The three songs that shaped Joni Mitchell
The folk revival movement of the 1960s was defined by voices such as Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell. Finding success as a songwriter before becoming a singer in her own right, Mitchell is now considered one of the greatest musicians of all time. After giving Judy Collins a top ten hit with ‘Both Sides Now’, Mitchell continued playing gigs on the lowly club circuit, ploughing away at her craft until eventually earning a record deal and releasing her first album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968.
Mitchell consistently released albums throughout the 1970s, including Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Hejira, cementing herself as a visionary writer with the ability to write transcendent pieces of music, deeply connecting with people worldwide.
A number of different genres impacted Mitchell, and one of her biggest jazz inspirations was Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, the vocalese trio born out of New York. The singer began incorporating more jazz influences into her sound as the years progressed, beginning with her 1974 album Court and Spark. Reflecting on this period, Mitchell once told The Los Angeles Times, “My jazz background began with one of the early Lambert, Hendricks and Ross albums,” explaining that she “saved up and bought” 1960’s The Hottest New Group in Jazz “at a bootleg price”.
Mitchell continued: “I considered that album to be my Beatles. I learned every song off of it, and I don’t think there is another album anywhere — including my own — on which I know every note and word of every song.”
Their song ‘Charleston Alley’ was an essential influence on her, and she discussed it with John for Apple Music, stating: “When I was in high school, my friends were a little older than me, and they all went off to college. I used to go to college parties, and I was at somebody’s house, and they played The Hottest New Group In Jazz – they played that album – and it was one of those musical epiphanies for me.”
Mitchell has also been shaped by the sound of ‘Les Trois Cloches’ by Edith Piaf, another “musical epiphany,” this time coming when she was just a child. While attending a birthday party at the age of eight, she heard the French singer’s song playing from another room, prompting her to ask her friend’s mother what it was because it “amazed” her.
Finally, another core track for Mitchell was Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B. Goode’, a classic rock and roll song first released in 1958. While the track doesn’t sound like anything Mitchell has made in her own career, she fell in love with it as a youngster, dancing to it on the patio during her trips to the swimming pool. She and John agree that Berry was “the best rock and roll guitarist ever,” with Mitchell adding, “He was a goat.”
Watch the pair’s full conversation below.
