M is for Joni Mitchell

If the word "original" ever applied to a musician, I'd say it goes with Joni Mitchell. Hard to believe the "It" Girl of the '60s and '70s is 67 years old. I say that because her music sounds as fresh today as decades ago.

I could rhapsodize about her towering influence as a singer-songwriter whose music evolved from folk to jazz to  blues to pop and became increasingly complex along the way. Or I could recall specific songs ("A Case Of You," "Coyote," "River," "Woodstock") and albums ("Blue," "Court and Spark," "The Hissing of Summer Lawns," "Hejira") as favorites.

Instead I offer these two quotes from comments left on a couple of her YouTube music videos:

-- Joni Mitchell is an artist who will be remembered and relevant 100+ years from now. Her music is poetry, her lyrics are music. She fits in no genre; she is a true original. And yes she did it all without the filtering, enhancing, correcting, mixing, etc. She slays me.

-- Joni Mitchell had such a wonderful ability to defy traditional phrasing and melodic structure without sounding awkward. What a masterful song writer and performer!

Saw her just once in concert, here at the Memorial Coliseum, where she closed the concert with "Shadows and Light." Amazing. Thanks to Canada for producing such a talented lady.