Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: Joni Mitchell

Sunday Diva/Three From The Hip: 

Joni Mitchell

In my own, personal, big gay church, there is a wing dedicated to Those of the Heart. These are the singers, songwriters and muses who have spent a lifetime capturing various aspects of the human condition. Frequently, due to the whims of the music industry and the political climate, their lives and careers were not always their own... but they persevered... ultimately remaining true to their roles as seers of the heart. One such voice?

Joni Mitchell.

Talk about hip. 

Yes, she's a folkie at heart, Ladies Of The Canyon and all of that...

But for a time she fancied herself a jazz princess. And then in in the eighties she took on the rather industrial nature of the era. Ultimately, she came home to herself. 

Not a bad place to be.

Cryptic rhythms. Casting aspersions. Communicating by means of The Mystery Code. 

A poet. A painter. A musician. A writer. 

A siren. A seer. A bohemian sophisticate. 

Always true to herself. Always her path, her highway. 

And that omnipresent cigarette. 

She curls like a wisp of smoke caught in the light. 

And so she always will.

The gospel according to her?

Well, here are three from the hip, dropping from her lips. 

The Topic: Superficial Romance

"I don’t know if I’ve learned anything yet! I did learn how to have a happy home, but I consider myself fortunate in that regard because I could’ve rolled right by it. Everybody has a superficial side and a deep side, but this culture doesn’t place much value on depth - we don’t have shamans or soothsayers, and depth isn’t encouraged or understood. "

"Surrounded by this shallow, glossy society we develop a shallow side, too, and we become attracted to fluff. That’s reflected in the fact that this culture sets up an addiction to romance based on insecurity — the uncertainty of whether or not you’re truly united with the object of your obsession is the rush people get hooked on. I’ve seen this pattern so much in myself and my friends and some people never get off that line."

"But along with developing my superficial side, I always nurtured a deeper longing, so even when I was falling into the trap of that other kind of love, I was hip to what I was doing. I recently read an article in Esquire magazine called ‘The End of Sex,’ that said something that struck me as very true. It said: “If you want endless repetition, see a lot of different people. If you want infinite variety, stay with one.” What happens when you date is you run all your best moves and tell all your best stories — and in a way, that routine is a method for falling in love with yourself over and over. You can’t do that with a longtime mate because he knows all that old material."

Big Yellow Taxi / Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell

Freeman In Paris - Joni Mitchell

Nothing Can Be Done - Joni Mitchell

And one last parting shot...

"With a long relationship, things die then are rekindled, and that shared process of rebirth deepens the love. It’s hard work, though, and a lot of people run at the first sign of trouble. You’re with this person, and suddenly you look like an asshole to them or they look like an asshole to you - it’s unpleasant, but if you can get through it you get closer and you learn a way of loving that’s different from the neurotic love enshrined in movies. It’s warmer and has more padding to it.”