Joni Mitchell Disses “Greedy” Woodstock Generation -

Joni Mitchell Disses “Greedy” Woodstock Generation

4:26 PM GMT 31/12/2007

IN A FASCINATING, in-depth interview in the latest MOJO magazine – on the shelves Tuesday – Joni Mitchell turns her back on the “peace and love” generation.

Quizzed by MOJO’s Robert Hilburn on the long-term impact of the musical and cultural strides made by her contemporaries, she described them as “the greediest generation in the history of America”, and despaired of the example they have shown subsequent generations.

Asked about the strong undercurrent of discontent in her most recent album, 2007’s Shine, she replied…

“I was angry at the handling of New Orleans and how quick the American people were to impeach a man for sex and how slow to move on other things that made everyone in the world want to nuke America. I was also angry at the inability of this generation to know what to do; their inability to move at all, which is an unusual thing for youth.”

Asked what she meant exactly, she went into overdrive.

“In their youth, my generation was ready to change the world, but when the baton was passed to them in the ‘70s, they fell into a mass depression because all revolutionaries are quick to demolish and slow to fix. When handed the baton to fix it, they didn’t know what to do so they kind of degenerated into the greediest generation in the history of America. The hippie, yippie, yuppie transition from the ’60s to the ’70s to the greedy ’80s and Ronald Reagan – my generation dropped the baton and spawned this totally lacklustre generation.

“Machiavelli said, ‘People don’t know what to do with peace. It always degenerates into fashion and fornication,’ and that’s what we have. We are not building the kind of strong people in this third generation that we are going to need for the catastrophes that lie ahead. They aren’t getting any ethical instruction. I’m reluctant to say moral because it can get so diabolical. The things that are done in the name of morality are completely diabolical.”

All this and more in the latest MOJO, out January 2, 2008!

Posted by Danny_Eccleston at 4:26 PM GMT 31/12/2007

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Thank you Joni for expressing the truth about our generation & the current one. I look at the kids today & wonder,"where is the fire ?

Posted by Jeannie Walker at 10:32 PM GMT 01/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Artists have the best antenna and Joni's a smart straight shooter dispite the beautiful abstract poetry and music that has her commonly referred to as genius. How nice to see someone evolving publicly. 'Moral' is indeed a scarey word to seem to come out of our now adult mouths, but why are we enabling stupidity and feeding on scandal when we can celebrate beauty and move forward towards goals that are positive? Smart people need to open their mouths and applaud quaility and good and not give power to dishonesty and the selfish.

Posted by James Yarosh at 2:44 AM GMT 02/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Maybe at this stage of American devolution a larger audience will finally be ready to listen to Joni - musically, artistically, politically - every way. She's obviously one of our most brilliant minds, period.

Posted by Tara at 3:39 AM GMT 02/01/2008 Report Abuse

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The artist can do more than comment, she can fix too!

Posted by Captpierro at 11:38 AM GMT 02/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni is 100% right. It took over 30 years for us to start to follow the ideas & realities of Earth Day. "Greed is good" seems to have replaced "Peace" as our moto.

Posted by Cal at 5:20 PM GMT 02/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni, one of the most insightful celebrities has a lot to say. What we as a culture should do is LISTEN! No one knows all, but she knows a lot more than most! Just listen to the new CD "SHINE". A work of excellence! We should all be so lucky to have her gift. Tell it like it is Joni! We love you!

Posted by Jody L. Spaziani at 6:06 PM GMT 02/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni Mitchell is right on in this article
and its sad, people got to pick themselves up
and start paying attention, so few people
have opinions about things, they just don't
seem to care whats going on in this country never mind the world. I can't remember in America's history when our youth were not involved when it came to defending the very freedoms
we all have cherished for the past several
hundred years. Young people just think someone else will take care of that job.
I'm proud I was born in the late 50's and
grew up in a generation that was all about
building a better future, it certainly wasn't perfect but now a days everyones on a fast track to making as much
money as they can and collecting, collecting, obtaining as many
electronic gadgets and hang around entertaining themselves, locked behind their homes & apartment
doors. No one even knows their neighbors,
everyones on their cell phone talking mostly
about nothing. Will any of these presidental
canidates have what it takes to get people
to listen? Great article Joni.

