Friday 3 February 2012

Under The Influence: Joni Mitchell



Rubber Soul was the Beatle album I played over and over. I think they were discovering Dylan, and the songs often had an acoustic feel, I used to sing [Norwegian Wood] in my coffeehouse days in Detroit before I started writing for myself. The whole scenario has this whimsical, charmingly wry quality with a bit of a dark undertone. I’d sing it to put some levity in my set. I got a kick out of throwing it in there amongst all these tragic English folk ballads. Besides, I have Norwegian blood! 

Joni Mitchell Lava Magazine

7 comments:

  1. Under The Influence - Frank Zappa

    "I didn't hate them. I actually like two or three of their songs. I just thought they were ridiculous. What was so disgusting was the way they were consumed and merchandised. No music has succeeded in America unless it was accompanied by something to wear, something to dance or a hairdo. A phenomenon is not going to occur unless you can dress up to it."

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  2. @Geordie - you're right - not everyone was positively influenced by the Beatles (Lennon & Yoko actually ripped Zappa off when they released some live recordings of his) - but if you want to hear another cool 'negative' story check out next friday's post!

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  3. You could do a degrees of separation thing with this - Joni Mitchell played Norwegian Wood, Janet Jackson sampled "Big Yellow Taxi" for her song "Got 'Til It's Gone', and she has performed with Justin Timberlake live (infamous breast reveal at the Superbowl), who has performed with Timbalake, who did an album that featured a song with Elton John, who played piano a good few times for George Harrison, who played sitar on Norwegian Wood as a Beatle.

    Sorry, that's a case of starting a post without knowing where it was going to end up (on the spot writing).

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