The Joni Mitchell song about the child she gave up
Joni Mitchell is one of the most revered songwriters of her generation and of all time. Her exploits speak for themselves as a countercultural legend, folk heroine and experimental pioneer all in one. Mitchell has lived a life of such mythical proportions that many who cite her as an influence speak of her in God-like terms.
The singer-songwriter is so revered that even the eminent Led Zeppelin admired her so much that they tried to emulate her style and, somewhat remarkable, even referenced her California home on their classic track ‘Going to California’. The band were never shy about discussing their love for Mitchell, with guitarist Jimmy Page making his thoughts clear on the potency of her music. “That’s the music that I play at home all the time – Joni Mitchell,” He told Rolling Stone in 1975.
Adding: “The main thing with Joni is that she’s able to look at something that’s happened to her, draw back and crystalize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes. What more can I say? It’s bloody eerie.”
From Song to a Seagull to Hejira, Mitchell has released a string of classic albums over her career, but none is more cherished than 1971’s Blue. A wholly melancholic album that does what it says on the tin, the record contains the tracks ‘River’ and ‘A Case of You’, two of her most heartfelt cuts. However, arguably the most heartbreaking piece on the LP is ‘Little Green’, with an authentic dose of sadness coursing through her words and music.
The track is written about the child, Kelly Dale, who Mitchell gave up for adoption in 1965. Duly, it features sorrowful lines such as: “You sign all the papers in the family name / you are sad and you’re sorry but you’re not ashamed / little green have a happy ending“.
Mitchell wrote the song not long after signing the papers for adoption, and the story goes that she even travelled from Saskatchewan to Toronto to keep the child secret from her family. At first, with the father not in the picture, she had tried to keep the child and establish a family unit by marrying the musician Chuck Mitchell, but it didn’t work out. While speaking to the Toronto Globe and Mail in 1998, she recalled: “I was dirt poor. An unhappy mother does not raise a happy child. It was difficult parting with the child, but I had to let her go.”
Joni and Kelly Dale – renamed Kilauren by her adoptive parents – eventually reunited in 1997, but things did not work out. They broke off contact only a few years later, adding more melancholy to ‘Little Green’.
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