Bob Dylan

The relationship between Mitchell and Bob Dylan has always been a complicated one, which is perhaps surprising given the fact that they both come from such similar musical pretences. But despite initially revering him, Mitchell’s view decidedly pivoted later on, as she sneered: “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”

Yet this is not just a highly unfair assessment to make, but also quite the ironic statement given that she too changed her name to make it big, just like Dylan did. Furthermore, for a man who has produced over 1,000 songs in his tenure and displays no signs of stopping, it’s a bit of a stretch to call him a plagiarist, especially when he is so commonly cited as the seminal inspiration to so many others. Let’s leave that one down to a fragment of Mitchell’s imagination, perhaps tinted by the green eyes of jealousy.

Judy Collins

Another singer who could perhaps be considered the perpetrator of the theft of Mitchell’s joy is Judy Collins, who was clearly still a fan when she covered the folk queen’s ‘Both Sides Now’ in 1967, but then unceremoniously usurped her by turning it into a bigger hit. It’s fair to say Collins wasn’t popular with Mitchell after that.

The sticking point revolved around the fact that many thought the song belonged to Collins, rather than Mitchell, because she had made it more famous. It’s understandable why the original creator may have been a little pissed off by that. But Collins later raised a good point in saying that “Judy didn’t make a cent off this song,” and explaining how rich the royalties would have made Mitchell, so it’s probably high time that she let bygones be bygones.

Taylor Swift

“You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,” Taylor Swift sang in the titular track of her album The Tortured Poets Department. But she’s clearly not Mitchell either, and the woman herself was very keen to point that out when comparisons started to be drawn between the pair. “I don’t know what her music sounds like, but I do know this – that if she’s going to sing and play me, good luck,” Mitchell quipped when rumours started to swirl that Swift was set to play her in a biopic.

But alas, that never came to fruition – the coveted role has instead allegedly gone to Anya Taylor-Joy and Meryl Streep, respectively – and although Mitchell’s inevitably scathing thoughts on the casting have yet to come to light, she was wrong about Swift. No one truly knows where those rumours came from, but with a ravenous army of fans falling over her every word, it’s not difficult to see how the singer got involved. As much as haters may like to spout off to the contrary, Swift is ultimately not responsible for any rumours her fans start. If that happens to be one that annoys Mitchell, it isn’t really her fault.

Madonna

To say Mitchell had a prickly view of Madonna is a very vast understatement – but it’s also highly controversial. “She’s like a living Barbie doll but a little bit on the blue side,” the singer once outlandishly claimed. “There’s always been that type of female. There’s always been a market for it, but the danger is that she thinks she’s a role model. And it’s a terrible role model. It’s death to all things real.” Talk about getting the claws out.

But no matter how much we love her, you have to admit that Mitchell was very wrong in this instance. Of course, Madonna has transformed into a lot of things over the course of her career, but the fact she so brazenly put her neck on the line for the sake of feminist art at such an early stage is most definitely something to be applauded, not derided. The next job is to convince Mitchell of that.

John Lennon

They do say that with big stars come even bigger egos, which could have been plausible in the case of Mitchell and John Lennon’s fraught relationship. But saying you don’t like someone’s music is one thing, attacking their background is another – and when Mitchell started turning her dislike of the Beatle into a class issue, that’s where things got a whole lot messier. 

“When I met John Lennon, it was during his lost year in LA y’know,” Mitchell recalled of the less-than-successful time they met. “That’s a class difficulty he had. He’s a working-class lad.” But to go so far as to claim Lennon’s altered state of mind came from a fear working-class people have of middle-class people” is an entirely different unsolicited opinion – and one that hardly made Mitchell very popular. Lennon shouldn’t really be defended on many things, but a class problem? It seemed like she was just deflecting.