![\"Joni](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Joni-Mitchell-1960s-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: YouTube)<\/p>\n
Sun 21 December 2025 17:30, UK <\/p>\n
The competitive nature of the music industry was never really a priority for Joni Mitchell<\/a>. <\/p>\n When someone has that level of artistic integrity and can make songs that are so pristine and beautiful, there\u2019s no sense in trying to worry about what the rest of the rock and roll world is doing and if she can outdo what her friends were doing. The shape of her heart was simply too unique for anyone to copy, but Mitchell felt that the key to all great songs mattered as much about the vocal performance as the raw songwriting.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s not like she didn\u2019t take care of her voice over the years, either. She was never one to completely trash her voice before a show, and even if she had her off nights when singing, the vocal range that she had in her songs always flowed so naturally. There are a lot of impressive moments on tunes like \u2018California\u2019, but there\u2019s also tunes like \u2018River\u2019 that are so conversational that it practically feels like she\u2019s in the room talking with you.<\/p>\n That kind of attention to detail also came in handy later on in her life as well. Most people weren\u2019t exactly looking for her to have the same high voice that she had in her prime when she reached the 1990s, but when she did a reinterpretation of \u2018Both Sides Now\u2019, it sounded like she had finally come full circle in many respects. She had lived a full life and officially seen both sides, and what was once a song about growing older, seeing it on the other side of life was like watching an artist paint her masterpiece.<\/p>\n But a lot of the vocals that she was attuned to before utilising her own voice came from all over the place. She had a healthy respect for artists who could bring across a certain emotion when they sang their songs, like\u00a0Bob Dylan<\/a>, but like all great musicians who came before her, Mitchell needed to look far beyond rock and roll. She may have cut her teeth alongside rock bands, but the world of jazz was always much more interesting.<\/p>\n Mitchell had no problem shouting the praises of everyone from Wayne Shorter to Miles Davis when she played, but Billie Holiday is one of the unique cases of a singer whose excellence exists outside of genre. No matter what type of music you listen to, a song like \u2018Strange Fruit\u2019 is so stirring and powerful that it\u2019s impossible for anyone not to be moved when they hear her voice.<\/p>\n