[70] She worked with the French-Canadian TV director Mario Rouleau, well known for work in art and dance for television, such as Cirque du Soleil. She travelled with Chuck Mitchell to the US, where they began playing music together. This is Mitchell's most-covered song by far, with over 1,200 versions recorded at latest count. Expert Answers: Joni Mitchell and her daughter were reunited in 1997 Mitchell described an elation she had never felt before when she finally met Gibb. [2] Mitchell expressed her dislike of the record industry's dominance and her desire to control her own destiny, possibly by releasing her own music over the Internet. [83] Mitchell made her first public appearance following the aneurysm when she attended a Chick Corea concert in Los Angeles in August 2016. Of Dolby's role, Mitchell later commented: "I was reluctant when Thomas was suggested because he had been asked to produce the record [by Geffen], and would he consider coming in as just a programmer and a player? It is the last track on the album. A year and a half later Joni and Chuck Mitchell had separated. As well, the walkway along Spadina Crescent between Second and Third Avenues was formally named the Joni Mitchell Promenade. The album also included the already-familiar song "The Circle Game" and the environmental anthem "Big Yellow Taxi", with its now-famous line, "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot. The Prince song "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" contains the lyric " 'Oh, my favorite song' she said and it was Joni singing 'Help me I think I'm falling' ". The Saskatchewan Recording Industry Association bestowed upon Joni their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993. I went the Bob Hope route [i.e., touring to entertain military personnel] because I had uncles who died in the war, and I thought it was a shame to blame the boys who were drafted. In early 1976, Mitchell traveled with friends who were driving cross country to Maine. [159], On December 4, 2021, Mitchell received the Kennedy Center Honor for a lifetime of achievement in the performing arts at the Medallion Ceremony, held at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. According to Celebrity Net Worth, Joni Mitchell is a famous singer and songwriter with a $100 million net worth. 6 in the UK. The Joni Project Quartet, featuring Katie Pearlman, formed as a tribute in sound and spirit to Joni, and is quite simply the finest on the scene today. Mitchell started singing in Detroit folk clubs and saloons, and left his writing job in 1965. In January 2007 she was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. 2 Sponsored by Sane Solution Throat phlegm? In Toronto, on his first out of town gig, he met Canadian songwriter Joni Anderson from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. [77], Although Mitchell said that she would no longer tour or give concerts, she made occasional public appearances to speak on environmental issues. Joni Mitchell's songs, frequently confessional, sometimes obscure, always literate and musically adventurous, form one of the most striking bodies of work in the popular music of the last three decades. She delivered the final mixes for the new album to Geffen just before Christmas, after trying nearly a hundred different sequences for the songs. "[67] In 2005, Mitchell said that she was using a tape recorder to get her memories "down in the oral tradition". During this time she briefly studied classical piano. [91][92] Fellow Canadian artist Diana Krall offered two performances. The experience remained private for most of Mitchell's career, although she alluded to it in several songs, such as "Little Green", which she performed in the 1960s and recorded eventually for the 1971 album Blue. Lacking the $200 needed for musicians' union fees, Mitchell performed at a few gigs at the Half Beat and the Village Corner in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood, but she mostly played non-union gigs "in church basements and YMCA meeting halls". Throughout the first half of 1990, Mitchell recorded songs that appeared on her next album. One of the songs on the album, "Tax Free", created controversy by lambasting "televangelists" and what she saw as a drift to the religious right in American politics. Court and Spark, released in January 1974, saw Mitchell begin the flirtation with jazz and jazz fusion that marked her experimental period ahead. During 1975, Mitchell also participated in several concerts in the Rolling Thunder Revue tours featuring Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and in 1976 she performed as part of The Last Waltz by the Band. A five-disc archival collection traces the beginnings of one of the most daring trajectories in popular music. On "The Jungle Line", she made an early effort at sampling a recording of African musicians, something that became more commonplace among Western rock acts in the 1980s. The following month, Reprise released her third album, Ladies of the Canyon. In 1997, Mitchell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but did not attend the ceremony. In mid-2007, Mitchell's official fan-run site confirmed speculation that she had signed a two-record deal with Starbucks' Hear Music label. [63], It was around this time that critics also began to notice a real change in Mitchell's voice, particularly on her older songs; the singer later confirmed the change, explaining that "I'd go to hit a note and there was nothing there". The official Instagram of Joni Mitchell. Comparing Joni Mitchell's talent to his own, David Crosby said, "By the time she did Blue, she was past me and rushing toward the horizon". Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Good Condition US Version/Joni Mitchell/Blue at the best online prices at eBay! Joe Rogan found himself correcting a little musical misinformation he spread accidentally when he praised Joni Mitchell on Sunday as the talent behind the 1979 tune "Chuck E.'s in Love.". Joni sold a lot of albums over the course of her career. Joni Mitchell with her guitar in a case, 11 January 1969 (Library and Archives Canada 3598197) Mitchell later remarked, "At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. She would give occasional interviews and make appearances to speak on various causes over the next two decades, though the rupture of a brain aneurysm in 2015 led to a long period of recovery and therapy. 1: The Early Years (19631967), followed on October 30, 2020. [151], To celebrate Mitchell's 70th birthday, the 2013 Luminato Festival in Toronto held a set of tribute concerts entitled Joni: A Portrait in Song A Birthday Happening Live at Massey Hall on June 18 and 19. A few months later she recorded versions of the tunes with her band. [7], Mitchell began exploring more jazz-influenced ideas on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris"[8] and became her best-selling album. [66] In 1998 she told The New York Times that her memoirs were "in the works", that they would be published in as many as four volumes, and that the first line would be "I was the only black man at the party. And Woodstock was the culmination of it." joebar. [154], In 2018, Mitchell was honoured by the city of Saskatoon, when two plaques were erected to commemorate her musical beginnings in Saskatoon. "L.A. is my workplace", she said in 2006, "B.C. I walked down the aisle brandishing my daisies. Taylor Swift also details Mitchell's departure from the music industry in her song "The Lucky One" from her 2012 album Red. "Big Yellow Taxi", the live version, was also released as a single and did reasonably well (she released another version of the song in 2007). 45. Mitchell went into the studio in early 1975 to record acoustic demos of some songs that she had written since the Court and Spark tour. We all suffer for our loneliness, but at the time of Blue, our pop stars never admitted these things. On the April 1971 release of James Taylor's Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon album, Mitchell is credited with backup vocals on the track "You've Got a Friend". In the United Kingdom, the album premiered at No. [90], On November 7, 2018, Mitchell attended the Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration concert in Los Angeles. She went on to marry a fellow folk singer named Chuck Mitchell, but the marriage soon fell apart. [24] Mitchell struggled at school; her main interest was painting. 25 on the albums chart. 1 on the Cashbox Album Charts. Mitchell also included on Hits, for the first time on an album, her first recording, a version of "Urge for Going" which preceded Song to a Seagull but was previously released only as a B-side. "[45] Mitchell is both a Canadian and U.S. [12] She later turned to pop and electronic music and engaged in political protest. [148] The version was featured on the soundtrack to the movie Love Actually. Selections from that night's performances were released on DVD,[93] along with a separate CD release. To wider audiences, the real return to form for Mitchell came with 1994's Grammy-winning Turbulent Indigo. (Mitchell's own recording did not see release until two years later, on her second album Clouds.) Both Sides Now (2000) was an album composed mostly of covers of jazz standards, performed with an orchestra, featuring orchestral arrangements by Vince Mendoza. [22], Mitchell contracted polio at age nine and was hospitalized for weeks. linktr.ee/jonimitchell. After World War II ended, her father worked as a grocer and her family moved to Saskatchewan, living in Maidstone and North Battleford. In June 2007 Canada Post featured Mitchell on a postage stamp. Reels. Hejira "did not sell as briskly as Mitchell's earlier, more 'radio-friendly' albums, [but] its stature in her catalogue has grown over the years". He may be able to do it faster. