She did not sing the songs you wanted to hear, she sang the songs she wanted to play.
Normally, the act is on stage trying to convince the audience to love them, to entrance them, but the 17,000 in attendance at the Bowl were already sold, and they were afforded a peek into Joni Mitchell's psyche.
Not that Joni ever did what people wanted her to do. Sure, college students bought "Court and Spark" and imagined a flaxen-haired earth mother, warm and inviting to all. That was Mama Cass, that is not Joni Mitchell. All you need to do is meet her and talk to her.
Not that she would remember our conversations. But along with accusing me of trying to pull some girl with her music, she was incensed that I didn't love "Chalk Mark," as she put it. But that was thirty-odd years ago, when I was still a fan, when I still believed in the artists.
Now I only believe in the records.
That's the strange thing about passing seventy, everything is equalized. You are who you are, you either set the world on fire or you didn't. And you laugh at those still trying to climb the ladder of notoriety and success. Because at this point, you know it's meaningless.
Furthermore, the world has flipped. Now it's about the show, not the recording. As for the boomer acts, the classic rock acts, this truly could be the last time. You don't know when someone will unexpectedly pass. There's not going to be another Fleetwood Mac tour, unless hell freezes over and Stevie Nicks makes up with Lindsey Buckingham, and that is never going to happen, never mind Stevie's ability to make just as much cash on her own.
And we thought that Joni was done. She said she could no longer sing. That's what she said, even when she was given an award.
But what you've got to know is to Joni Mitchell art is everything. She refused to be sidelined, she did it her way.
And is continuing to do it her way.
Which is a blunt way of saying if you knew every song in the first set...you were probably on stage.
Sure, Joni appeared to rapturous applause, a standing ovation. And there were continued claps, but it was clear the audience was flummoxed, this was not what they came for, this was not what they expected.
It's a deal between the old acts and their fans. You pay an exorbitant price and they deliver exactly what you want them to. The hits. And maybe a couple of new tracks or obscurities so you can go to the bathroom, it's hard to sit through a show at our age.
Except for Bob Dylan. He legendarily rearranges the songs to make it interesting to HIM! Who wants to go out night after night and deliver the same renditions of decades-old numbers?
People who want the cash, first and foremost. And maybe the love. But it is truly artistic death.
And if you put out new material, no one embraces it, no one wants to hear it, you're a prisoner of your career.
But not Bob Dylan. I no longer want to go to his shows to hear unrecognizable versions of legendary songs, but I respect him for doing it.
And I respect Joni Mitchell for doing it her way last night. She was playing the Hollywood Bowl, in her own hometown, she'll be 81 next month, she doesn't walk so well, how many more opportunities is she going to get to do this?
Maybe none. So why deliver what the audience wants instead of doing what you want to do?
2
The turning point was "Mingus." Or maybe even "The Hissing of Summer Lawns," which was not the smooth rock the audience expected, it was more jazz-influenced.
And after "Mingus"... There was no longer any commerciality. Not anywhere near her peak anyway.
And she stopped doing what the audience expected her to. No one bared her soul like Joni, no one. And now she was looking outward, speaking of the world. She'd been there and done that, to repeat oneself...is artistic death.
But she was still a believer.
And I'm not saying she never hit the note. I was at McCabe's in the early nineties and she came on stage during someone else's set and performed an acoustic version of "The Three Great Stimulants" that I can still see in my mind's eye today.
But ultimately Joni stopped making new music. Said she was a painter.
And then had a huge health crisis.
How bad was it?
Scuttlebutt said she was nearly totaled.
But in the wake of her brain aneurysm came...
A reevaluation.
You see with today's singer/songwriters not coming anywhere near the level of what once was, everybody started to look back to the source, Joni Mitchell.
"Blue," sans hit single when it was released, was venerated.
Brandi Carlile performed it in its entirety at Disney Hall.
It was an endless victory lap.
And then Joni decided to play.
3
She did not stand up and wail on the guitar like she did at Newport.
She no longer has the crystalline voice of yore, cigarettes and age have coarsened and deepened her pipes. Not to the detriment of the delivery, it's just something different. She's gotten older. As have we. You could see on the big screen she had not had any work done. She was still playing by her own rules, and we were loving her for it.
And I'd say the audience was two-thirds women. And I don't think I've ever seen such a long line at the merch booth, even before the show began.
And you could not dart your eyes without seeing a celebrity. I was waiting at the Covid-testing tent and Melissa Gilbert was right behind me. Rosie O'Donnell entered right after I did. Helen Hunt was sitting right next to us.
