Joni Mitchell never bothered listening to Taylor Swift’s music
There’s a certain piece of musical history that’s reserved for Joni Mitchell.
While she might not have had the most conventional songs next to her rock and roll peers, her knack for working on anything and everything that struck her fancy is the reason why her music kept pushing the boundaries of what a pop star could be. Some of the giants in her world were veterans in their fields, and no matter how big some of her acolytes were, she was willing to remind everyone that she was in a league all of her own.
But you didn’t have to go to Mitchell for her to tell you how good she was; David Crosby was more than happy to do it back in the day. Before she even had any hits to her name, her fixture with open tunings and beautiful poetry knocked him over before he started working on Crosby, Stills and Nash. This was a once-in-a-generation songwriter, and even when put up next to the best music Bob Dylan had ever made, there was no doubting that Mitchell could go much further with her songs.
Even when looking at the greatest names in jazz, Mitchell seemed to be speaking the same language as they did. Being able to hold one’s own next to legends like Charles Mingus or Jaco Pastorius is no easy feat, but Stevie Wonder might be one of the only other musicians in the pop sphere who could possibly do that. But as much as she liked the more sophisticated side of pop, not everyone was coming to her music to learn new chords.
Because as much as people might have loved listening to her music, the stories were just as strong as any guitar riff that turned up on her record. The beautiful picture of ‘Amelia’ is breathtaking to this day, and when listening to albums like Court and Spark or Blue, she was painting the kind of character portraits that could tear your heart out of your chest. But if there was one thing that Taylor Swift learned from her, it was the importance of being honest in everything she did.
Although Swift’s rise to the top may have been one of the single biggest musical ascents of the 21st century, there’s a lot more going on with her music than simple pop songs. She was never above making traditional catchy tunes, but since Red dealt with all the hardships that come with being in love, it wasn’t hard to look at the title of the record and see it as a direct retort to what Mitchell had done on Blue.
Still, Mitchell was the one still showing everyone who was boss when she was asked about Swift. Despite being one of the biggest stars in the world, Mitchell felt that there was no point in trying to listen to her music when asked about whether Swift would play her in a biopic, saying, “I’ve never heard Taylor’s music. I’ve seen her. Physically, she looks similarly small-hipped and high cheekbones. I can see why they cast her. I don’t know what her music sounds like, but I do know this — that if she’s going to sing and play me, good luck.”
While that might seem pretentious, you have to understand that Mitchell was on another level from almost any other popular musician. Even when listening to what the other sophisticated acts, like Steely Dan, were doing, it was hard to decipher what she was doing half the time. The harmonies she was dealing with were miles above the typical pop songs Swift has continued to do, and even if she could get brutally honest on a few of her tunes, no one was going to hear the kind of complex references that Mitchell was making.
The Swifties could have come after her all they wanted, but nothing that’s said about Mitchell’s music is going to put a dent in the records that she made. Even by rock standards, each one of her albums are work of art, and while the modern pop sphere is speaking a much different language, it’s hard to even fathom anyone reaching the heights that she did ever again.