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever",[2] and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century". Joni Mitchell Talks Exes, Addictions and Music in Candid, All-Access Biography. Mitchell's songs were sung by many performers, including James Taylor, Elton John, Wynonna Judd, Bryan Adams, Cyndi Lauper, Diana Krall, and Richard Thompson. While some of Mitchell's most popular songs were written on the piano, almost every song she composed on the guitar uses an open, or non-standard, tuning; she has written songs in some 50 tunings, playing what she has called "Joni's weird chords". "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people . I don't want to get a posse against men. Mitchell wanted to play the guitar, but since her mother disapproved of country music's hillbilly associations,[29] she initially settled for the ukulele. She won the award on April 3, 2022. [26], Country music began to eclipse rock around this time. When the tour ended she began a year of work, turning the tapes from the Santa Barbara County Bowl show into a two-album set and a concert film, both to be called Shadows and Light. The covers of both LPs, including a self-portrait on Clouds, were designed and painted by Mitchell, a blending of her painting and music that she continued throughout her career. Lloyd Whitesell, "Harmonic Palette in Early Joni Mitchell", p. 173. ", Mitchell's duet with The Persuasions (her opening act for the tour), bubbled under on Billboard, just missing the Hot 100. She promoted Tiger with a return to regular concert appearances, including a co-headlining tour with Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. [95] Mitchell later attended another tribute concert, Songs Are Like Tattoos, which featured Joni 75 participant Brandi Carlile performing Mitchell's Blue album in full. The Joni Project, Fair Lawn NJ, March 4. Singer Joni Mitchell has joined Neil Young in asking for her music to be removed from Spotify over Covid misinformation concerns. April 17, 2022. This album contained Mitchell's own versions of some of her songs already recorded and performed by other artists: "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", and "Tin Angel". British synthpop performer and producer Thomas Dolby was brought on board. Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell CC (ne Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. The song "Lakota" was one of many songs on the album to take on larger political themes, in this case the Wounded Knee incident, the deadly battle between Native American activists and the FBI on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the previous decade. In early 1983, Mitchell began a world tour, visiting Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia and then going back to the United States. She lived in a series of small towns, contracting polio during the epidemic of the 1950s that left her with scoliosis and limited strength in her left hand. The marriage and partnership of Joni and Chuck Mitchell ended with their divorce in early 1967, and she moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist. In the early 1990s, Mitchell signed a deal with Random House to publish an autobiography. "[123], Mitchell has received many honors from her home country of Canada. . [64] In an interview in 2004, she denied that "my terrible habits" had anything to do with her more limited range, and pointed out that singers often lose the upper register when they pass fifty. 25 in the US and going gold within three months. 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. Sunday. The new song cycle was released in November 1975 as The Hissing of Summer Lawns. [102], A special remastered collection of Mitchell's first four albums (Song to a Seagull, Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon and Blue) was released on July 2, 2021, as The Reprise Albums (19681971). She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and received the Governor General's Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement, Canada's highest honour in the performing arts, in 1996. Two years later, Mitchell released her final set of "original" new work before nearly a decade of other pursuits, 1998's Taming the Tiger. She continued to play gigs as a folk musician on weekends at her college and at a local hotel. It gave me the bug for it. "[103], On January 28, 2022, Mitchell demanded that Spotify remove her songs from its streaming service in solidarity with her long-time friend and fellow polio survivor Neil Young, who removed his tracks from the streaming platform in protest against COVID-19 misinformation on the popular Spotify-hosted podcast The Joe Rogan Experience. He may be able to do it better, but the fact is that it then wouldn't really be my music. The character, whom she called Art Nouveau, was based on a pimp who, she says, once complimented her while walking down an LA street. Shine was released by the label on September 25, 2007, debuting at number 14 on the Billboard 200 album chart, her highest chart position in the United States since the release of Hejira in 1976, over thirty years previously, and at number 36 on the United Kingdom albums chart. British folk singer Frank Turner mentions Mitchell in his song "Sunshine State". Mitchell