Posted by Jeff at 1:47 AM GMT 03/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Jeannie Walker

easy for her to say

Posted by at 3:07 AM GMT 04/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Jeannie Walker

easy for her to say

Posted by at 3:07 AM GMT 04/01/2008 Report Abuse

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I have been a devoted supporter of Joni's work for almost forty years. Consequently I find it more and more dispiriting to read her increasingly bigoted, conceited, self-deluded criticisms of everybody and everything except herself. If being a confessional poet meant delivering lines like "I'm just living on nerves and feelings/With a weak and a lazy mind/And coming to people's parties/Fumbling deaf, dumb and blind?" then I'm not surprised she's so quick to disown the label, given that the best she can manage now is a lot of defensive hectoring in which everything is someone else's fault. I preferred it when she was more willing to talk about her own shortcomings with insight, humour and humility. What right does she think she has to lecture the rest of us on the state of the world when she has done conspicuously nothing, from her position as a wealthy celebrity, to contribute any positive action for change - unlike many of her contemporaries, Carole King and Peter Gabriel, to name two?

I found the Mojo article sad. I couldn't read beyond the point where she claimed the public's perception that her singing voice has deteriorated is just another aspect of mass ignorance. She might be hoping that someone out there is willing to believe she can still sing across three octaves. But, to quote Dylan, it ain't me babe.

Posted by Chris Mills at 6:46 PM GMT 04/01/2008 Report Abuse

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I couldn't find the Joni Mitchell interview in the January 2008 issue of Mojo (Amy Winehouse is on the cover) carried by Borders in Falls Church, VA. Does Mojo publish a separate British edition?

Any help tracking down the article will be appreciated.

Posted by Looking_for_a_cause_too at 7:02 PM GMT 04/01/2008 Report Abuse

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The generation that was "ready to change the world" hadn't a clue how to go about change. What to do? Protest! Sit in! Liberate! Confrontation only alienated anyone who may have been willing to at least hear them out. The ideologies were half-baked and antagonistic from the outset.
The seeds of greed were best captured in Abby Hoffman's "Steal This Book" which was a guide on how to rip off "the man". In the final analysis it gave the reader a sense of entitlement without instilling any sense of work ethic, fairness, or interdependence. You want it, take it. Got a problem with that, motherf**ker?
Contrary to Machiavelli's statement, fashion and fornication were the hallmarks of the hippies. The rot was already present; it didn't come after "peace" arrived with the end of the Vietnam war.
Malcolm Muggeridge observed that the best and brightest of the 60s generation ultimately wanted the same thing as the old boys club debauchers: dope and sex.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
DON'T get fooled again!

Posted by Frederick Harrison at 3:12 AM GMT 05/01/2008 Report Abuse

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So I bought the new album...and, yeah, she's quite pissed at the situation. She disses Christianity yet still yearns to get back to the Garden; lambastes the masculine gender, big money, and urban sprawl, yet can afford ocean front property - with piano - in the wilderness of the west coast; forsees gloom and doom, yet implores us to let our light shine, quoting Kipling's "If" as the album closer. Contrasts and contradictions. Pessimism and hope. Wanting the best but fearing the worst. Cynical and cautious - a long way from the child that came out to wonder in the Circle Game.
Bruce Cockburn travelled much the same path on his "You've Never Seen Everything" album of several years past, taking an unflinching look at the human condition at its worst, yet somehow managing to remind us that delight, hope, light, and truth still abound. One of the songs on that album (Everywhere Dance) could've been written by Joni - one would swear he borrowed her muse to write it. He's retained much of the child-like wonder, despite witnessing some of the worst atrocities. Chalk it up to his faith, I suppose.
Paul Simon's "Surprise" album mines many of the same themes and reminds us of family, prayer, forgiveness, and the debt we owe to the next generation. New life in the form of a daughter rekindles his optimism and concern.
Years ago, Joni found her lost daughter that she'd given up for adoption, found she'd become a grandmother, but then the relationship turned sour. Perhaps that's what's behind the tone of her latest. Recriminations and accusuations over what's gone down with her family, her extended human family, and her generation in particular. As far as optimism goes, running on empty (Jackson Browne), but deperately wanting to believe there's still hope. And being reminded of an old warning to avoid gaining the whole world but losing your soul in the process.

