But I remember Sue Mingus saying at W2W something about some 3rd party (can't remember who) asking Mingus and Joni to collaborate on setting T.S. Elliot to music and Joni said no way she was going to try and do that so instead someone said, "Well Charles has been humming these melodies into a tape recorder would you like to try and do something with those"
From: Joni Mitchell Has Her Mojo Working - Los Angeles Times, 1979 http://www.jmdl.com/articles/view.cfm?id=595
"Word reached her a couple of years ago that Mingus had something in mind for her to do. When she called him, Mingus told her that he had an idea for a piece of music based on an excerpt from TS Elliot's "Four Quartets," with a full orchestra, and overlaid on it a bass and guitar, with a reader quoting Elliot. "He wanted me to distil Elliot down into street language, and sing it mixed with this reader."
"Though Mitchell was fascinated by the idea, and spent time reading the Elliot book, she decided that it was not feasible - "I called Charles back and told him I couldn't do it; it seemed like a kind of sacrilege."
------------- Does that help? Les
