Reckless Daughter

September 1, 2017
A new biography of the luminous folk singer and musical icon.If you don't already believe that Joni Mitchell (b. 1943) is a genius without peer, you might have a hard time making the case from this effusive book, long on gossip but short on analysis, except of a kind of ethereal quality. As Yaffe (English/Syracuse Univ.; Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown, 2011, etc.) writes, "Joni may have felt that she was the lone member of the Canadian lunatic generation, but it was her destiny to alchemize all that loneliness into music that made people feel they were not alone." Meaning, one supposes, that Mitchell, nee Roberta Joan Anderson, wrote songs geared to sensitive people that amounted to a corpus that, as David Crosby once proclaimed, "was the highest quality of songwriting that I'd run into. I liked her better than Dylan or anybody." Yaffe's book is a useful appreciation, but it doesn't delve enough into the whys and wherefore of that songwriting and its high quality--why an odd open tuning mixed with onrushing lyrics should alchemize into something like "Coyote," say, though we do learn that there was a lot of sex and cocaine in LA in the 1970s and that Jackson Browne and James Taylor may not be the nice guys their public images suggest. "Even if cocaine fueled some of Hejira's powerful songs," writes Yaffe, "the clarity of going off coke produced other songs that came from a different and equally compelling kind of power." That's a souffle of a sentence, and, like so much of the book, it needs more grounding in Mitchell's actual work and at a deeper level than, for example, "it is on the bridge about the 'lonesome blues' that the chords get interesting." Mitchell deserves more musically sophisticated treatment, though this is serviceable enough as a straight fan-notes homage. Readers wanting to go deeper into the art would do better to start with Malka Marom's Joni Mitchell: In Her Own Words (2014).

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October 15, 2017

Joni Mitchell (nee Roberta Joan Anderson in 1943 Alberta) is the subject of two books this fall. An anthology of articles about the singer/songwriter, edited by Barney Hoskyns, is also pubbing this month. But Yaffe (Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown), a longtime fan who met with Mitchell often between 2007 and 2015, takes the traditional biography route and starts at the beginning, with her less-than-satisfying childhood, her bout with polio, and her self-taught musicianship. Mitchell eventually left home, singing in coffeehouses in Toronto, and on her way to her own legendary status crossed paths with every rising star in the folk and rock firmament: Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, Neil Young, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Jimi Hendrix among them. Her songwriting magic was as much a lure to these fellow troubadours as her ethereal beauty and original sound. Yaffe follows the music and the stories behind them, covering the marriages and love affairs, the record company woes, and the child she gave up for adoption. Fans won't see her star diminished as much as her brilliance and frailties revealed. VERDICT All music collections need this one. [Illustrations and index not seen.] [See Prepub Alert, 4/24/17.]--Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 23, 2017
Drawing on in-depth interviews with Mitchell, her friends, and her musical associates, Yaffe (Fascinating Rhythm) paints a colorful and riveting portrait of a songwriter who has continually broken boundaries and explored new musical territories. In lively, bright prose, Yaffe traces Roberta Joan Anderson from her birth in Alberta, Canada, in 1943, through her early bout of polio, her marriage to Chuck Mitchell in 1964 (when she changed her name to Joni Mitchell), and the birth of her daughter in 1965. Yaffe describes Mitchell’s steely resolve to make her own art, her emergence as a voice of her generation, her creative struggles in the 1980s and 1990s, and her recent recovery from a brain aneurysm. He brilliantly guides readers through Mitchell’s evolution as a musician with vivid descriptions of the making of each of her albums from Song to a Seagull (“If drums and an electric guitar had been added to the mix, Joni would have produced some acid rock herself”) through Shine in 2007. Yaffe introduces readers to the musicians with whom Mitchell worked, including Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash, Judy Collins, and Charles Mingus. The combination of fine writing and extensive access make this the definitive biography of a gifted songwriter and musician.

Starred review from October 15, 2017
In this dazzling biography, Yaffe so aptly calls Joni Mitchell (born Roberta Joan Anderson) our eternal singer-songwriter of sorrows. Ironically, Mitchell considered herself a painter first, according to Yaffe. He perfectly captures not only the singer's urban-inflected and American-influenced lyrics but also music that is deeply rooted in Canadian prairie soil (she was born in Alberta and raised in Saskatchewan). Like fellow Canadian Neil Young, Mitchell was struck by polio at a young age. The disease scarred her emotionally, but it also made her resilient and rebellious. She moved to Toronto as an unwed mother and gave up the baby for adoption. Her marriage to the American folksinger Chuck Mitchell, while pursuing her career on the folk music/coffeehouse circuit, was a disaster, but she was writing songs while in her twenties, including the timeless Both Sides, Now. Yaffe offers critical observations on of all her albums (including Blue, Ladies of the Canyon, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Court and Spark, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, and Mingus); recalls her halcyon and artistically fruitful days in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Laurel Canyon; and discusses her relationships with the late Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, Graham Nash, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne, among others. A shimmering portrait of one artist's life, illusions and all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)