Legend is a new music biography series from BBC Radio 4 exploring the extraordinary life stories of pioneering artists who changed music forever.
As Joni Mitchell turns 80, Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend. Available to listen to across six weeks on BBC Radio 4, and on BBC Sounds and podcast feeds everywhere.
“I’ve always been a creature of change” – Joni Mitchell
Through archive, fresh interviews, narration, immersive sound design and an original score, we trace the story of an extraordinary life and explore what makes Joni Mitchell a singular artist: the genius of her lyrics; her incredible talent as guitarist, painter and producer; and her restless drive for innovation.
We follow Joni from her ‘flatlander’ childhood on the Canadian prairies, through the folk clubs of Toronto and Detroit, to a redwood cottage in L.A.’s Laurel Canyon, to a cave in Crete, to a deserted desert highway, to recording studios and stages around the world. From her earliest home recordings to masterpieces like Blue, Court and Spark, and Hejira, we explore some of the stories behind her best-loved songs and celebrate her remarkable return to live performance in the past year: “like seeing, in the wild, a rare bird long feared extinct”.
Our guide through the series is the California-born, Manchester-based musician, Jesca Hoop. We hear tributes from musicians who have played alongside Joni and from those who have been inspired and influenced by her music. We hear from friends, including Larry Klein and Graham Nash; and from music critics and biographers, including Ann Powers, David Yaffe, Lindsay Zoladz, Kate Mossman, Barney Hoskyns, Miles Grier and Jenn Pelly.
The Joni Mitchell Story comes from the production team behind BBC Radio 4’s award-winning podcast Soul Music – “… the gold standard for music podcasts…” (Esquire).
Saturday 4th Nov
Archive on 4: Joni Mitchell: Verbatim
20:00 – 21:00
'Joni Mitchell: Verbatim' will mark the iconic singer/songwriters 80th birthday on November 7, 2023.
Incorporating previously unheard interviews, studio out takes, rare demo recordings and archive dating back to her very first radio interview recorded in 1964, this programme is the story of Joni's life and career - told in her own words.
Over a singular career that has spanned many different cultural eras, Joni Mitchell has explored in public, to an almost unprecedented degree, exactly what it means to be female and free, in full acknowledgement of all its injustice and joy. And there are two major physically and emotionally charged life changing events that defined Joni's artistic development and deeply influenced her creative output - a severe bout of polio as a child and an unwanted pregnancy as a teenager, which forced Joni to support her and her baby as a destitute single mother. Fearing her inability to cope, Joni gave the baby up for adoption.
The lessons learned from dealing with these traumas shaped every personal and professional decision Joni has ever made, recalling them as transformative, character-building episodes that caused her to develop self-reliance and a slow, almost meditative way of being in the world.
With the same determination Joni used to prove to doctors that she would walk again, she set about proving that a woman could make it in the patriarchal world of folk music and very quickly blazed a trail as a fiercely independent spirt through one of the most exciting and influential periods in modern music.
With each life experience Joni honed her songwriting skills and learned how to reflect on life's lessons in a way that appealed to an ever growing audience, proving to be a formidable female force in the burgeoning Laurel Canyon folk scene in the 60's and 70's.
As Joni's success grew, so did her strength and, as we'll hear, she remains defiant and determined. Joni suffered a brain aneurism in 2015 and summoning the same spirit that enabled her to survive polio and walk again as a child Joni has been slowly re-building her life and recently performed her first live concerts in 25 years when she returned to play the Newport Folk Festival, where she first performed in 1969.