produced or co-produced most of her albums and designed most of her own album covers, describing herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance". She said she was told "'You can't sing that. 377K followers. Eventually she taught herself guitar from a Pete Seeger songbook. The album was released in October 1972 and immediately zoomed up the charts. Posts. "I was not a part of the anti-war movement, either. Led Zeppelin's "Going to California" was said to be written about Robert Plant and Jimmy Page's infatuation with Mitchell, a claim that seems to be borne out by the fact that, in live performances, Plant often says "Joni" after the line "To find a queen without a king, they say she plays guitar and cries and sings". Its success led to 2002's Travelogue, a collection of re-workings of her previous songs with lush orchestral accompaniments. [78] Mitchell divides her time between her longtime home in Los Angeles, and the 80-acre (32ha) property in Sechelt, British Columbia, that she has owned since the early 1970s. [64] While her more limited range and huskier vocals have sometimes been attributed to her smoking (she was described by journalist Robin Eggar as "one of the world's last great smokers"),[64] Mitchell believes that the changes in her voice that became noticeable in the 1990s were because of other problems, including vocal nodules, a compressed larynx, and the lingering effects of having had polio. The album peaked on the Billboard charts in its fifth week at No. [15], On January 1, 2023, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Mitchell as number 50 on its list of "The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time". According to Cheat Sheet, Mitchell's daughter was renamed Kilauren Gibb. Grammy Award for Best Arrangement, Instrumental and Vocals, Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, Joni Mitchell Archives Vol. As detailed by Biography, Joni Mitchell, then Roberta Joan Anderson, met folk musician Chuck Mitchell in the spring of 1965. She showed up personally to collect the award. [141], Mitchell's music and poems have deeply influenced the French painter Jacques Benoit's work. The guitar's output, through the VG-8, was transposed to any of her tunings in real-time. It received mostly strong reviews and motivated a short national tour, with Mitchell accompanied by a core band featuring her ex-husband Larry Klein on bass plus a local orchestra on each tour stop. They quickly married and moved to Detroit by the spring, where they performed as a duo in coffeehouses. [25] She focused on her creative talent and considered a singing or dancing career for the first time. [119], Mitchell was highly innovative harmonically in her early work (19661972), incorporating modality, chromaticism, and pedal points. [15] She performed live for the first time in 9 years, with an unannounced appearance at the June 2022 Newport Folk Festival, and is scheduled to perform a headline show on June 10, 2023. A few weeks after the birth, Joni married folk-singer Chuck Mitchell. "[56] In its lyrics, the album was regarded as an inspired culmination of her early work, with depressed assessments of the world around her serving as counterpoint to exuberant expressions of romantic love (for example, in "California"). In "Chinese Cafe", from the 1982 album Wild Things Run Fast, Mitchell sang, "Your kids are coming up straight / My child's a stranger / I bore her / But I could not raise her." 63 on Billboard's Top Albums Chart, Mitchell's lowest chart position since her first album peaked at No. [51] She accompanied him back to Los Angeles, where he set about introducing her and her music to his friends. He is an iconic figure who was part of a duo that was Chuck and Joni Mitchell until their divorce. Chuck, 29, had met Joni, 22, at the Penny Farthing folk club in Toronto early in 1965. Among the album's contributors were Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Leonard Cohen, and Mitchell herself, who contributed a vocal to the re-recording of "The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)" (originally on her album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm). citizen.[46]. The artist began her career in Canada, where she was born and raised (as Roberta Joan Anderson), before settling down in Southern California and becoming a staple of the folk community there. While the album was being readied for release, her friend David Geffen, founder of Asylum Records, decided to start a new label, Geffen Records. Born Roberta Joan Anderson, Joni Mitchell, as she later called herself, gravitated towards music from an early age. [37] Mitchell also began to realize each city's folk scene tended to accord veteran performers the exclusive right to play their signature songsdespite not having written the songswhich Mitchell found insular, contrary to the egalitarian ideal of folk music. She stopped at the Mariposa Folk Festival to see Buffy Sainte-Marie, a Saskatchewan-born Cree folk singer who had inspired her. . Free shipping for many products! Collins