Posted by Frederick Harrison at 4:14 AM GMT 05/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Chris Mills

I think Chris Mills hit it right on the head. I have listened to Joni Mitchell for years since the beginning of her career in Canada.

I read the article in MOJO... It is the same thing over and over and over...

She has put herself on a pedistal as the authority and criticizes everyone else. Be it in the music business or whatever. Face it - when you a three pack a day chain smoker your voice goes. And this goes show on shine with it's vocal limitations. But neither here or there...

Yes the world is a mess - but what is she really doing that gives here the right to criticiize... so she made a nice little art exhibition taking photographs off a defective TV.

Unfortunately Joni Mitchell has become a cranky old lady.

Posted by Allan Thomson at 1:36 PM GMT 05/01/2008 Report Abuse

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"All for evil to triumph, is for good men (and women) to do nothing."
The rpoblem begins and ends with the way our leaders and representatives are elected.
Until there is true campaign finance reform and term limits nothing will change. We as the people of the United States are responsible for taking back our government. We allow laywers, insurance companies and other interest groups to control oour choices mainly because many of us make a good living doing so.

Posted by Roy at 4:11 PM GMT 05/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Well said, Joni. The apathy and religious perversion of our country are pathetic. Same with our unbridled consumption despite the environmental emergency facing us.

http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com

Posted by marguerite manteau-rao at 11:49 PM GMT 05/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni Mitchell is a great artist, one of the finest. I have always loved her music. However, her failure to grow up and see the world for what it really is amazes me. If she thinks that "morality" is "diabolical, no wonder she believes that a sitting president having sex with an intern (and lying about it) is no big deal. Also, news flash ... the yuppies made much more wealth under Bill Clinton than Ronald Reagan, and the failures of the Democrats in power down in New Orleans had at least as much to do with the suffering of the folks down there than anyone in Washington. In the future, please spare us the weary leftist rants and keep making the great music.

Posted by Dave at 10:58 PM GMT 07/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Brutality is the effect tar and nicotine has on a set of brilliant heaven sent vocal cords. Innocence is thinking all good things don't come to an end. Artifice is deliberately shifting focus to external issues as the cause for all of what is wrong with the world. She's to blame for the polluted sound of her performance.

Joni is a super star who's light is fading quickly. Like Sir Paul, she'll always have the title. However, I think the last album she will make with this contract should be mostly instrumental, with accompanying lyrics similar to Paprika Plains. Perhaps, she'll get others to sing the new material, while she whispers through the oxygen tubes. What a drag, both literally and figuratively.

I will read the article later, but hope it does have the same old lines that have grown so stale to my mindset. The teacher cracking her knuckles, and all the rest of the gauntlet press release whines.

Posted by at 1:18 AM GMT 08/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Dave

You are right on, Dave! I used to say, "Shut up and sing." I'm almost at "Shut up and go away."

Joni, what specifically would have been your action plan assuming "the baton was passed"?

It is so tiresome hearing the lefty entertainment crowd bitch and moan, never offering solutions other than "peace and love".

Posted by Robert at 4:11 PM GMT 08/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Um, I just read the interview, and it's really not that bad. Yes, Joni rants, but if any of you works for a magazine, you will know that even Q&A-style interviews are edited heavily. And that editing can sometimes make comments seem much more abrupt, or sometimes whole paragraphs that might balance a negative remark are cut. I get tired, too, of Joni ranting about the same subjects, but I'd really love for an interviewer to talk to her strictly about music. I think Joni is waiting for that interviewer, too, and in the meantime she's increasingly pissed at the nonmusical topics she has to address over and over.

