Revisit Joni Mitchell’s first TV appearance on ‘The Dick Cavett Show’
On August 19th 1969, the set of The Dick Cavett show and Dick Cavett himself were transformed. Gone was the usual monotone decor and formal attire – replaced by the technicolour splendour of hippiedom. Why? Well, because the day before, 300,000 young music fans had descended on Bethel Farm, New York, to attend the Woodstock Festival.
The day after, Cavett invited an audience of weary hippies – many of whom were still feeling a little fragile after three days in the mud – to continue the revelry and watch performances by some of the artists who had played the free festival. Joni Mitchell, as it happens, was not at Woodstock, but still appeared alongside Jefferson Airplane, David Crosby and others.
This wouldn’t have been a problem had Cavett’s guests not been invited to discuss the festival and recall some of their fondest memories. “It was incredible” It was probably the strangest thing to ever happen in the world,” David Crosby told Cavett. “Can I describe to you what it looked like flying in on a helicopter, man?” he continued. “It looked like an encampment of the Macedonian army on the Greek hills, crossed with the biggest batch of gipsies that you ever saw.”
While Mitchell didn’t have much to say about Woodstock, she wasn’t totally excluded from the conversation. Though clearly nervous to be making her first appearance, she held her nerve wonderfully – explaining that she prefers to write songs about “love and things I can understand” than political anthems. The irony of all this is that Mitchell didn’t make it to Woodstock despite being invited precisely because her manager, David Geffen, was nervous that she’d miss her scheduled appearance on The Dick Cavett Show. She did get to Crosby’s crowds of Macedonian troops from the helicopter, though.
It may well have in that helicopter that Mitchell had the idea for ‘Woodstock’, a single that could only have been written by someone who wasn’t actually there. While David Crosby, Grace Slick, Hendrix and the gang were too close to the action to process the event with any clarity, Mitchell was on the sidelines watching it all unfold, allowing her to frame the event in the grander scheme of things.
During her appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, Mitchell performed mesmerising renditions of ‘Chelsea Morning’, ‘Willy’, and ‘For Free’, each of which showcases the startling maturity of Mitchell’s songcraft, not to mention her ability to bring a universalism to personal stories with the precision of a master novelist. Though Mitchell only saw Woodstock from above, this performance sees her embody the spirit of the festival better than the artists who were actually there. Make sure you check out the full episode if you haven’t already.
