“People were surprised”: the album that gave Joni Mitchell credibility
Every artist’s dream is to get the love and respect from their peers. Anyone can be at the right place at the right place and fluke their way into having a hit, but the ones that stick around have something genuine to say beyond the trend-chasing that every other wannabe pop star tries to get away with. While it took Joni Mitchell a long time to hone her craft, she had an even longer way to go before she got the true accolades she deserved.
Then again, Mitchell’s impact on rock and roll has been far too muted compared to her predecessors. There’s no disputing that someone like Bob Dylan was hugely influential and paved the way for what people could do in the pop song format, but Mitchell’s music was more complex and even managed to outshine Dylan in the lyrical department a few times, often approaching her music the same way that artists approach watercolour paintings.
However, although she had a certain degree of genius, she always felt slightly cut out of the upper echelon of musicians. Everyone in the rock sphere knew she was one of the greatest, but some of the biggest names in jazz weren’t as interested, even when she had someone like Jaco Pastorius sitting in with her and getting Pat Metheny to lead on some of her finest records.
Even if she didn’t play by the same rules as every other jazz cat that honed their craft, a record like Hejira was full of the same musical complexity as a Miles Davis record, even managing to be more complex when it comes to the tuning. Mitchell was never interested in having the same standard voicings, so her open tunings gave way to lush open chords that had the kind of upper extensions that you would only hear out of a modern jazz album than any other rock record.
“I don’t think I proved myself to guys like Herbie Hancock until I did standards.”
joni mitchell
While she wore her emotions on her sleeve when making albums like Blue and Ladies of the Canyon, some pieces were still missing from her musical oeuvre, and Both Sides Now helped drastically change that. Aside from the reworking of the title track, this is Mitchell in her element, making the best jazz interpretations she can. She even found some power in her lower register when working on her renditions of Etta James’s ‘At Last’.
Everyone from Crosby, Stills, and Nash to Prince may have shouted her praises before, but Mitchell thought this was the first album where she gained the credibility of her true peers, saying, “I think people were surprised that I’d absorbed standards. People just assumed that I didn’t understand that. I don’t think I proved myself to guys like Herbie Hancock until I did standards.”
Yes, her standards are absolutely spellbinding on the record, but ‘Both Sides Now’ is still far above any of the other tracks. Since the original version of the tune was released when she was fine-tuning her sound, hearing her as a wiser old woman looking back on her life gives the lyrics much more weight as if she’s finally seen the world for what it is and is trying to find the beauty left to discover.
Although the standards may have pleased people like Hancock, there was no need for Mitchell to seek the attention of jazz enthusiasts. She was clearly a master of her craft with no competition in sight, and if it took this album for everyone to realise that, then that was their problem.
