Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story

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The extraordinary life of Joni Mitchell, a pioneer whose songs changed music forever.

Joni Mitchell's songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend.

BBC Radio 4 LW

Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story: 5. Dog Eat Dog

5. Dog Eat Dog

The Joni Mitchell Story

BBC Radio 4 - Legend, The Joni Mitchell Story, 5. Dog Eat Dog

A time of hard knocks and bad omens for Joni.

Joni experiments with new styles and sounds, but her loyal pop fans don't follow. The 1980s are a time of new politics, new love, hard knocks and bad omens.

Joni Mitchell’s songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend.

In episode five, we hear how meeting a towering figure of jazz leads to a new collaboration, but Joni's hopes for a hit are unfulfilled. As the 1980s arrive, Joni continues to experiment with new sounds, but discovers the cost of being a middle-aged woman in pop. This is the decade of new politics and new love, hard knocks and bad omens. Joni experiences a series of misfortunes, and the pain of giving up her daughter resurfaces once more, in a song. 

“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). 

Producers: Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas
Production Coordinator: Andrew Lewis
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Story Editor: Emma Harding
Story Consultant: John Yorke
Sound Design and Original Music: Hannis Brown
Studio Engineers: Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Joni Mitchell’s songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend.

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