She was like a storm. --Leonard Cohen
Reckless Daughter is the story of an artist and an era that have
left an indelible mark on American music.
Joni Mitchell may be the most influential female recording artist and
composer of the late twentieth century. In Reckless Daughter, the
music critic David Yaffe tells the remarkable, heart-wrenching story of
how the blond girl with the guitar became a superstar of folk music in
the 1960s, a key figure in the Laurel Canyon music scene of the 1970s,
and the songwriter who spoke resonantly to, and for, audiences across
the country.
A Canadian prairie girl, a free-spirited artist, Mitchell never wanted
to be a pop star. She was nothing more than "a painter derailed by
circumstances," she would explain. And yet, she went on to become a
talented self-taught musician and a brilliant bandleader, releasing
album after album, each distinctly experimental, challenging, and
revealing. Her lyrics captivated listeners with their perceptive
language and naked emotion, born out of Mitchell's life, loves,
complaints, and prophecies. As an artist whose work deftly balances
narrative and musical complexity, she has been admired by such legendary
lyricists as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and beloved by such
groundbreaking jazz musicians as Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and
Herbie Hancock. Her hits--from "Big Yellow Taxi" to "Both Sides, Now" to
"A Case of You"--endure as timeless favorites, and her influence on the
generations of singer-songwriters who would follow her, from her devoted
fan Prince to Björk, is undeniable.
In this intimate biography, drawing on dozens of unprecedented in-person
interviews with Mitchell, her childhood friends, and a cast of famous
characters, Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs--from
Mitchell's youth in Canada, her bout with polio at age nine, and her
early marriage and the child she gave up for adoption, through the love
affairs that inspired masterpieces, and up to the present--and shows us
why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her
friends.
