Adding Joni Mitchell’s Hitherto Absent “Naked Body” Quote
Today’s posting is actually an updating and revision of Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell: Just One Of Those Things, an essay which began as what I then called a “casual Saturday post”1 but has now evolved into a popular read2 and has also become a frequently used reference. Because of this continued interest in the topic, I’ve conscientiously updated the post as new material has become available. Today’s revision is the latest such effort.
On this occasion, I’ve added material from several sources, including the recently published “Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period” by Michelle Mercer (Free Press; 1st Edition, April 7, 2009) and articles from the New York Times, ZigZag, and Rolling Stone.
My own favorite item among the new information is a quote from Joni Mitchell about Leonard Cohen:
He owns the phrase naked body, for example; it appears in every one of his songs.3
Incomprehensibly, this is somehow interpreted as a bad thing.
Go figure.
Nonetheless, if you’re interested in important influences on modern music, historical perspectives on the folk movement, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, or romantic flings that fall apart and their sequelae, you can find what you’re looking for at Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell: Just One Of Those Things.
_____________________- The original post began with this rambling explanation of its evolution:
I’ve been busily over-analyzing Leonard Cohen’s Take This Waltz intermittently over the past few weeks, amassing enough data bits to put Heck Of A Guy readers at risk for one of my elaborate posts with the length and detail of those New Yorker non-fiction feature articles on water filtration technologies in Saudi Arabia but without the cachet. I have also manufactured a bucketful of fascinating, insight-laden hypotheses, all of which are mutually exclusive. Consequently, the Take This Waltz post, until it matures into coherency, remains a coming attraction.
But, it is only a short leap from Take This Waltz to Lorca. OK, make that “a very short leap.” Heck, given that Cohen himself has explicitly announced numerous times in concerts and interviews that Take This Waltz is his adaptation of Lorca’s “Little Viennese Waltz,” make that “it is only a baby step from Take This Waltz to Lorca.”
From Lorca, it’s – oh, let’s call it a leap, a hop, two skips, and an Olympics-level jump to Joni Mitchell, a connection I’ll explain in a moment. In any case, I have accumulated a few dollops of information about the relationship between Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen that has no significant association with Take This Waltz.
Then, this morning I found that Mimus Pauly at Mockingbird’s Medley had written that [Joni] Mitchell is [Leonard] Cohen’s female equivalent, going on to note that “not only do they write wonderful songs, they engage in other forms of art as well. Cohen writes poetry and likes to draw. Mitchell likes to paint.” [Note: Both portraits at the top of this post are by Joni Mitchell]
And that, at least when I began this peregrination, seemed a good enough excuse to unload my Joni and Leonard tidbits (waste not, want not) into a casual Saturday post. [↩]
- This morning at least, Leonard Cohen and Joni Mitchell: Just One Of Those Things is the first site listed when one Googles “Leonard Cohen Joni Mitchell.” [↩]
- Will You Take Me As I Am: Joni Mitchell’s Blue Period by Michelle Mercer. Free Press; 1st Edition, April 7, 2009 [↩]
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