Posted by John at 8:50 PM GMT 08/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni has many talents, no doubt.

Singer, song writer, painter ... if you can get past the incredible egoism and narcissism. Typical of many only children, everything revolves around self. How many self-portraits before you get sick of your own face?

Let's not take the talent/attributes above and elevate her to sage status. She has yet to express an opinion that is her very own. Such hypocrisy. Where in all the socialist/pacifist rhetoric/criticism of her generation and the present one does she actually advance intelligent, productive ideas?

Joni has always been a loner and an industrial-strength whiner. She has been whining for years the record companies have been ripping her off. Can't be too bad, she has a mansion in California. Talk about greed.

Morality. Her sense of morality is, not surprising, an ideomatic one. She defends the man convicted of sex, purposefully ignoring the fact that his crime was perjury among other things. Her own sex life is one of legend - Miss Lay. How many lovers have you had Joni? More than enough to deny you the moralist's podium.

Joni, take off your socialist sunshades! If you search for the truth you still just might find it. We'll both be shocked if you do find it.

I suppose I should get out my stop watch to see how long this post remains on line.

Posted by at 11:34 PM GMT 08/01/2008 Report Abuse

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It is incredible that Joni Mitchell generates this amount of antipathy and hatred. Perhaps thirty years of conservative rule have completely closed the minds and hearts of most of her contemporaries. Does the fact that she is successful and well off deny her the right to have opinions? Perhaps, as one of the commentators said, had the interviewer stuck to musical questions, rather than bait her, the tone of the interview would be entirely different. But, then again, the magazine has to sell controversy to sell copies. It is mostly symptomatic of the fact that this is a sexist, male-dominated society where strong women are feared, hated, and denigrated. And, I happen to be a male. It's nobody's business how many lovers she's had, how many packs of smokes she inhales daily, and how big her mansions are. No wonder she is fed up with the state of this society and the state of the music business. When Britney Spears' self destructive antics and garbage music garner exponentially more attention than real artists at work, there's little incentive to put oneself out there for public ridicule and scorn. To all of those who can't stand Joni Mitchell, I suspect this may be the last gasp you'll hear from her. If I were in shoes, I'd ask myself "why bother"?

Posted by A Fan at 8:37 AM GMT 09/01/2008 Report Abuse

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LEAVE JONI ALONE!

Posted by at 8:43 AM GMT 09/01/2008 Report Abuse

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I have heard the rag on Joni for many years...
that is what gets old, that rhetoric. She expressed her opinion, which for many years & subjects, she did not. She was criticized for that. She was criticized for "going" Jazz...So she has had lovers, what a sexist comment someone here made. She is a musician and a single woman, and much sought after, and a gypsy lifestyle surrounded by hot men. The men in her position haven't had their share? She is passionate and gifted and such a pioneer, so avant garde in that way, all round. I don't mind her complaints, perhaps it isn't "cool"...but it is real, Joni is a writer, honesty is key. For the record, I don't think Herbie suffers fools, those so quick to pass judgement. Joni, here's to you at the Grammys. Edith And The Kingpin, as sung by Tina Turner is just priceless and illuminates the brillance of you as songwriter, one of our finest. I turned my freind's son on to your music, a 19 yr old. drummer who is blind, on scholarship at LAMA. I even got the DVD so he could hear Jaco's solo, that was not on the DVD, Shadows And Light. He appreciates your music. And take a glance at The Last Waltz, Joni on stage with Neil, The Band, et al. She blazes, putting them all on notice.
...from a fan since the beginning, and still...

