through the internet. Their relationship is complicated. (What mother-daughter relationship isn’t?)
Joni Mitchell calls herself a painter first and musician second. Many of her paintings can be found in her CD cases.
Joni’s voice has grown deep and dark with decades of cigarettes. The range is gone, the clarity suffers, but her soul is still evident in the lyrics of her recent CDs.
Joni Mitchell inspires me through creative expressions of who she truly is. She keeps digging. She’s fought it out in relationships over the years, she’s made mistakes. But she keeps digging down to her Self.
How do you bring that truth to the world?
Every day is new.
7 comments:
Joni is good.
Thanks, brainhell, for stopping by.
Wow, Ruth. I learned so much about you AND Joni Mitchell through this post. I had no idea! It makes me want to go back now and listen to her again. I'll have to see if Donica has her on her iPod :)
Boots, Joni was born the same year as you, 1943.
Well, Ruth--I'm not quite quite that old yet (you must be thinking of Susan?!). I was born in 1945, but close enough :)
I forgot to say yesterday that we toured the house where Mozart was born in Salzburg when we were there last May. It's the city where The Sound of Music was filmed and so is what it is known for by the Americans. But the Austrians know the city for Mozart!
Hello! I'll bet what my brain did was think "13" -- your birthday, and projected it as our difference in age!
I knew we were 11 years apart. :|
Carey is my favorite Joni song too...lyrics and melody have rarely been so equally matched.
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