With songs such as “Big Yellow Taxi”, “A Case of You'' and “Both Sides Now”, Joni Mitchell has and continues to hold a big influence on the music industry. A part of the Candian’s succes was due to her struggle with polio. Mitchell was diagnosed with the disease at the young age of nine and due to the damage it had caused to her fingers, she was forced to rearrange the placement of her guitar chords. This way, the singer had managed to free herself from any musical strains that many other artists have struggled with in the past. She never settled with a single genre.
A large inspiration for her music derived from the unexpected pregnancy she went through during her early twenties in the 1960s. Mitchell, who at the time, was enrolled as an art student decided to give her newborn baby up for adoption. Little did she know that the experience would be the source of her many following hit songs.
Only a few years after the birth of her child, her music career blossomed. At around this time she got involved with fellow music artist David Crosby (from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), whom she moved to Laurel Canyon with. This Los Angeles neighborhood was infamous for inhabiting several hippie artists during the sixties and seventies. Among these were Carole King, James Taylor and The Beach Boys.
Throughout her extensive career, her efforts were always recognized. In 1970, Mitchell won her first grammy. Her album ‘Blue’ was named the 30th best album of all time by the music magazine Rolling Stone. Furthermore, in 1997 she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, who stated: “A brilliant musician [Joni Mitchell] and creative nomad, letting her muse take her where it will.”
Recently, the retired performer has been circulating around the media. Mitchell, who adopted the same protests as that of Neil Young, drastically removed her entire discography from the streaming service Spotify. This was due to the spreading of misinformation regarding the Covid-19 virus and vaccine, through a podcast exclusively available on Spotify. Spotify has yet failed to act.
Plenty of relevant artists today have proclaimed Joni Mitchell’s influence. To mention a few; Taylor Swift, Gracie Abrams and Lana del Rey. The immortal legacy of Joni Mitchell has paved the way for most of the music we listen to today.