also covered "Chelsea Morning", another recording that eclipsed Mitchell's own commercial success early on. The album climbed to No. [136] Madonna has also cited Mitchell as the first female artist that really spoke to her as a teenager; "I was really, really into Joni Mitchell. Mitchell stated at the time that Travelogue would be her final album. [53] Roberts and Geffen were to have important influences on her career. *Although officially a Herbie Hancock release, Mitchell also received a Grammy for her vocal contribution to the album. On December 22, 2021, the "Big Yellow Taxi" singer will be celebrated at the 44th Annual Kennedy Center Honors. [97] Mitchell also revisited her poetry with Morning Glory on the Vine, a collection of facsimile handwritten lyrics, poetry and artwork originally compiled in 1971 as a gift for friends and family. [96], Mitchell approved Joni: The Joni Mitchell Sessions, a book of photos taken and collected by Norman Seeff, released in November 2018. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002.[13]. Supported by a group of well-wisher musicians, she participated in a 13-song set of her own material and covers (including one as accompaniment only, playing electric guitar). Based in New York City, she acquired a reputation as an East Coast songwriter and live performer. The pair enjoyed a close relationship over the years, and, in the song, Mitchell describes the trip she shared with Geffen, Robbie Robertson and his wife Dominique as they travelled to Paris. [40][41] By that time, Mitchell's daughter, renamed Kilauren Gibb, had already begun a search for her biological parents. A series of themed compilations of songs from earlier albums were also released: The Beginning of Survival (2004), Dreamland (2004), and Songs of a Prairie Girl (2005), the last of which collected the threads of her Canadian upbringing and which she released after accepting an invitation to the Saskatchewan Centennial concert in Saskatoon. These lyrics did not receive wide attention at the time. Joni Mitchell was born in Alberta, Canada, in 1943. He took "Urge for Going" to the popular folk artist Judy Collins, but she was not interested in the song at the time, so Rush recorded it himself. [140] John Mayer makes reference to Mitchell and her Blue album in his song "Queen of California", from his 2012 album Born and Raised. [1], Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. [138] Rap artists Kanye West and Mac Dre have also sampled Mitchell's vocals in their music. Here is the untold truth of Joni Mitchell. The song contains the lyric "Joni wrote Blue in a house by the sea". There she met New York City-born American folk singer Charles Scott "Chuck" Mitchell, from Michigan. [32][33] Although she never performed jazz herself in those days, Mitchell and her friends sought out gigs by jazz musicians. Follow. WASHINGTON, DC (AP) When Joni Mitchell finally took the stage near the end of an all-star tribute concert honoring her as this year's recipient of the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize . [80], In March 2015, Mitchell suffered a brain aneurysm rupture,[81] which required her to undergo physical therapy[82] and take part in daily rehabilitation. This is my introduction to territorial songs. [74], In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mitchell was quoted as saying that singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with whom she had worked closely in the past, was a fake and a plagiarist. In 2003, playwright Bryden MacDonald launched When All the Slaves Are Free, a musical revue based on Mitchell's music. Simpler, rhythmic acoustic parts allowed a focus on Mitchell's voice and emotions ("All I Want", "A Case of You"), while others such as "Blue", "River" and "The Last Time I Saw Richard" were sung to her rolling piano accompaniment. [31], Mitchell's approach to music struck a chord with many female listeners. In 1996, Mitchell agreed to release a greatest Hits collection, despite initial concerns that such a release would damage sales of her catalog. On the album, Mitchell had played a custom guitar equipped with a Roland hexaphonic pickup that connected to a Roland VG-8 modeling processor. " The Last Time I Saw Richard " is a song by Joni Mitchell from her 1971 album Blue. Commenting on the original mix of Song to a Seagull, Mitchell called it "atrocious" and said it sounded like it "had been recorded under a bowl of Jello. The Sonic Youth song "Hey Joni" is named for Mitchell. [104] She wrote on her website: "Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. [1] She has received many accolades, including ten Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. She received an honorary doctorate in music from McGill University in 2004. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her starkly personal lyrics and unconventional compositions which grew to incorporate pop and jazz elements. In February 1974, her tour with the L.A. Express began, and they received rave notices as they traveled across the United States and Canada during the next two months. [49] Oscar Brand featured her several times on his CBC television program Let's Sing Out in 1965 and 1966. In 2009, Mitchell stated she had the skin condition Morgellons[73] and that she would leave the music industry to work toward giving more credibility to people who suffer from Morgellons. Mitchell herself ended the evening with a rendition of "Both Sides, Now" with a 70-piece orchestra. [47][48] She began playing and composing songs in alternative guitar tunings taught to her by a fellow musician, Eric Andersen, in Detroit. "River" has been one of the most popular songs covered in recent years, with versions by Dianne Reeves (1999), James Taylor (recorded for television in 2000, and for CD release in 2004), Allison Crowe (2004), Rachael Yamagata (2004), Aimee Mann (2005), and Sarah McLachlan (2006). In 2004 singer George Michael covered her song "Edith and the Kingpin" for a radio show. Her most confessional album, Mitchell later said of Blue, "I have, on occasion, sacrificed myself and my own emotional makeup, singing 'I'm selfish and I'm sad', for instance. Joni Mitchell, 78, is one of the most prolific singer-songwriters. In a 2002 interview with Rolling Stone, she voiced discontent with the current state of the music industry, describing it as a "cesspool". "[39] She gave birth to a baby girl in February 1965. The marriage and partnership of Joni and Chuck Mitchell ended with their divorce in early 1967, and she moved to New York City to follow her musical path as a solo artist. A second plaque was installed at River Landing, near the Remai Modern art gallery and Persephone Theatre performing arts centre. When I interviewed him in 2019, Crosby who died at 81 . To celebrate her 79th birthday, here's a look back. Over the years Mitchell had been hosting monthly music sessions, known as 'Joni Jams', at her home in Laurel Canyon, organised with the help of singer-songwriter Carlile. 377k Followers, 14 Following, 647 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Joni Mitchell (@jonimitchell) jonimitchell. The album's first official single, "My Secret Place", was in fact a duet with Gabriel, and just missed the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Video post production by Ken Mitchell. 14 following. Hits charted at No. In the summer of 1965, Chuck Mitchell took Joni with him to Detroit, Michigan, where he found work. In March and April she found work at the Penny Farthing, a folk club in Toronto. "Free Man in Paris" was another hit single and staple in her catalog. 68, moving up to No. 647 posts. Does joni mitchell have a relationship with her daughter? The next day, Mitchell attended the show at the Kennedy Center. The recording of the album coincided with the end of Mitchell's marriage to musician Larry Klein after 12 years; Klein was also co-producer of the album. Other songs continued the jazz-rock-folk collisions of Hejira. [146], Mitchell has received ten Grammy Awards during her career (eight competitive, one honorary), the first in 1969 and the most recent in 2022. Mitchell toured steadily to promote the LP. She began a collaboration with Mingus, who died before the project was completed in 1979. "Mix and Mingle Joni Mitchell Brunch" with author and WDET's Ann Delisi. Reviews were mostly favorable towards the album, and the cameos by well-known musicians brought it considerable attention. The LP made Mitchell a widely popular act for perhaps the only time in her career, on the strength of popular tracks such as the rocker "Raised on Robbery", which was released right before Christmas 1973, and "Help Me", which was released in March of the following year, and became Mitchell's only Top 10 single when it peaked at No. [32] In 1964, at the age of 20, she told her mother that she intended to be a folk singer in Toronto. Yet "Coyote", backed with "Blue Motel Room", failed to chart on the Hot 100. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn't pretend in my life to be strong. That's why there were no piano songs"[26] Hejira was arguably Mitchell's most experimental album so far, owing to her ongoing collaborations with jazz virtuoso bass guitarist Jaco Pastorius on several songs, namely the first single, "Coyote", the atmospheric "Hejira", the disorienting, guitar-heavy "Black Crow", and the album's last song "Refuge of the Roads". Blue is amazing. And I named another one. Layered, atmospheric compositions such as "Overture/Cotton Avenue" featured more improvisatory collaboration, while "Paprika Plains" was a 16-minute epic that stretched the boundaries of pop, owing more to Mitchell's memories of childhood in Canada and her study of classical music. During the next few years, the only albums Mitchell released were compilations of her earlier work. A few months after the release of Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mitchell was contacted by the esteemed jazz composer, bandleader and bassist Charles Mingus, who had heard the orchestrated song "Paprika Plains", and wanted her to work with him.