Album Of The Year
River: The Joni Letters
Herbie Hancock
Leonard Cohen, Norah Jones, Joni Mitchell, Corinne Bailey Rae, Luciana Souza &
Tina Turner, featured artists; Herbie Hancock & Larry Klein, producers; Helik
Hadar, engineer/mixer; Bernie Grundman, mastering engineer
[Verve]

Best Pop Instrumental Performance
One Week Last Summer
Joni Mitchell
Track from: Shine
[Hear Music]

Posted by kay taylor at 6:40 AM GMT 11/01/2008 Report Abuse

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No folks, you don't get it. While we putzed around the house, worked for corporations, wrote little comments like we do here, Joni was working hard on painting, learning instruments, writing songs,learning from many lovers, hanging out with the richest AND the poorest. So she's cantankerous, we should all be at the rate it's going. The voice sounds great, it's all how you look at it. The amount of insight one has to have to create just one of her many works says it all. We didn't, we can't or won't, and there are few who bother. She states her case and goes back to her lovely house(s). I don't blame her, I'd need it to, after braving it out there in the public eye after 40 years. I'll take the contradictions, par for the course, she's a genius.

Posted by bart at 3:58 AM GMT 13/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Oh and one more thing, she's an artist, not a social worker.

Posted by bart at 4:04 AM GMT 13/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: bart
Exactly...you said it, well done and yes she is an artist, a songwriter and a painter, and her voice is beautiful, more so in fact, and in all respects. Tonight I just heard some local jazz musicians, James Whiton & The Downtown Apostles in Seattle. It was quite noisy with some college students and a rather drunk hippie kind of guy, "performing," til finally the bartender ushered him out. During the break I remarked to the trumpet player about a film clip I saw recently on YouTube of Joni at the Isle Of Wright. She stopped and addressed the audience asking for some respect. She was so young and so bold and so right. I love that about her. When the band then did Mingus, I knew my comment wasn't lost on them.
Today is my son's 25th birthday, he is a musican, a composer and plays all the instruments on his recordings. I sang Circle Game to him, many, many nights when he was a boy. Guess it had an effect. Thank you Joni.

Posted by kay taylor at 11:00 AM GMT 13/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni got her MOJO working...
but it just won't work on you!

Got my mojo working meaning
'My magic charm is working'.

Origin:
In the early 20th century mojo meant voodoo or magical power; more recently this has been extended to mean power of influence of any kind.

Joni's MOJO always work on me guys! Very strange indeed...

Posted by Jojothepojo at 9:53 PM GMT 15/01/2008 Report Abuse

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I've noticed this pattern in recent years: Joni is attacked for two things: her politics and the "decline" of her voice.

Like a lot of people, I don't like whining but most of her views seem on target. If anything, I think she's too idealistic and sometimes naive. Of course, she's also cantankerous and wildly opinionated. Perhaps this justaposition of romantic idealism and flat-out anger makes people uneasy. I do think that an outspoken, angry guy who spoke the same as Mitchell would be applauded for strength and force of will. In mythology and even in the old testament, prophets are respected and revered while the Cassandras are dismissed as nutcases.

Finally, I too miss the three octave voice which was brilliant, original and sometimes breathtaking. I also wish she'd stop smoking. However, as with many gifted singers (particularly opera stars who tend to retire in their 40s), the voice is simply passing through and is bound to decline. That's part of life, particularly for a woman in her 60s. There are lots of singers of Mitchell's era who have noticeably diminished voices (Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, CSN&Y, et al) but nobody seems to mind. Joni's current alto voice is heartfelt and beautifully expressive; she's written some of her most beautiful melodies in the new CD. Rants aside, I'm grateful that she's back.

Posted by MartinB981 at 10:58 PM GMT 16/01/2008 Report Abuse

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I wish that Ms Mitchell was innocent or above all this greed that she speaks of, but she speaks from experience.I once met her and I poured out my soul to her only to be used by her.I guess she thinks I should consider myself lucky to have talked to her. But back in 1975 I was just a kid and she a worldly woman. What this world lacks is Love and Forgiveness. I don't have all that much time left but if I could leave only one message. I Love you Joni and I forgive you, from a strange boy.

Posted by Willie Yanock at 9:13 PM GMT 20/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Chris Mills

Posted by at 12:33 PM GMT 21/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Hear hear, there there, dear oh dearie. David Crosby was right about Ms Mitchell re: his remark about... now, what was it... erm... oh well, senior moments. So shut up you ancient thing.

