[wideawake]

Thanks for injecting a little reality into this Joni bashing thread...

In her prime Joni Mitchell was quite talented as an instrumentalist and songwriter, and had a serviceable voice as well.

However, when she calls Bob Dylan a fake and Slick and Joplin whores - well, it makes people focus on the fact that she began her career by emulating Dylan and by famously sleeping with every folk rocker in Laurel Canyon.

She invited that kind of analysis with her comments.

It still won't interfere with the pleasure a Mitchell fan can derive from weeping as he listens to Blue for the 1,000th time.

[dfwgator]

I appreciate Joni for turning people on to Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays, and Jaco on “Shadows and Light.”

[af_vet_1981]

"Grace [Slick] and Janis Joplin were [sleeping with] their whole bands and falling down drunk."

She did not call them "whores." She said they were sexually promiscuous with their bands (rather than their groupies) and were drunk on duty, both of which I read in other sources so I think it is fact.

Joni was a talented musician and songwriter but it is pointless for her to complain about her competition, as it were. Grace and Janis were so different from Joni, in their genre, supporting bands, etc. As for Janis Joplin, I think her career is best summed up in two songs, neither by her, and both masterfully written about her by master musicians who knew her well.

• Bird Song by Grateful Dead
• Chelsea Hotel by Leonard Cohen

I find those songs tell the gist of her story.