Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason picks his favourite Joni Mitchell song
Joni Mitchell is an ethereal artist and the benchmark for singer-songwriters of any generation or area of the globe. Although Pink Floyd founding member Nick Mason has plied his trade by making a very different brand of music compared to Mitchell, he can’t help but admire her greatness, which he wishes he could replicate.
At the same time as Pink Floyd were developing their mind-altering psychedelic soundscape in the English capital, Mitchell was at the heart of the music scene in the Laurel Canyon, which caused an equally positive cultural impact. Although they were at different ends of the spectrum, a commonality between them was their nose for innovation and ability to push boundaries with their artistry.
In addition to Mason being a fan of Mitchell, his bandmate David Gilmour is in awe of her work. During his appearance on the BBC institution Desert Island Discs, he named her track ‘For Free’ as one of his favourite songs of all time.
During the BBC Radio 2 segment Tracks Of My Years, Mason nominated Mitchell’s beautiful ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, stating that “the whole thing is sort of encapsulated in this one track”. However, the Ladies of the Canyon track isn’t actually his favourite song in her repertoire, but a broadcast on mainstream radio isn’t the place for deep cuts.
For an edition of Uncut in 2015, Mason was one of 30 contributors alongside Radiohead’s Philip Selway and Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, who each picked one song in her catalogue, which came together to chronicle her glittering career.
The Pink Floyd drummer chose ‘My Secret Place’, which appeared on her 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm. “I’ve always loved the sound of her voice, right from when we listened to her first album, and she’s one of those artists where I have virtually all her albums and so it’s very hard to find a single song or moment that encapsulates it all,” he said of his relationship with Mitchell’s music.
Mason again mentioned ‘Big Yellow Taxi’, stating it was a track he “would never get tired of hearing” alongside ‘Chelsea Morning’. However, as much as he adores the stonewall classics, the artist admires most “how she’s changed”, which he labelled as “the interesting thing”.
He also discussed her creative partnership with Larry Klein, who Mason credited as bringing “a real jazz influence to her music that I loved”. The Pink Floyd member concluded: “If I had to pick one of the songs from the albums he produced, it would be ‘My Secret Place’ from Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm because she’s doing duets with various guest artists and that one was with Peter Gabriel, so it’s a two-for-one as I’m such a fan of Peter, too. Their voices just combined perfectly.”
Listen to ‘My Secret Place’ below.
