“The beginning of a new life”: how did Joni Mitchell first meet David Crosby?
David Crosby famously once said that his relationship with Joni Mitchell was like “falling into a cement mixer”, which doesn’t exactly paint the rosiest picture of the pair. But the truth is that each of them had a significantly profound effect on the other’s life and career, without which they wouldn’t be considered music legends, and we, as listeners, wouldn’t have been blessed with the same level of artistic mastery.
Crosby and Mitchell have the sound of a stand-up double act that never was, but needless to say, the throes of their relationship were at times far from comical. The folk fairy queen and the CSNY namesake were admittedly an unlikely pairing, yet one that still somehow managed to create sonic sorcery whenever they put their heads together. But where did it all begin?
Back in 1967, Crosby was somewhat hanging at a loose end after leaving The Byrds. Having nowhere to go – literally and metaphorically, it seems – he stumbled into the Coconut Grove club in Florida one night, where a young soft-toned girl with a mop of blonde hair happened to be taking to the stage. All in a moment, his life was changed forever.
Mitchell was, at this time, a nascent hopeful singing starlet in search of a record deal, and it’s fair to say her chance encounter with Crosby hit all the right notes. Instantly enthralled by her ethereality and power, the guitar folk god took his new protégé back to California, where he set about making her the transcendental music heroine that she would later become.
Reminiscing on the halcyon memories in which they first met, Mitchell recalled in a 1979 interview for Rolling Stone: “He was tanned. He was straight. He was clearing out his boat, and it was going to be the beginning of a new life for him.” However, looks apart, there was evidently some little more unsaid magic that unequivocally convinced Crosby to help launch Mitchell’s career and produce her first album, Song to a Seagull.
In a personal sense, however, their romantic chances were much more ill-fated. Their relationship, though seismic, was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it affair, with Crosby confessing that “She is a turbulent woman and very, very crazy,” which is as brutal a character assassination as you could ever see. Similarly, Mitchell described Crosby as having “enthusiasm like no one else. He can make you feel like a million bucks, or he can bring you down with the same force.”
Despite these seemingly brutal putdowns and their failed lovers’ dynasty, the pair still remained close friends and sonic collaborators throughout the remainder of Crosby’s life, demonstrating that sometimes the best partnerships can just stay in the friend zone. Nonetheless, you can hardly think either of them would have lived to regret their romantic exploits, however turbulent, because it ultimately provided them both, and the world, so much musical power. Their time as lovers wasn’t meant to be, but Crosby and Mitchell still came out on top in a way that made them both supreme.
