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Title: Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

Author: David Yaffe
Type: Biography
Finished: November 5, 2018
Rating: ★★★★

 

 

 

 

 

Joni Mitchell. Oh WOW. She’s been one of my favorite singer songwriters for so long. Her string of albums “Blue”, “For The Roses”, and “Court and Spark” are amazing. If you haven’t listened to Jon much – or at all – I urge you to play these three albums, sit back and be moved.

Her love songs spring from her loneliness. “Rolling Stone raved, ‘Love’s tension is Joni Mitchell’s medium…’”[p 163]

“Trevor Horn … once told BBC’s Radio 4 that ‘People’s Parties’ was the song he’d most like to pass down to his children. He said he’d considered ‘citing Bob Dylan as an example of lyrical excellence and Debussy as a master of melody, but then realized Joni Mitchell did both at once. Court and Spark,’ Horn declared, ‘will stand up in two hundred years’ time…” [p 180]

Naturally, when I heard about this biography I put it at the top of my reading queue. Sometimes it’s not good to learn too much about your heros. This unflinching telling of her life shows what a hard person she is. Before you complain that I’m judging a woman by harsher standards than men, know that she throws shade on everyone in her life. Everyone she worked with or had relationships with came up wanting. To her credit, she was able to work with people after breakups but she disparages almost everyone. Graham Nash is the least scathed.

As we read about her life we understand where this toughness came from. “Joni sized up her parents and found them wanting.” [p 6]. She had nightmares as a child about her father driving recklessly; then she discovered it was actually a real event. “For Joni, it was a powerful affirmation of her childhood suspicion that she was being raised by adults who were not up to the task.” [p 7]  This was later burned in when she had polio and was left on her own in the hospital. Even though it was common for parents not to visit children in the polio wards it scarred her. Thankfully, she recovered to a large extent so it’s little wonder she became self-sufficient.

“It is not hard to imagine why Joni, in her professional career, would time and time again defer to her own instincts. Her fortitude and endurance proved more reliable than her best advisers. Others would underestimate her, but she would not  underestimate herself.” [p 21]

The biography excellently ties together Joni’s life and how her circumstances through the years affected her music. Because polio weakened her hands she couldn’t play guitar chords the standard way.

“Her left had, weakened by polio, is just a single finger running up and down her guitar’s neck. Joni leaves all the work to her right hand, which builds polychords with her open tunings.” [p 172]

There is a picture on the internet of Eric Clapton sitting down in front of Joni watching in amazement at how she gets her rich sounds.

Joni followed her muse which took her away from the popular music space for years. She collaborated with the jazz bassist Charles Mingus in his final year. She steered the focus of the album from Mingus music to her interpretation. She needed musicians who were supportive and it was sometimes difficult to find jazz players who would be content to backing her up.

“Charles Mingus had famously called her a ‘nervy broad,’ and it was perhaps in how she led her bands that Joni showed her steeliness most. ‘Because of my wordiness, I am first responsible to my words,’ she explained later on. ‘So when I play with a band, I have to be the leader. Well, the words have to be the leader. And if there’s any room for anyone to get in, well good luck.” [p 282]

I followed Joni through “Hissing of Summer Lawns” (1975) and “Hejira” (1976). But her muse was taking her somewhere I didn’t follow. It’s an artist’s job to follow her inspiration, not the market.

And of course along the way we are treated to the gossipy side of her life – who her lovers were – Leonard Cohen, James Taylor and Jackson Browne among them – and her mostly one sided feud with Joan Baez. Plus it’s fun to read about all the influences she had on others. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin adored Joni’s work and their “Going to California” is a love song to her.

“Jimmy Page would tell a reporter, ‘That’s the music that I play at home all the time, Joni Mitchell. Court and spark I love because I’d always hope that she’d work with a ban But the main thing with Joni is that she’s able to look at something that’s happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what more can I say? It’s bloody eerie.’” [p 187]

And, “[Jackson] Browne never denied that he wrote ‘Fountain of Sorrow’ for Joni.” [p 344]

At times David Yaffe gets a bit too cute in his storytelling. As when he links her childhood “chasing white lace. More recently, she has been chasing white powder.” [p 235]

As I read this I’d get critical of her; but then I  listen to her songs. It’s all about the songs. As Trevor Horn said, Joni Mitchell is one of – if not the – greatest songwriter of my generation.

Seriously, if you aren’t familiar with her work or don’t want to invest in the time to read this biography, sit down and listen to “Blue”, “For The Roses”, and “Court and Spark”. And don’t be surprised if – like Jimmy Page – you shed a few tears. Still too much effort? Listen to “Blue”. Now.

Title: The Accidental Tourist
Author: Anny Tyler
Type: Fiction
Finished: September 27, 2018
Rating: ★★★★★

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne Tyler is the real meal deal. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons and was a runner up with this novel – losing to “Lonesome Dove”. She was also a runner up with “Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant”; losing to The “Color Purple.”  It took two legendary novels to keep her off the winners podium.

I read this novel after finishing her “Clock Dance” and was struck by the similarities in the two stories. In both the protagonists are drifting through life following a traumatic death. They are then jolted into the current world and are eventually faced with the decision to go back to their old life or move on with the new.

As the story opens Macon and his wife Sarah are returning from a vacation a couple of years after their son died. “They might have been returning from two entirely different trips.” [p 1].  Sarah is exasperated by the ultra-organized Macon and decides to leave him. Sarah doesn’t want to get caught up in Macon’s way of life. “You’re so quick to be sensible, Macon, that you’ve given up on just about everything.” [p 161]

And she is right, Macon organizes everything in an attempt to get some space between himself and his life.

In some odd way, he was locked inside the standoffish self he’d assumed when he and she first met. He was frozen there. It was like that old warning of his grandmother’s: Don’t cross your eyes, they might get stuck that way.” [p 59]

In “Clock Dance” Willa is jolted from her life by the shooting of one of her sons’ ex-girlfriends. Here, Macon breaks his leg which leads him to getting help training his dog. Interestingly, Daisy in “Clock Dance” has a leg injury that precipitates the central change. The hobbled legs are symbols of the inability to move forward.

In this case, Macon is caught up in the hurricane that is Muriel who takes on the job of training Macon’s dog. She is everything that Macon is not; the relationship puts Macon on a different course:

Then he knew that what mattered was the pattern of her life; that although he did not love her he loved the surprise of her, and also the surprise of himself when he was with her. [p 242]

The Macon at the beginning of the novel would never love the surprises that Muriel brings. Eventually, Sarah returns to Macon forcing him to make a choice – something he has spent his adult life avoiding.

He couldn’t think of a single major act he had managed of his own accord. Was it too late to begin? Was there any way he could learn to do things differently? [p 402]

That is Macon’s big question; is his fate due to entropy or purpose? Well, you’ll have to read it to find that out.

If you’ve read any of my other fiction book reports you know I’m a fan of similes – and this book has some gems.

• On his cast “The hardest blow felt like a knock on the wall from a neighboring room.” [p 68]
• “The urge to sleep was like a great black cannonball rolling around inside his skull, making his head heavy and droopy.” [p 72]
• “The sky was bright but flat, the color of oyster shells.” [p 304]

Finally, I found this passage – in a book written over 30 years ago – speaking to me about our current situation.

“It’s just free speech, that’s all we’ve got. We can say whatever we like, then the government goes on and does exactly what it pleases. You call that democracy? It’s like we’re on a ship, headed someplace terrible, and somebody else is steering and the passengers can’t jump off” [p 208]