The reason why Joni Mitchell decided to stop releasing new music: “My work is personal”
Joni Mitchell never tried to play the game of the music industry when she performed.
She knew the business was a necessary evil in many respects, and it was up to her to decide whether she was going to go by their rules or not, half the time. And while she did have perfect records from start to finish in many respects, she knew that there were songs that weren’t ready to be placed in the hands of corporate suits.
When looking at the industry today, it has only become more cutthroat than when Mitchell first started. She never saw herself in competition with anyone, like the other major songwriters seemed to do, but that’s because she existed in her own world a lot of the time. Many writers could claim to be fans of her writing, but was there anyone willing to lay their heart out like Blue or make music that was as sophisticated as what she was making when the LA Express came into the picture?
That didn’t mean she didn’t still try to make some shifts in her career, either. Every artist has those moments where they need to break out from their usual wheelhouse, but even when working on her 1980s albums like Dog Eat Dog, it was clear that the rest of the world wasn’t willing to accept a version of Mitchell that didn’t have an acoustic guitar in her hand playing songs like ‘Woodstock’.
But she had grown far beyond that kind of songwriter at that point, and even when she adopted a pure jazz tone to her work on Both Sides Now, she was still trying to innovate what she was doing. Then again, any artist who puts out a record has to remember that they are selling a product half the time as well, and Mitchell wasn’t willing to sacrifice her art for the sake of commercialising her stuff.
She wanted to make the music that she wanted to make, but it wasn’t solely about music. All forms of art meant a great deal to her, and when she talked about the troubles that she ran into when she started painting for the first time, she couldn’t help but see the connection between painting for her own pleasure and casually writing songs because she liked doing it.
When asked whether she would sell any of her paintings, Mitchell said that the idea of putting a price on her art is why she had to get out of the business, saying, “When money meets up with art, there is a lot of pain, and it’s the pain of ignorance, and I don’t want to meet up with that ignorance again. My work is personal, too vulnerable. That’s why I quit making records.” And judging by her track record of musical works of art, you can hear where she’s coming from.
Mitchell always seemed to construct many of her finest songs very much like a painter would, but when the track was over and people saw the finished canvas, it was hard for Mitchell to accept her songs being played on the radio at the same time. That’s when music becomes about having a hit single, and while it would be nice to have thousands of people listening to your song, it’s a lot more rewarding for any artist to play to an audience that they think their art would be better appreciated by.
So while Mitchell has had numerous moments where she took all of us on a musical ride with her songs, it’s not strictly about trying to feed the musical machine. She is far more content not having to hand her music into a label that didn’t know the first thing about music, and given all of the masterpieces she has made along the way, it’s totally understandable why she doesn’t feel the need to compromise her craft anymore.
