Music Critic Ann Powers on ‘Traveling’ on Singer-Songwriter Joni Mitchell’s Path

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When Ann Powers began to draft her expansive new biography of Laurel Canyon music legend Joni Mitchell, she says that “certain subjects emerged: childhood as an imaginary terrain where singer-songwriters could express their ideals and idiosyncrasies; sadness as a complicated form of women’s liberation; side roads and retreats as the secret sources of an artist’s strengths. And traveling, always traveling.” Powers’ book charts Mitchell’s influences, collaborators and milieu, weaving in reflections on the broader politics and trends of each decade during Mitchell’s career. It grapples with the sexism of Laurel Canyon’s heyday and Mitchell being labeled a “confessional” artist, as well as Mitchell’s own complicated relationship with feminism and with being the only woman at the table. We talk to Powers about Joni Mitchell’s life and art and hear how Mitchell has affected you. Powers’ new book is “Traveling: On the Path of Joni Mitchell.” Guest: Ann Powers, music critic and correspondent, NPR Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Support for KGBD Podcasts comes from Landmark College, offering a fully online graduate level
0:06.1	certificate in learning differences in neurodiversity program. Visit landmark.edu slash certificate
0:12.5	to learn more. Switch to Comcast Business Mobile and save hundreds a year in your wireless
0:17.4	bill. Comcast Business, powering possibilities. Restrictions apply. Comcast
0:21.5	business internet required. Compar's two unlimited intro lines and lowest price 5D plans of top
0:24.9	three carriers. Tax on fees extra, reduced speeds after 30 gigabytes of usage. Data thresholds may vary.
0:30.2	From KQED. From KQED in San Francisco. I'm Mina Kim. Coming up on forum, music critic Anne Powers prefers underdogs. So when an
0:40.7	editor approached her to write about the celebrated, idealized, and beloved Joni Mitchell, she paused,
0:46.8	since her feelings about Mitchell and her music were, as Powers writes, more abstract than
0:51.8	ardent. But there was something Powers heard and felt in Mitchell's music
0:55.9	that made her wonder if she could uncover something new
0:58.7	and closer to who Mitchell really is.
1:01.7	The result is Powers' new biography,
1:03.7	called Traveling on the Path of Joni Mitchell.
1:06.5	I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town.
1:14.6	It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down.
1:22.8	Who is Joni to you?
1:23.9	Join us after this news.
1:46.9	Sitting in a park in Paris, friends, reading the news and it sure looks bad.
1:48.6	They won't give peace a chance.
1:51.3	There was just a dream some of us had.
1:52.9	Welcome to Forum.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.