‘Cactus Tree’: The early influence of Bob Dylan on Joni Mitchell
Artists often take inspiration from other creatives, drawing from the work of their peers and predecessors to generate new song ideas. They might pull from a fellow musician, finding themselves moved by the excellence of another artist’s composition or performance. They may even pull from a completely different medium altogether such as film, allowing cinematography and visuals to guide their pen. And sometimes, they might pull from both at the same time, such as Joni Mitchell on ‘Cactus Tree’.
Mitchell has always prided herself on her originality. Her songwriting and her wider artistry is grounded in this very principle. Her lyrics are infused with her own feelings and experiences of love and freedom, her accompanying artwork often painted by hand, her instrumentation always pushing into new, uncharted directions. Innovation and authenticity are two of her driving principles and they have rightfully earned her a place amongst the greats.
“It’s in my stars to invent,” Mitchell once declared during a conversation with New York Magazine, “I have this need for originals, for innovation.” Still, Mitchell was not completely immune to the influence of other artists. In fact, she was just as susceptible to it as any other songwriter. And on ‘Cactus Tree’, the closing track to her debut record, Song to a Seagull, she took inspiration from a fellow folk legend called Bob Dylan.
Mitchell had been singing and penning poetry since she was young, but it wasn’t until 1968 that she released her first record. Song to a Seagull was a beautiful collection of songs that began to establish the unique artistry of Mitchell, but closer ‘Cactus Tree’ stood out from the rest. Distinctive guitar twangs and wavering vocals combined in a gorgeous introduction to Mitchell’s songwriting style, welcoming audiences into her world.
But the initial idea for ‘Cactus Tree’ stemmed from Mitchell’s viewing of Don’t Look Back, D A Pennebaker’s documentary about Dylan. In a 1968 interview with Dave Wilson for Broadside, Mitchell remembered the “big impression” that the film left on her and cited it as her inspiration for the song. Dylan’s influence found its way into almost every element of ‘Cactus Tree’, “In its melody, even in its style.”
Mitchell even admitted that she stretched out her “A”s in the song “because it sings better. It’s all sort of in monotone.” It’s easy to hear Dylan’s influence on the track, in the gorgeous folk instrumentation and vocal delivery, but the song is also definitively Mitchell’s. Her vocals may borrow from Dylan, but her harmonies and oscillations are her own. Her lyrics, too, could only have come from her pen.
Interestingly, fellow songwriter and Mitchell’s former lover David Crosby also believed that he had an influence on the writing of ‘Cactus Tree’. He claimed on X that he was the subject of the first verse, which sings of a man “sailing in a decade full of dreams,” treating his lover like a “queen, bearing beads from California with their amber stones and green.”
Although Mitchell herself has often thrown criticism towards artists who borrow from other influences, her decision to borrow from Dylan on ‘Cactus Tree’ takes nothing away from the beauty of the song, nor from its originality. Watching Don’t Look Back may have spurred her to write the song, but it is still entirety her own creation.
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