The songwriter Joni Mitchell was actually happy to be compared to: “You can lump me in”
Let’s just get one thing straight: Joni Mitchell does not like being called a folk singer, or being branded ‘confessional’, or having her style likened to writers such as Sylvia Plath. Indeed, she doesn’t much like the art of comparison at all, much preferring to be seen as an individual and have her music stand on its own two feet. As much as we might be tempted to chalk her up as a songwriting goddess, there’s not much you can argue against that.
Mitchell made it clear in a 1998 interview with Mojo, in which she lambasted being compared to many other female giants of music and literature, simply because she shares a gender with them. According to the Canadian singer, that still doesn’t mean she has anything in common with anyone from Edith Piaf to Anne Sexton, because each woman, including herself, is far too individual to be hemmed into one category of art alongside one another.
However, despite this, there was one singer that Mitchell said she was happy to share a crown with, even if it meant being “lumped in” with her by the critics of the music industry. That was Laura Nyro, the New York singer whose songwriting brilliance was tragically only fully realised years after her death, but whose impact nevertheless left an unmistakable imprint on all those touched by her, including Mitchell.
“Laura Nyro, you can lump me in with, because Laura exerted an influence on me,” Mitchell explained. “I looked to her and took some direction from her. On account of her, I started playing piano again. Some of the things she did was very fresh. Hers was a hybrid of Black pop singers, Motown singers, and Broadway musicals, and I like some things also from both those camps.”
Combining these genres into the making of a polymath musical prodigy, Nyro’s two most acclaimed albums, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession and New York Tendaberry – the latter of which Mitchell branded a “beautiful record, beautiful” – undeniably not only changed the face of the musical canon at the time, but set a precedent for what the future of pioneering sonics could look like, leaving everyone from Mitchell to Elton John gawping in her wake.
In this sense, although Mitchell was, and still is, vehemently against being chalked up in the same breath as her musical peers, she couldn’t help but bow down to the authority of Nyro. They may indeed both have been female, ‘confessional’ singers, but in this battle, Mitchell was forced to concede defeat. Quite simply, it’s an honour to be compared to Nyro, and an insult to her memory if she claimed anything else.
As much as Mitchell may seem stubbornly set in her ways, you can imagine Nyro, with all her innovative mind, jazz-infused soul, and uncompromising attitude, would have probably agreed with her. The pair largely eschewed any form of label or typecasting, but together, they undoubtedly created a path which changed the world. It just involved not taking nonsense from anybody, and proudly marching to the beat of their own drum – that’s certainly something to get on board with.
