“Like a late birth”: The record Joni Mitchell thought would be her last
Few know how to kickstart a revolution as thoroughly as Joni Mitchell. In her world, resilience at the tail-end of an era-defining movement meant processing and moving on, which is exactly what formed the foundation of her 1971 opus Blue. “It’s a description of the times,” the singer said in Michelle Mercer’s Will You Take Me As I Am. “There were so many sinking, but I had to keep thinking I could make it through the waves.”
By the time Mitchell released the album, several life and cultural events signified that it truly was the end of an era. The counterculture mindset that had categorised the 1960s subculture had already started to wane, and the hubs that people regarded as the zeitgeist were suddenly no longer. Throughout Blue, Mitchell captures the complexities of suddenly being thrust into a new era where little made sense.
This confusion also stemmed from the unity that the ’60s movement epitomised. In the face of societal unrest and prejudice, free-spirited energy helped to make everything feel on the delicate surface of a fine line, providing a space where everything felt together when everything else crumbled apart. Mitchell knew better than anybody what it meant to discover belonging during uncertain times, so when it was over, things pivoted towards the unknown.
Mitchell became susceptible to these turning points throughout her career, even after Both Sides Now, which proved her to have still the copious amounts of appeal and resonance she had back in the 1970s. This time, however, it became too much, and she vowed she was officially done with the industry. With too many detrimental changes and others criticising her voice, it seemed her time in the spotlight was over.
That’s not to say that interest wanted with Travelogue—she had just won several accolades, including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award—but her disillusionment with where the music industry was headed made her feel like she wanted no part of it. “I’m quitting because the business made itself so repugnant to me. Record companies are not looking for talent. They’re looking for a look and a willingness to cooperate,” she told W Magazine at the time.
Several years later, however, creativity struck again, and she began working on an album that would later be titled Shine. Although she admitted she had been “screwed from the beginning,” her music spoke for itself, and she continued to work on her own artistic expression, even if it meant playing a game she had long wanted to opt out of. “I really believed I was never going to make another record,” she told The Sunday Times in 2007. “I was trying to keep my legs crossed, and it was like a late birth.”
The only difference this time was that she focussed more heavily on what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it. Never one to pander to commercialism, Shine was created in her home of British Columbia, where she let her creativity flow freely, almost like suddenly removing a water dam from a river. Mitchell might not fit in today’s music business, but it certainly needs her presence more than ever.