Everybody was primed for that once in a lifetime event, a deliverance of that music they loved, that they knew by heart, and then Joni started with...
"Be Cool."
Okay, okay, she's making a statement, but she's going to get on track thereafter, right?
NO!
After that came "Harlem in Havana"...
And that's when you started to realize what was going on here. She was not giving us the middle finger...she really wasn't that concerned with us at all! She was comfortable in her skin, she knew her greatness, she had no doubts in her take, she was doing it her way, in a world where everybody sells out and does it the way...some fictitious god in the sky tells them to, so they appease corporate sponsors and hoover up that excess cash, branding perfume and clothing and...
Now the third song was "Hejira." Which is the title track of that album, but not one of its highlights.
But then came the opening cut from that record, which was played at the Last Waltz, which never got any airplay, but everybody now seems to know...
"Coyote."
Loved hearing it. Brought it all back. But this was not the first six albums, the ones that made Joni's bones.
But then she threw us a bone, she performed "Carey."
"The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep"
Whew! It took us right back to 1972, me at least! A breath of fresh air, on the original album and in last night's performance. Upbeat, alive. Not one of the legendary radio tracks, but if you were a fan, you knew it by heart.
And this was Joni Mitchell. Once again, this was what you came for.
I'm gonna run through the next few songs quickly, just to make my point here, that Joni was on her own hejira:
"The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)"
"God Must Be a Boogie Man"
"Sunny Sunday"
"If I Had a Heart"
But then, the piece-de-resistance, 'Refuge of the Roads"!
4
"Hejira" is a masterpiece. And don't let anybody fool you into thinking that it was a big success back when it came out in 1976. The songs were different, extended and drony. Audio perfection, but they required deep listening. But if you did...
You were rewarded. You knew this was as good as it got.
And if you're a fan of that album, you know the best cut is "Song for Sharon," whose lyrics I could quote and blow your mind, but another time.
And that's eight minutes and forty seconds long.
And the second best cut on "Hejira" is...
The closing cut, "Refuge of the Roads," not cutting any corners at 6:42.
And when the assembled multitude began to play, the stage was littered with players, many with pedigree, the song was instantly recognizable.
Assuming you knew it. Which based on the lack of a hoopla of recognition I believe few did.
Brandi Carlile introduced it. Talked about Joni driving her Mercedes cross-country and being inspired to write it.
And...
There are no words. How often do you go to see a legend and they play one of your favorite cuts, an album cut, from long ago?
NEVER!
I'm tingling just writing about it.
5
The first set closed with a slowed down version of "Both Sides Now," which was exquisite. The highlight of which was Jacob Collier's piano interlude. A jazz musician will play what you didn't know you wanted to hear and then find out it's far beyond what you thought you would ever hear.
And then came the break.
6
Okay, okay... She's either gonna come back with a hit, or she's going to go left field again and that's the way the rest of the show is going to play out.
But she opened with a rollicking version of "Big Yellow Taxi," not one of my favorites, but the audience was on its feet, energized, this is what they'd been waiting for, and standing there it felt like you were part of a celebration.
And right thereafter, "Raised on Robbery." Not quite as fast as the original, but far from slow. But somehow it seemed over the head of most people there.
But then...
Marcus Mumford came forward and sang...
"California."
"Sitting in a park in Paris, France"...
CAN YOU FEEL IT!
The audience certainly did. Because let's be clear, "California" was being sung in...CALIFORNIA!
"I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California, I'm coming home"
It is now my home. When this record was released, it was just a dream. I had to come here. And it lived up to the rep. And this is the kind of show that only plays in L.A., which is one of the benefits of living here.
And to be honest, I'd much rather have heard Joni sing it, but she did come in on the chorus and she added words here and there and...
"Oh, it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers"
It most certainly does. Especially in the pre-cellphone era. You were truly alone, with just your thoughts, in a foreign place.
And this change, this bridge, is so delicious, it slays me every time, and I know it does you.
Two songs later Annie Lennox came out and sang a slowed-down version of "Ladies of the Canyon" and...
Annie never misses a note. And it was great. But it was absent the gravitas of the original.
7
Now going through the rest of the show, Joni covered Elton and Bernie's "I'm Still Standing," whose words she fashioned a bit to her own liking. A great message.
And then another left field surprise. AMELIA? I mean if you were a fan of "Hejira," this was a night made in heaven. This was beyond your wildest dreams. And despite the less than entranced audience...it made no difference to Joni, she gave it her all.
