BlueBlueAfternoon

From: Jzero1 9/16/99 10:47 pm
To: ALL 1 of 4

I lifted the following portion of Joni Mitchell's bio from UBL.Com

>>>>>> "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century. Uncompromising and iconoclastic, Mitchell confounded expectations at every turn; restlessly innovative, her music evolved from deeply-personal folk stylings into pop, jazz, avant-garde and even world music, presaging the multi-cultural experimentation of the 1980s and 1990s by over a decade. Fiercely independent, her work steadfastly resisted the whims of both mainstream audiences and the male-dominated recording industry -- while Mitchell's records never sold in the same numbers enjoyed by contemporaries like Carole King, Janis Joplin, and Aretha Franklin, none experimented so recklessly with their artistic identities or so bravely explored territory outside of the accepted confines of pop music, resulting in a creative legacy which paved the way for performers ranging from Patti Smith and Chrissie Hynde to Madonna and Courtney Love. The commercial and critical approval awarded her landmark 1971 record Blue was unprecedented: a luminous, starkly confessional set written primarily during a European vacation, the album firmly established Mitchell as one of pop music's most remarkable and insightful talents.">>>>>>>>>>>>>

After reading two-thirds of Joni Mitchell's unauthorized biography entitled "Both Sides Now" written by Brian Hinton, I (Jzero) started noticing a lot of similarities between Joni and Tim.
For instance...Tim left his beautiful wife Mary before their son Jeff was born in order to pursue his singing career. Joni put her daughter up for adoption immediately after giving birth, because she too wanted to devote herself to her music.

Tim and Joni both hung out in Laurel Canyon from time to time, but in different circles.

In July of 1966 Tim's new manager Herb Cohen showcased Tim at the Night Owl Cafe in Greenwich Village where Jac Holzman (founder and president of Elektra Records)promptly offered Tim a recording deal.
In 1967 Joni was discovered by her manager Elliott Roberts at the Cafe Au Go Go in Greenwich Village while opening for Richie Havens. Elliott then secured her a contract deal with Reprise Records.

Tim and Joni both used their voices as musical instruments on various occasions .

Tim was given enormous creative control over all his albums for Elektra and also had a free reign in the control booth at Warner and Discreet Records.
Joni never used a producer other than herself except for 2 of her 20 albums.

They both left the world of folk oriented music to explore folk-blues and then folk-jazz and/or rock-jazz fusion. Tim, of course, delved more deeply into the avant-garde jazz milieu than did Joni.

In February of 1970 Tim released "Blue Afternoon" containing songs of sadness with introspective lyrics. The album contains songs entitled "So Lonely", "The River", and "Blue Melody".
Always a year behind Tim, Joni released the album "Blue"in July of 1971. It contains songs of loneliness and remorse. One of the songs called "Little Green" is about her daughter that she gave up at birth for adoption. In the 1969 album "Happy Sad", Tim also sings a song to his little boy Jeff whom he abandoned at birth entitled "Dream Letter". Other titles on Joni's album are "River" and of course the title track "Blue".

Tim frequently refered to jazz musicians such as Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis as early influences; while Joni likewise hailed Davis and Mingus as musical heroes. Later on, in 1978 Joni was contacted by the legendary jazz bassist Charles Mingus, who invited her to work with him on a musical interpretation of T.S. Eliot's "Four Quartets". Mingus, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease, sketched out a series of melodies to which Mitchell added lyrics; however, Mingus died on January 5, 1979 before the record was completed. After Mitchell completed their collaboration on her own, she recorded the songs under the title "Mingus", which was released the summer after the jazz titan's passing. As a side note, I'd like to point out that one of Charles Mingus' albums released in 1957 was called "Tijuana Moods". Tim Buckley's last recording was originally called "Tijuana Moon" before someone decided to change the title to "Look At The Fool".

As most everyone in this forum knows, Tim's 1970 release "Lorca" and his 1971 release "Starsailor" explored both experimental and avant-garde jazz stylings which rendered both to be wholly uncommercial. I think Joni saw what happened to Tim's career and backed off from delving too deeply into the free form jazz arena. She did however, continue to create music which combined folk, blues, jazz, and rock. Her next two albums "Court and Spark" and "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" both exhibited this new fusion technique. Joe Sample, Larry Carlton, and Tom Scott all contributed a great deal to these efforts.
Tim, on the other hand, was pressured into abandoning his desire to continue persuing jazz, mainly because his albums did not sell and he lost a large portion of his audience. I think Joni learned from Tim's mistakes and made sure that she didn't fall off the same cliff. This is only conjecture on my part.

Sadly, Joni became a legend and a multi-millionaire, while Tim gave up everything for his art and died almost penniless.