Whether they know it or not, people the world over feel the much-studied impact of England's exalted national poet, William Shakespeare - "the Bard of Avon" - through cinema, drama, literature, and everyday discourse. Stephen Sondheim, the legendary composer and lyricist who died in November 2021, deservedly drew comparisons to Shakespeare through his works, indelibly shaping generations of musical theatre creators and consumers. Data scientists in the last decade have quantified the vocabulary usage of prominent rappers like Kanye West, Drake, and LL Cool J and held their lyrics up to Shakespeare's oeuvre in an effort to determine who is more "poetic." Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has undoubtedly earned her Shakespeare stripes as well in a career that has explored the depths of human psychology - socially, romantically, politically, and otherwise - through unique couplings of words and music.
Shakespeare's actual diction has found its way into Mitchell's songs multiple times. "It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night/Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop’s ear," from Romeo and Juliet, is paraphrased in "That Song About the Midway" from her 1969 album Clouds. "But I am constant as the northern star", from Julius Caesar, is quoted directly in the oft-covered "A Case of You" from 1971's Blue, which has received significantly renewed attention upon its 50th anniversary and was named the 3rd best album of all time by Rolling Stone in 2020. "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" from Hamlet is also quoted directly in "Talk to Me" from her 1977 album Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, in which Mitchell playfully alludes to stealing from "Willy the Shake."
Beyond such incorporations, the artists Mitchell has influenced - a veritably long list including Prince, Taylor Swift, Madonna, Harry Styles, Janet Jackson, and John Mayer - explicitly make the connection as well. For the musician and producer Jacob Collier, who sent birthday greetings to Mitchell in a November 2021 Instagram post, being with her "felt like being in the presence of Shakespeare" - especially high praise coming from a Brit! The singer-songwriter and producer Brandi Carlile, who reverently interpreted the entire Blue album in performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in 2019 and Carnegie Hall in 2021, declared that "we didn't live in the time of Shakespeare, Rembrandt or Beethoven...but we live in the time of Joni Mitchell."
Mitchell's music is, without exaggeration, the soundtrack of my life. And this is her intention for her listeners; seeing themselves in the stories she tells is far more important than seeing her. I especially am fascinated by the fact that her work defies categorization by genre, seamlessly using elements of the folk, rock, and jazz idioms to create a sonic language all her own. I soon plan to delve further into evaluating the parallels between Mitchell's and Sondheim's careers, especially in terms of how an initial lack of critical acclaim for many of their works has given way to a surfeit of appreciation from artists that have followed them and a conferral of an almost mythical status by critics in their respective spheres. For now, I will share a poem I penned in honor of Mitchell receiving the MusiCares Person of the Year award in April 2022 from the Recording Academy. This and other original works can be found on the Arts page.
Credit: Getty Images
JONI
by Daniel Townsend
There once was a golden-haired girl
Who took rock and roll for a whirl
Becoming Bard of Laurel Canyon
She could well have been companion
Of Picasso or Nietzsche or Ellington
A titanic teller of truth
Who patched over the holes in my youth
She was the quintessential queen
Of the seventies rock scene
And a sociological sleuth
—
Her wickedly wise way with words
Was not meant for pleasing the herds
With a determined dedication
She provided a narration
Of our doubts and desires and discoveries
That we all have fractures and fears
Which collect just like dust through the years
She told the tales of many folks
Through her music and brushstrokes
That for millions acted like mirrors
—
At twenty-one she gave up her kid
A secret she painfully hid
From western Canada she wandered
And a lifetime later pondered
What on Earth she had asked of or done to God
To be cursed with feelings of thread
In her skin—a delusion, they said
She’d finally met her long-lost child
After years in Hollywild
But could not shake these thoughts from her head
—
And that wasn’t all her bad luck
In childhood, polio struck
But it imbued her with conviction
That if healed from this affliction
She’d escape from the prairies and make her mark
Oh the gifts that came from this mess!
And propelled her to global success
Like putting Woodstock down in verse
Though the masses would disperse
As her brilliance boldly progressed
—
She lived by her own set of rules
Refusing to suffer the fools
Half Dionysus, half Apollo
Her detractors couldn’t follow
How one woman, at once, could be everything
Self-reliant, sage, and sublime
Turning romance and rage into rhyme
The creativity she’d stoke!
With a little wine and smoke
Making art to endure for all time
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