Another pet peave of mine that I know has been mentioned here before is the fact that when they do show Joni clips, it's like she quit making music after recording "Help Me". She's made videos in the eighties and nineties, and has made appearances. Why must we always have
this picture in our heads of her strumming her dulcimer to "California" or giggling at the end of "Big Yellow Taxi"? >>I think most of us are equally dismayed by the popular/media portrayal of Joni as "that folksinger," a portrayal that JM has also expressed dismay over. It pretty much makes me sick (though of course I do have other things to think about) when I hear or see that sort of thing. Somehow, around five years ago when all the tribute stuff started, Big Yellow Taxi became Joni's signature song (perhaps because it has been covered so much in recent years). Even during the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award presentation, they chose a clip of an early, folky performance of Both Sides Now. It's even as if the public has forgotten Court & Spark/Help Me and is now permanently associating Joni with Ladies of the Canyon and Blue. Sure, there are worse things to be associated with, but when I think of a typical Mitchell song, I think of a more complex sort of pop music, jazzy and sensual with emphasis on bass and unusual rhythms. But then again, I started listening in 1974-5 rather than stopping then, which it seems is the dominant trend. Bryan