And the closer was "The Circle Game," already a legendary song when it closed 1970's "Ladies of the Canyon," and this was the kind of number that I truly expected, but I thought there was a chance that Joni would sing "Rainy Night House," or "The Arrangement," which still retain their haunting personal quality more than half a century later.
And the audience was thrilled, the applause was rapturous.
But really, the absolute peak of the evening, the one that had me standing singing along with every word, staring at the sky, feeling that I was in the right place and my life had worked was...
"A Case of You."
8
"Just before our love got lost you said
'I am as constant as a northern star'"
There are certain basics. Iconic songs that never leave your brain. That run shotgun through your entire life. One of mine is...
"A Case of You."
"And I said, 'Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at
If you want me I'll be in the bar"
Unexpected. At this point you expect the singer to lean in, get closer to the hurting, deluded man.
But that's not Joni Mitchell. She was always as strong as the guys, maybe stronger. She was not going to play this game, she was going to stand on her own.
"On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice"
She's not disconnected, she'll always be connected, which is why she's drawing his face twice!
And TV's no longer emit a blue light.
And they call coasters "beer mats."
And Canada... Is not America. It's just a bit different. It's like a giant high school, you can have no airs, you'll be pulled right down, it's less about stardom than the art, less about celebrity than living your life.
"Oh, I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid"
She's strong, but she still has weaknesses. She can stand alone, but she doesn't want to, she wants to lean on your strength. And despite being a renowned popular music artist... She still sees herself as a painter.
And now comes the essence, the verse that puts the song in the pantheon.
"I remember that time you told me
You said 'Love is touching souls'
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time"
If you've ever been in love, you know this. It's a lonely world out there, we're all individuals with our own thoughts, we're looking for soul connection, and when we find it, it means everything.
But the most amazing thing is loving someone, being involved with them, changes you. You start employing some of their phrases. You find your viewpoint changing. You adjust your wardrobe. It's very subtle, you don't realize it's happening. And then you break up and you feel like you've lost half of yourself, and in truth you never ever recover, part of the other person stays with you FOREVER!
"Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet"
TALK ABOUT A METAPHOR!
Joni Mitchell wasn't an imitator, she was a trailblazer, an original. She didn't copy, she innovated.
And if you've ever been to Canada, where they literally have the "Beer Store," you can see part of the inspiration for this turn of phrase. You live in the frozen north and you drink, I know, I've lived close to the border, where it gets cold at night and dark earlier and you drink and connect and fight and...
It's very different from living in Southern California.
But this merger of two people...
You ain't gonna find that in a heavy metal tune.
Or a hip-hop number.
No, you have to write it yourself, sing your song, do it your way to have it resonate.
Joni Mitchell did.
And still does.
9
So what happens now?
Everybody who went last night and tonight testifies to all those who were not in attendance. How the show was over the moon, far beyond what could be expected. They'll cite the celebrities on and off stage. They'll wax rhapsodic.
Don't buy it. That's not what happened.
What happened was we got a peek into an artist's soul. We saw the thinking behind not only the songs, but the person herself. Joni revealed who she was, and despite uttering so many points of connection, we still only know a part of her.
Artists are elusive. You think you know them, but you really don't.
You listen to their music and build a construct in your head.
But then again, talk to a great artist and oftentimes they'll tell you even they don't know how they wrote the song, they got inspired and channeled God and there it is.
But it only happens if you pay your dues, put in the time, get yourself ready.
And no one is great from the beginning. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.
And we want the words of those who have lived a bit, not the cobbled together lyrics of a committee.
We want some level of truth.
And one thing Joni Mitchell delivered last night was truth. Her truth. Unvarnished. She didn't need you to love her, she was just Joan from Saskatchewan doing her thing, marveling at her appearance on stage at the Hollywood Bowl all these decades later.
So what do you do with this?
Well, it doesn't change the records. They're locked in amber.
So you play them in your head. Listen to them alone, on a drive, and it's the songs that inspire you, deliver wisdom, it's not about the artist themselves, they're just a vessel.
They cut these records and go home.
They sing their heart out on stage and then they're gone.
But what we're all looking for is that moment of magic, that soul connection, when the song you love is delivered by the artist who wrote and performed it and you feel connected not only with them, but something bigger than yourself, life itself. You look into the heavens with a smile on your face, thrilled to be alive, you didn't know it could get this good. This is what you wanted but couldn't really articulate.
And when it happens...
You can sing along, full-throated, through the entire number...
And still be on your feet.
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