Yesterday at my writing group I mentioned Joni Mitchell to one of the members of the group. This woman loves poetry and is a good writer. We started talking about music and I asked her about Joni's writing-what she thought. She told me she never really listened to her but disliked the few hits she had. I told her about Joni's poetry and how well she wrote. She said,":You sound just like this friend I used to teach with. he said she was the best too." I told her I would copy some of her songs and she could read the lyrics for herself. When our break was over I went over to the table and told another member that we discussing Joni Mitchell and he said he had never heard of her! He's about 60 or so and was a professor etc etc. My personal experience is that most people know little or nothing about her work or stopped listening after Court and Spark.
Maureen Walsh
