Get the latest gossip
Travelling by Ann Powers review – a dazzling life of Joni Mitchell
A sweeping study of Mitchell’s life and work that swerves familiar touchstones to create a vibrant, multi-faceted portrait
The artist’s often maligned experiment Dog Eat Dogis reframed as a sonic sibling to Don DeLillo’s White Noise, an emblem of the mid-80s’ “large and loud milieu of blaring headlines and televisions constantly turned on”. Meanwhile, as an adoptive mother herself, Powers sensitively explores Mitchell’s relationship with the daughter she gave up, showing how the pain of parting reverberates through songs from Blue’s Little Green to Wild Things Run Fast’s Chinese Café. But the chapter For Art’s Sake is neither a cancellation or coup de grace, and offers sharp insight into Mitchell’s deep relationship with Black music while refusing to excuse the racist image as an unfortunate artefact from a different era.
Or read this on The Guardian
