Joni Mitchell, real name Roberta Joan Anderson, was a Canadian experimental singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the 1970s. She was well-known for the song Big Yellow Taxi. Do you know what was Joni Mitchell’s condition before releasing a greatest hits album?
The album is a companion piece to Hits, which was released on the same day. Mitchell agreed to her record company’s request to release a greatest hits album on the condition that she also release Misses.
Turning Polio into Fame
Joni Mitchell was born Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort Macleod, Canada, on November 7, 1943. Mitchell contracted polio at the age of nine, and during her recovery in the hospital, she began performing and singing to patients.
After teaching herself to play the guitar, she went to art college and quickly established herself as one of the leading folk performers of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
It was coming Christmas. I went in and, I don’t know now, I think I went in in October, And, you know, it was 100 miles away from home and Christmas was rolling around. My mother came to visit me once. With a mask over her face and a haunted look in her eyes, she came in.
Joni Mitchell
she would never be able to walk again. As a result, he informed her that she would be unable to return home for Christmas. She began to teach herself to walk by the light of her Christmas tree lights in her room.
Instead of allowing her illness to depress her, Mitchell turned to music. She started performing for the other children in the hospital. Mitchell would eventually make a career out of turning personal tragedy into song.
Mitchell’s compositions were highly original and personal in their lyrical imagery at the start of her career. While she was still in her teens, her folk-music style drew the attention of folk-music audiences in Toronto. She moved to the United States in the mid-1960s and released her first album, Joni Mitchell, in 1968, produced by David Crosby.
Other well-received albums followed. Joni Mitchell received her first Grammy Award for best folk performance for her sophomore album, Clouds, in 1969. Ladies of the Canyon, her third album, was a mainstream success for the folk singer, becoming her first gold album and featuring the hits The Circle Game and Big Yellow Taxi. It was during this time that she began to experiment with pop and rock genres. (Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
Was Joni Mitchell Married Before She Became Famous?
Joni Anderson, a pre-fame Mitchell, married Chuck Mitchell in 1965. They were musicians who worked as a duo. Chuck was said to be an expert at making Mitchell feel inferior. He was older and more educated, so he gave book recommendations and lyric edits with a smug air.
You gotta drop this guy.
Joan Baez, Folk Singer Legend
Mitchell divorced her husband after two years of marriage, but she chose to keep his surname.
There’s an old saying. It says: If you make a good marriage, God bless you. If you make a bad marriage, become a philosopher.
Joni Mitchell
(Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune)