Joni Mitchell Says New Album Will Be Her Last
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Veteran singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, disgusted with the music business, has said her latest album will also be her last.
“These are my last two records,” the influential Canadian songstress said of her forthcoming double album “Travelogue.”
“I’m quitting after this because the business has made itself so repugnant to me,” Mitchell, 59, was quoted as telling the December edition of W magazine in an interview.
Mitchell, whose eclectic career spans 35 years across the genres of folk, rock and jazz, has been hinting for weeks that she might end the recording career that made her one of the most respected and outspoken artists of her generation.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, published in October, Mitchell described the music business as a “cesspool,” saying she would never take another deal in the record business, “which means I may not record again.”
In the W magazine interview, she blasted the recording industry as “the most corrupt one of all. They try not to pay you whenever possible.”
Venting her scorn on contemporary artists — including Madonna — Mitchell said of music industry executives;
“They’re not looking for talent. They’re looking for a look and a willingness to cooperate. And a woman my age, no matter how well preserved, no longer has the look. And I’ve never had a willingness to cooperate.”
As for Madonna, who was once quoted as saying that as a teenager she had adored Mitchell: “She has knocked the importance of talent out of the arena. She’s manufactured. She’s made a lot of money and become the biggest star in the world by hiring the right people,” Mitchell said.
Canadian-born Mitchell, whose syncopated rhythms and introspective lyrics brought a breath of fresh air to the early 1970s music scene, inspired musicians ranging from Sting to David Bowie and Madonna herself. Yet her own records, even those like “Both Sides Now,” “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Woodstock,” never sold in huge numbers.
She has refused to do anything to make her music more salable. “What would I do?,” she asked in the W magazine interview.
“Show my tits? Grab my crotch? Get hair extensions and a choreographer? It’s not my world,” she said.
“Travelogue,” a two-disc collection, features some but not all of Mitchell’s greatest hits. It was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and a backing band that includes Herbie Hancock, Billy Preston and Wayne Shorter and will be released on November 18.
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