Thanks to Los Angeles' Kakki for posting the link to Google's image
searching engine. I found a page of a kindred heart that some of us may
recognize as belonging in the chest of many jmdlers. Here's Lisa's story:
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http://www.arends-sons.com/~amyo/lisa/joni.html
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Twenty years ago I met the singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell when she came to
my hometown of Minneapolis on tour. At the time her career was somewhat in
eclipse - her folkie heyday had ended in the mid-seventies and she was in a
transitional, experimental period, collaborating with jazz artists like
Charlie Mingus. Though she had yet to be introduced to a new generation,
there were diehard fans enough to pack the Minneapolis auditorium where she
performed. A friend and I were lucky enough to secure front-row center seats
for the greatest live concert I have ever seen.
After the concert a small crowd of fans mingled outside, hoping to catch
a glimpse of the singer as she left the auditorium. I noticed a
friendly-looking middle-aged couple standing near me and struck up a
conversation with them. It turned out that they were the aunt and uncle of
one of the guitarists in her band. They were waiting for their nephew and
told me that Joni had left already and mentioned the hotel she and her
entourage were staying at.
The next morning I went to the hotel and hung around the lobby, hoping
for a glimpse of my idol. I gave a tip to a bellhop and asked him to pass
her a note I had written to her expressing my admiration and thanking her
for the wonderful concert the night before. A short time later a handsome
dark-skinned man came down to the lobby. I recognized him as Joni's
percussionist and also her boyfriend at the time.
"Are you the one who sent Joni the note?" he asked me. I said yes.
"Joni really liked that note," he said. "You ought to go up and see her."
Then he told me her room number!
On the way up the elevator the hotel manager stopped me and asked me
where I was going. I've never been much of a liar. "Up to the 13th floor," I
replied. "To see someone in Joni Mitchell's band." Technically this was
true. He let me go. It seems wildly improbable now that so many people were
helping me in my quest to meet my heroine, but these were the days before
John Lennon's murder and the other tragedies involving deranged fans. There
was a wall of privacy around celebrities at that time, but it was not as
impenetrable as it no doubt would be now.
I got off the elevator and walked down the hallway with a madly thumping
heart. The doors to her suite were open. As I approached the doorway I saw
her with her back to me, sitting at a card table, wearing a beret and eating
fried eggs and toast! As I tapped on the door and she turned, I could see
that her boyfriend had been mistaken, that of course she didn't want some
overly motivated fan coming to her hotel room at 9 A.M. But I was too
transfixed to leave. She was polite and asked me to please wait in the lobby
and she'd be right down to meet me.
After an hour or so back in the lobby I realized she wasn't coming down. I
went down to the parking garage to see if she had left the building, but no,
there was a bored-looking limo driver standing next to the entryway. We sat
talking while I kept one eye glued to the elevator. He never asked me what I
was doing there.
Sometime around 2 PM the elevator doors opened and out came Joni
Mitchell. She was so imposingly beautiful with her long crimped golden hair,
her sculpted cheekbones, her leather jacket and her guitar. She didn't seem
surprised to see me still waiting, but she must have taken pity on me,
because she was quite accomodating and posed for several pictures, including
this one (as seen below), taken by the trusty limo driver!
I was in such a tizz after this encounter that I couldn't eat for a
month. I look back and laugh at what an intrepid idiot I was. I woke up that
morning determined to meet my idol, and it never occured to me that I might
not. I was 20 years old then; now, at 40, I can't imagine going to so much
bother just to meet someone. And I am sorry that I disturbed Joni's privacy.
Her music continues to mean a great deal to me, though I rarely listen to it
anymore, mainly because I heard it so many times as a girl that it's a
permanent part of my psychic landscape. I'm glad I had the chance to meet
her for those few dazzling moments.
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