“A plagiarist”: Why Joni Mitchell thought Bob Dylan was her opposite
Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan’s paths have crossed numerous times over the past 50 years, with the two legendary songwriters even sharing the stage during Dylan’s iconic Rolling Thunder Revue Tour. Despite their apparent similarities—parallel careers and a shared flair for confessional songwriting—Mitchell has consistently maintained that they operate in fundamentally different paradigms. In fact, their relationship has, at times, deteriorated into what could be more accurately described as a cold feud.
While they may have appeared to operate in similar circles, the two were frosty with one another from the start. The two folkies were part of the same scene throughout the late 1960s and early ’70s and never really got on. Mitchell may have held back from publically speaking about her initial dislike of Dylan for the benefit of her career as they both shared a similar fanbase who, by bringing down the poster boy of the folk scene, she risked alienating. However, in more recent years, Mitchell has done anything but bite her tongue.
Mitchell’s feelings about Dylan, often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, can be traced back to the period when she was working on her 1974 album, Court and Spark. At the time, Mitchell was living at the house of record label mogul—and occasional boyfriend—David Geffen, who had recently signed Dylan to Elektra/Asylum. This connection marked a turning point in their complicated relationship. When Mitchell played the freewheelin’ Bob Dylan a preview of the record at one of Geffen’s parties, he was so enthralled by the album that he, erm, fell asleep.
For an artist as prideful as Mitchell, Dylan’s unwillingness to remain conscious while being played her music was the ultimate sign of his ambivalence toward her talent. Considering the Canadian had been growing in stature and quietly developing her own unique standing in the music world, one that not only relied on lyricism but powerful musical instrumentation, Mitchell may well have felt as if Dylan was showing his disdain by letting his eyelids drop.
This tension didn’t prevent Mitchell from joining Dylan on his Rolling Thunder Revue Tour, but it may have marked the beginning of her disillusionment with the legendary artist. Interestingly, despite this shift in attitude, Mitchell expressed admiration for Dylan as late as 1979. During an interview with Cameron Crowe, she spoke highly of him, revealing they had shared “a series of brief encounters” and “tests” over the years. Mitchell emphasised that, despite any friction, she “always had affection for him,” making the change in her stance even more puzzling.
The reality is that Mitchell, like so many other songwriters of the time, was humbled by Dylan’s artistry. Mitchell has often cited his song ‘Positively Fourth Street’ as one of the few tracks that showed her what was truly possible within the realm of songwriting. “There came a point when I heard a Dylan song called ‘Positively Fourth Street’,” Mitchell opined when reflecting on her early change to confessional songcraft, “and I thought ‘oh my God, you can write about anything in songs’. It was like a revelation to me”.
While she may have been in constant appreciation of Dylan the artist, the man seemed to annoy her beyond the point of mild aggravation. During an interview with the LA Times in 2010, the interviewer compared the two of them, and the report claimed that Mitchell fiercely refuted this comparison and stated: “We are like night and day, [Dylan] and I,” she said. “Bob is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception.”
Mitchell herself dismissed this comment in 2013 when she spoke with CBC and claimed to have never said such a thing. The presenter read Mitchell’s alleged words back to her, and the singer denied saying he wasn’t authentic, stating, “That’s not a word I use“.
Mitchell then called the LA Times interviewer both “an a-hole” and “a moron” before then attempting to steer the subject away from Dylan, but before she did, she wanted to have her final say on the topic. She wanted to make it clear that she “liked a lot of his songs”, but things then turned a little more sour than ever before. She was no longer just interested in taking down the “miserly” figure that had even prompted her to pen a barbed song, but was now ready to fire shots at ‘Dylan: the artist’.
Mitchell unloaded her unfiltered opinion: “Musically, Dylan’s not very gifted; he’s borrowed his voice from old hillbillies. He’s got a lot of borrowed things. He’s not a great guitar player. He’s invented a character to deliver his songs … it’s a mask of sorts.” Why would Mitchell be so gruff with an icon? Likely because he didn’t show her the respect she deserved.
The truth is, the duo are worlds apart. Despite their similar functions as singer-songwriters, their lyrical focuses and sonic structures are as different now as they have ever been. Their artistic operations are also different. While Dylan is always more interested in the worlds created by his own words, Mitchell, with her myriad of jazz influences, is more encompassing of the audio landscape created, too. Although their relationship has been contentious, both artists are crucial figures in music history, each shaping the genre in unique ways.
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