“The approaching storm”: The two singers who shaped Joni Mitchell
The musical landscape of the 1960s was awash with countless groundbreaking artists redefining the sound of pop music. It was as though the advent of the decade had opened the floodgates for a backlog of artistic expression that gave way to potentially the most exciting period in musical history. Among those innovative new artists was Joni Mitchell, one of the most gifted singer-songwriters the world has ever seen. Despite her infallible impact on the world of songwriting, the Canadian never forgot the influences that first inspired her to musical greatness.
Joni Mitchell rose to prominence in the singer-songwriter boom of the 1960s, populated by such iconic names as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. You would be forgiven for thinking, therefore, that Mitchell took inspiration from her contemporaries to formulate her own distinctive sounds. In actuality, Mitchell tended to look further back and farther afield for the influences that would shape her career as a singer-songwriter.
The impact of Édith Piaf cannot be overstated within the history of popular music. Hailed as one of the greatest vocalists of all time, Piaf’s voice and influence transcended past her roots in 1940s France, impacting modern artists like Sparks, Marianne Faithfull and, of course, Joni Mitchell. In fact, Mitchell can still remember the first moment she heard Piaf’s distinctive tones in the unlikely setting of a children’s birthday party.
In 2005, the singer selected a range of tracks that were important to her, taking the opportunity to explain how some of these artists impacted her career. Within this collection, Mitchell recounts visiting her friend Helen’s house during childhood for a birthday party. During this party, she recounts hearing Piaf’s ‘Trois Cloches’ on the radio. “Captivated by the sound of it, I was drawn up from the table and out to the kitchen to listen closer,” Mitchell remembered. “When the song ended I asked Helen’s mother, ‘Who was that?’ She was tiny and sickly looking. She fidgeted with the bottom of her cardigan and she said, so shyly, ‘That was the Little Sparrow.’”
Piaf’s influence over Mitchell does not come as much of a shock; after all, anybody who has heard the deep emotional weight of much of Mitchell’s material could surely trace it back to the heartbreaking recordings of Piaf. However, the singer-songwriter was also impacted by influences much closer to home, such as the Prince of Soul, Marvin Gaye. Gaye had begun to achieve widespread commercial success around the same time that Mitchell was starting out in the music industry, which might go some way to explaining his influence over her.
Selecting the track ‘Trouble Man’, from his Tamla-released 12th studio album of the same name, as a particular favourite of hers, Mitchell revealed, “I had this song on an album and I kept the needle on this track – playing it over and over. It was so influential to my music and my singing.”
Adding, “It excites me from the downbeat – the way the drums roll in – the suspense – the approaching storm of it.”
Soul music might seem pretty far removed from the mellow folk stylings of Joni Mitchell, but the inherent emotion in Gaye’s work certainly draws parallels to some of the more emotionally charged tracks recorded by Mitchell. Either way, Gaye is in good company along with Édith Piaf as the vocalist who helped to form the stunning sounds of Joni Mitchell.