Posted by Declan Lewis at 3:00 PM GMT 23/01/2008 Report Abuse

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David Crosby was right about Ms Mitchell when he remarked.... erm, what was it now? Oh well, senior moments. So shut up, you old thing.

Posted by Declan Lewis at 3:02 PM GMT 23/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Hi Joni,

I have been on the ride since 1966 and like you have watched each generation evolve since the suits commercialized our love generation into a watered down 'feel good' mood, instead of the intense searching for a higher truth and love into unchartered lands that moved us. (Along with the Sandoz, Owsley and Black Nep!)

I have also evolved to the conclusion that all the 'conspiracy theories' from the '60's have come to be true, and the demons will not be satisfied until they have their own 'Big Bang' in five to six years from now. Therefore, instead of "Tune-In, Turn-On, Drop-Out." I am following a new philosophy: "Milk the Beast!" Take it for all it's worth. Bleed it dry and use the money to set yourself and your loved one's up to survive the coming nuclear holocaust. Of course all the successful 'Love Generation' musicians did this long ago... they can complain about others becoming wealthy, but if you want to see the coming Golden Age, you are going to need a bunch o' cash. Find yourself a teet, hang on and MILK IT!

This is NOT a greed-fest, remember - only the meek inherit.

Posted by Profit_Able at 4:21 PM GMT 23/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Jody L. Spaziani

Jody,
I see you are still as enamored with Joni as when you paid homage to her on the school wall. She may have spun some deep tunes in her day, but that doesn't make every word out of her mouth gospel.

Posted by M at 1:30 AM GMT 24/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Well, Joni is an artist, a singer, a songwriter, a composer.

Someone commented on her mansion in California... it's relatively modest in comparison to the vile sprawling things I've seen on 'Cribs' or whatever that programme is called... and the house in Canada - she calls it her 'stone reform school' it is a split level room that she and a carpenter built in the early 70's. More of a retreat as it had no electricity. She might have a piano up there, wouldn't you if your job was a musician?

Some people are just too quick to strike others without actually knowing the full facts.

To me her voice has changed but really not too much since 'Mingus'. There's more texture to it, more like Billie Holiday, more expressiveness without the aerial accrobatics.
The interview certainly makes her sound more cranky (perhaps Robert Hilburn and Joni have a long standing relationship - see the www.jonimitchell.com and search 'hilburn') so there was an air of old friends in the interview. You're more candid with old friends, you don't expect them to make you sound ungenerous or high and mighty. I think there was a case of this here.

I wish I could be as astute as her.

As for the album, her songs offer more questions to think about and reflect on our lives, rather than taking a school-ma'am approach by telling us what to do. Would anyone have listened?

Having said that, there is a veiled attempt at getting us to recycle. That's about as didactic as she gets.

Posted by Jamie Zubairi at 5:33 PM GMT 25/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Maybe she feels a bit guilty about her own contribution to this generalized claim of "the greediest generation"? Back in the mid 70's, at the height of her fame, she was shown hobnobbing at parties in her fancy attire, swimming languidly in her heated pool, feature stories about her designer home in "Architectural Digest", and singing lines like, "I'm rich and I'm fey..." She set the example and the bar for what it's like to have made it, to have lots of money for trips to tropic shores, etc. Maybe she does not realize the influence she had on the culture? She made it chic to be rich and the yuppies followed suit. We all know the rest.

Posted by at 4:19 PM GMT 26/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Jeannie Walker wot have we done today too make people of the future feel proud lets consider that and keep provoking thought as joni and people worldwide should peace love and happiness always should be a basic right nozza

Posted by nozza at 10:30 PM GMT 27/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni is a great artist, but it is easy to forget that the "hippies" were always in the minority during the late 60's. The media has made them out to be representative of the "younger generation," but the "younger generation" far out numbered the "hippies." That is why those relatively small number of folks felt like outsiders and renamed themselves "freaks." They did not take the baton. It was never handed to them. Many of those old "hippies" are still around. They work in hospitals, stores, factories, and all the same places where we all toil in order to survive.
The history of mankind, like any other organism, doesn't offer much hope. If living things were designed, rather that created by chance, then that design was clearly diabolical. Religion, science, philosophy, and moral concepts are all very human attempts to improve our existence, but, due to the nature of our design, the best we can do is minimize the damage we cause as we go through life. The Jainists were the closest to the real solution, but even their lifestyle is not without destruction. Joni is simply struggling with that reality. The simple statement that sums it all up, and I'm sure you've all heard, is this: Life's a beach, and we are all whales...
or something like that.

