Joni Mitchell, CC (born Roberta Joan Anderson; November 7, 1943) is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter.^[1] Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto. In 1965 she moved to the United States and, touring constantly, began to be recognized when her original songs ("Urge for Going," "Chelsea Morning," "Both Sides, Now," "The Circle Game") were covered by notable folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her own debut album in 1968.^[2] Settling in Southern California, Mitchell and her popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock" helped define an era and a generation. Her more starkly personal 1971 recording Blue has been called one of the best albums ever made.^[3] Musically restless, Mitchell switched labels and began moving toward jazz rhythms by way of lush pop textures on 1974's Court and Spark, her best-selling LP, featuring her radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris."^[4]

Mitchell's wide-ranging vocals and her distinctive open-tuned guitar and piano compositions grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she explored jazz, melding it with her influences in rock n roll, R&B, classical music and non-western beats. Mitchell's experimental run of jazz-inspired albums, including 1975's The Hissing of Summer Lawns and 1976's Hejira, confused many and hurt Mitchell's sales at the time, but they are acclaimed today. In the late 1970s, she began working closely with noted jazz musicians, among them Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Charles Mingus, the last of whom asked her to collaborate on his final recordings.^[5] In her later work Mitchell turned again toward pop, embraced electronic music, and engaged in political protest. Mitchell was also the sole record producer credited on most of her albums, including all her work in the 1970s. With roots in visual art, she designed her own album artwork throughout her career. A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell quit touring and released her 17th, and reportedly last, album of original songs in 2007. She describes herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance."^[6]

Mitchell has deeply influenced fellow musicians in a diverse range of genres, and her work is highly respected by critics. Allmusic said, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century,"^[7] and Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever."^[8] Mitchell's lyrics have been noted for their developed poetics, addressing social and environmental ideals alongside individual feelings of romantic longing, confusion, disillusion and joy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Mitchell

Life can be sad. People can be cruel. The walls can come tumbling down & the roof cave in. But the alternative Nothingness isn't an option if you're on the side of Love & Life. Only if you're a coward & a quitter & the pain & suffering can be dealt with, relieved. Otherwise Oblivion as jumping-off point destination can under utterly devastating circumstances also be an heroic act. Choice. I've my own perspective on throwing away your life. Its so precious. But you do need stamina to endure it. The race isn't always to the swift nor the battle to the strong, but Time & Chance...Time & Chance...

Repair the world. Repair the Self. Never stop searching for Love tho it flies. It flies from. But it also flies to...That's just how it is.

Now hear Joni tell it:

Urge for Going

I awoke today and found the frost
perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky, then it
gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold and all
the trees are shivering in a naked row

I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter
is closing in

I had me a man in summertime
He had summer-colored skin
And not another girl in town
My darling's heart could win
But when the leaves fell on the ground
Boy winds came around, pushed them face
down in the snow

He got the urge for going
And I had to let him go
He got the urge for going
When the meadow grass was turning brown
Summertime was falling down and winter
was closing in

Now the warriors of winter they gave a
cold triumphant shout
And all that stays is dying and all that
lives is camping out
See the geese in chevron flight flapping
and racing on before the snow

They got the urge for going
And they got the wings so they can go
They get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter
is closing in

Apply the fire with kindling now
I'll pull the blankets up to my chin
I'll lock the vagrant winter out and
I'll fold my wandering in
I'd like to call back summertime
Have her stay for just another
month or so

But she's got the urge for gong
So I guess she'll have to go
She gets the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
All her empire's falling down
And winter's closing in
And I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
And summertime is falling down

--song written by Joni Mitchell

Reminiscent of Sandy Denny's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes". I love them both (writers & songs). The natural world. Are you with it or against it? We're part of it no matter what. Sometimes we just get unhooked. Unhinged. Have to get back in touch. Up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains there's no two ways about it. My secular prayer goes: O Life, thank you for my life. Today's a good day to die but I'd rather live. I'm not an old tough guy but I'm a tough old guy. There I admit it okay? I'm young at heart & in quite a few other ways I'm still like a young man, when  sufficiently aroused to duty. But I know...I know. There is no Superman. Its been tried & crashed hard. Hasta la vista!

Just had to add this performance from 1966 TV. Other times. Headier days. No one knew which way the world was going. But it has a way of muddling through. Its come this far. Maybe we'll face extinction someday either via our own human self-destructive idiocies or by way of indifferent natural forces, but music like this will last as long as the art & wonder of music itself.