Joni Mitchell: I'm better than Dylan but they snub me...

Can anyone provide a reliable translation of the entire article?

 

Some people are never satisfied.

 

Been waiting all day on that...

 

It is more than being a good writer or a singer. In the case of Dylan I have come to the conclusion that it is mysticism itself behind his power. How else can you explain it?

 

You're close.

Given his current reworking of Sinatra hits, I think it's more like witchcraft.

 

Result- a lot of sweaty people who don't have a clue. The mantra of the mediocre. If I chose my music on that basis I'd probably be listening to Bieber or One Direction right now. I've never bought into the BS that hard work alone will see you through.

 

Uh huh, it's a total mystery why Mitchell would think people trivialize or dismiss her on the basis of gender.

I concur. She has always had an abrasive and increasingly "crank writing ranty letters to the editor" persona, especially about Dylan, which doesn't really win people's hearts and minds regardless of how much they like her music.

It also doesn't help that there's generally less tolerance in the culture for crabby and hostile women than for men with the same traits. Lou Reed, for example, reportedly had a disposition approximately 100 times nastier than Joni Mitchell, and a lot of people gave him the old "oh well, artists are difficult" pass for it. I can't imagine the sheer tonnage of s#!t sandwiches someone who looks like Joni would have been force-fed in the 60s-80s music business if she hadn't cultivated an intensely uncompromising and thorny personality as a suit of armor.

 

That was her coke-head period. And yeah, it was probably a case of correlation is not causation, but her coke period coincided with a change toward decreasing popularity of her musical releases.

 

Man, that's a good quote.

 

Joni can say whatever she wants whether I agree with it or not and I will still love her...she moves me.

 

Forgot about that:

 

and good for him...he keeps his veins closed to their bite. They will suck you dry and spit in your face and then call it journalism...

 

Lennon & McCartney...

 

Nothing contradictory in our posts. We're both right.

 

She does come off as undignified with these "Enough about ME, what about ME?!" remarks. She's very dismissive towards young people too... pretty much writes off the last couple of generations as being clueless. Luckily, she unloaded her unwanted child at birth and doesn't have to trouble herself with the insight that comes from the realities of parenthood, grand-parenthood and great-grand-parenthood.

She's still a class act in my book, but I'll do my best to avoid her interviews.










And she should wean herself from the coffin nails, filtered or non-filtered.

 

I'm really trying to think of a diplomatic response to this, but I'm failing miserably. A comment like that is a perfect example of why someone like Joni Mitchell would see sexism under every rock.

 

I love Dylan; I really like Joni. Simple enough?

 

I'm not judging the fact that she had a child at a young age and gave it up for adoption. Not at all. Whether that would have been her choice given modern options, I don't know, but I admire the choice she made.

What I'm "judging" is the fact that she lambasts recent generations for being clueless and lacking any kind of resiliency; she thinks they're incapable of surviving if hard times come along... she's judgmental about generations of people who she's kept at arm's length.

There's no way a young songwriter or singer today would be given a tiny fraction of the opportunity that she enjoyed as a young woman. Sure, she probably marched out on her own when she was a teenager, but try finding a crash pad for $25 a month in the 21st Century. She just sounds arrogant and spoiled to me, and quite isolated.

 

Okay, that I can agree with. I withdraw my objection.

 

And I can understand your original objection - I should have made the point with less snottiness and more clarity.

 

re the assertion on pp 2-3 joni hasn't been accepted by a younger generation as have neil and bob.

i'd argue that's because neil and bob have both released fantastic albums after 1990, or, depending on your tastes, 2000 ... or 2010 ...

... and i'd still give her a ride at 71. don't know whether that makes me sexist, or her sexy ... probably both.

 

Given a choice of having only Dylan's or Joni's entire catalog on a desert island, I'd take Joni's and the decision would be instant. I listen to Joni's album's all the time...all of them. Dylan once in a while...and I have all of his albums too.

I would like to sneak in the Live Rolling Thunder album to the desert island if I could though.

 

Ego tripping at the gates of Hell ...

Something's gone wrong chez Mitchell, and I feel kinda bad for her.

 

The reason people talk about Bob more then Joni is he made far more great albums then she did. I think she's still peeved that she couldn't bring Jazz to the masses.

 

The most shocking revelation in this thread is that some people believe those net worth web sites.