Joni Mitchell est une chanteuse de folk et peintre canadienne née en 1943. Elle a 19 albums studios à son actif.
Liens avec Björk
Björk a repris sa chanson The Boho Dance sur un album hommage A Tribute to Joni Mitchell paru en 2007.
Dans le livre Björk : Archives, à la liste de ses albums préférés figure Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter de Joni Mitchell.
En 2007, Björk a sélectionné ses artistes favoris pour le site Myspace, pour le titre Joni Mitchell (Acoustic), elle commente : « Son écriture est d’une profondeur émotionnelle sans égal. »
À l’instar de Vulnicura, l’album Blue de Joni Mitchell, paru en 1971, est un breakup album/ album de rupture qui aura marqué les esprits.
Travail avec Björk
– Elles ont chanté en duo en 1998 lors d’un concert de charité.
Björk à propos de Joni Mitchell
Obviously, I really love Joni Mitchell. I think it was that accidental thing in Iceland, where the wrong albums arrive to shore, because I was obsessed with Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and Hejira as a teenager. I hear much more of her in those albums. She almost made her own type of music style with those, it’s more a woman’s world.
Pitchfork - The invisible woman
When I was 13, though, I got into Joni Mitchell with my dad, and played it to pieces. I loved Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter but Hejira was the one. It was more acoustic. I’ve always found guitars a bit difficult because my dad played since I was very little, and he was a bit of a Clapton and Hendrix kind of guitarist, and I’ve always been critical of that, but I loved her guitar sound very much, although it’s very hard to say why. With hindsight, she was one of the first women I heard who weren’t completely stupid. She had her own air of style and independence, whereas a lot of women just wanted to play men’s music. I wasn’t so much into her voice, more that she had her own world, with her own elements. You definitely knew that it was Joni the second you heard her. It was very strong, but very feminine, you know ? It was natural and earthy but modern as well.
She was never my role model, though : I don’t think any singer was, to be honest. Instruments influenced me more than singers, like brass and stuff. You might start puking when I say it but I never had the ambition to be a singer, I always wanted to make good music. It’s like learning shorthand writing. It’s not so much that you’re into it, but it makes it easier to write anything. That’s why I sing.Q - Björk Guðmundsdóttir’s Record Collection
Growing up in Iceland I had no knowledge of Joni’s impact on the whole hippy era and the Californian folk scene," she states. "I just fell in love with her music. To me, it seemed very pure and intuitive, like she just followed her heart and wasn’t influenced by anyone else. Most of the music around at that time was created by men and the few female songwriters what were around were usually backed by male musicians. In comparison, Joni created her own musical universe with female emotion, energy, wisdom courage and imaginations. I found that very liberating.
The Big Issue - The Volta Face