Posted by crile wood at 5:19 PM GMT 28/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: Captpierro

What has she fixed? Too many celebrity know all the answers. Talk is cheap. Stick to singing and painting please.

PS, the impeachement was not about sex. It was about two counts of perjury, one of obstruction of justice and one of abuse of power. To say it was all about sex is to trivialize the Clinton's actions. Even the president must follow the rule of law. Had he been moral and honest it would have never come to it's ugly end.

Posted by tdstout at 7:40 PM GMT 29/01/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni Mitchell's music makes me think. Better yet, it makes me feel. I don't really care about her politics or her house or her former boyfriends. If you don't like her and wish to get back at her somehow, then write some better songs than she does. Then I'll listen to you.

Posted by Montana at 12:23 AM GMT 31/01/2008 Report Abuse

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RE: kay taylor
Ok. I am going to reply here to my post, once more, to clarify. When I brought up Edith & The Kingpin as covered by Tina Turner, in no way did I mean to understate Joni's original version. Her rhythmic poetic imagery, take, and taste stand alone, check the words. Her music was funky lullaby, pure; her phrasing & delivery, sublime; the expansive voice, the presence, the musicians. What Hancock does here, rearranging Joni's song, with Tina, and others, is reflexive, in that it illuminates in context. Like other brilliant songwriters who are covered, it reveals more about the original creation. Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Night Ride Home, Shine, and many other releases, have been underrated, sometimes panned. How much brilliance does it take to convince the philistines?
As for her "political" comments, she is restrained, quite mild considering our reality. Yes, our generation dropped the friggin' ball. As the great activist, Abe Osheroff said, it is the next generation that will make the difference, to paraphrase "organized anger changes history." Who we elect is important but that is not what will make the difference, now with so very much at stake. I am impressed at her speaking to this, she has every right, she is a citizen of the world, like you and I, and unlike you and I, she wrote Woodstock, among others. It is not time to be silent, regardless of who one is, or one's sex, race, or age. Since 9/11, and before, resistance has been viewed as unpatriotic, that is what "they" want us to be, silent lambs off to slaughter. Joni sings, "We all come and go unknown,
Each so deep and superficial, Between the forceps and the stone..." The highest artistic expression is personal and political, in my view, I am not alone. In fact, I respect her even more.

Posted by kay taylor at 6:06 AM GMT 01/02/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni is a Goddess. Bow down to her. Don' t mess with Joni.

Posted by at 6:56 PM GMT 04/02/2008 Report Abuse

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Joni is a true genius. I love her courage to follow her own muse, her body of work - recordings, songs, painting - and found some of SHINE to be as great as anything she's ever done. But, even as a member of her generation, I've jokingly characterized the theme of SHINE as "Hey, you kids, get off my planet!"

Posted by Choice Words at 9:51 PM GMT 11/02/2008 Report Abuse

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To all the smug 60's era people who are so proud of the "fire" they displayed back then.......it couldn't be that there was a draft that directly affected the middle class could it? It's funny how once the threat of being drafted went away the "fire" was extinguished and all those wonderful hippie ideals were exchanged for the greed and avarice of the 80s onward. I'm sure if there was a draft today you'd see the same amount of protest amongst middle-class youth. People only care when it affects them. I can sum up the 60's generation's hypocrisy and capitulation to corporatocracy with one name: Jerry Rubin. One last thing, post-60s generations did not have near the numbers that the baby-boom generation did. To get your voice heard you need numbers. The 60s generation had an advantage there that no subsequent generation has had and they wasted it.

Posted by af at 8:17 PM GMT 29/03/2008 Report Abuse

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