TV News Today

MSNBC.com
April 14, 2000

April 14 — In 1965, a Canadian artist named Joni Mitchell came to the United States and started to sing. Recently she released yet another variation of her work — an album called “Both Sides Now.” It’s a critically acclaimed version of her own love songs and others, which she recorded with 70 members of the London Symphony Orchestra. Recently, Katie Couric sat down with Joni Mitchell for a rare television interview. Read their discussion below.

THERE WAS NO ONE quite like her. She was the hippie from Canada who taught herself to play the guitar and sing to make pin money for art school. She says she became a painter who sings.

“When I was in the sixth grade I was hanging up some paintings for a parent-teacher display and the 7th grade teach came up to me and asked me did I like to paint. I said, ‘Yes I do like to paint.’ He said, ‘Well if you can paint with a brush you can paint with words,’” says Mitchell.

And paint with words she has — for more than 30 years — one of the most extraordinary songwriters of her time.

“It was my desire as a young songwriter to create a song that got a little closer to the truth — so I guess it was the beginning of a certain direction,” she says.

A direction entirely her own — she is a rebel who reveres irreverence, and sang the blues about social injustice. She is a gifted musician who spoke of struggle for her generation — Joni Mitchell is a storyteller.

Says Mitchell, “I love the story. One of the first things I learned to say was, ‘more story, more story.’”

She was a mainstay on the American music scene in the 1960’s and 70’s — playing with greats like Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

"I don’t like to be boxed,” says Mitchell, “I’ve done my best to jump out of every box that they’ve put me in, you know?”

Joni Mitchell and her music have been tough to box. It is not rock, not folk, part jazz, all Joni.

Katie Couric: “How would you describe your music overall? People say, Joni Mitchell, what is your music? What would you tell them?”

Joni Mitchell: “It’s music. You know it comes from a personal muse. I guess I have a painter’s mentality to find a road, a path not taken.”

She has found that — on and off the airwaves — a path in and out of favor in the commercial music industry.

Katie Couric: “You have a lot of anger and bitterness towards the music industry.”

Joni Mitchell: “Oh well, you know where art and commerce meet has always been an ugly sight. You know, it’s corrupt, exploitative, shallow, greedy.”

Katie Couric: “But other than that, they’re a great group of people.” (Laughter)

Joni Mitchell: “It has nothing to do, music, that makes it to the radio. It’s just a jingle now, you know, just fodder to hold the station in a certain chromatic scale in order to pop a commercial into it. It’s completely formulated, it’s junk, you know.”

Katie Couric: “Does it frustrate you that in your view people just don’t get it sometimes? Or what they’re getting or what they’re wanting is not what you’re communicating?”

Joni Mitchell: “Yeah I find that frustrating. I’m a communicator.”

Katie Couric: “So you just keep on plugging? How do you deal with that?”

Joni Mitchell: “Well, my tail wind I guess has been people in the street, ‘Come on Joni!’ You know...”

Joni Mitchell has devoted fans, she has been honored for her work around the world, here in her adopted country and by old friends. Life and time have softened Joni Mitchell some, but it is still not easy being her.

In 1996, she, her only daughter, and her grandson found each other after a long, slow search. It was her only child whom she gave up for adoption 25 years ago.

Katie Couric: “Obviously a big development in your life was when you reconnected with your daughter and your grandchild. How has that changed your life?”

Joni Mitchell: “Well I’d rather not get into it. And like all families, it’s wrought with difficulties. You know it’s not all going to be clear sailing.”

But what is clear is the timelessness of her work and the respect of her peers who performed her songs in a recent tribute.

James Taylor: “She has such a will and such a gift and such a voice and you know, it’s just an extremely energetic source of art.”

Diana Krall: Stunning — continues to grow and change and move and that is what art is supposed to be about. I aspire to be like that to keep going like she is.”

While Joni Mitchell does continue, her voice has changed, and she says she’s blocked and cannot write songs now. She doesn’t feel needed.

Joni Mitchell: “This is not a time for me, you know. It’s the shallowest most unromantic time. It’s not my time.”

But as always, she goes on — recording her version of other people’s songs, with a lush orchestra and her own work, now even more real with time.