Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

by David Yaffe Narrated by Xe Sands

Overview

Joni Mitchell is a cultural touchstone for generations of Americans. In her heyday she released ten experimental, challenging, and revealing albums; her lyrics captivated people with the beauty of their language and the rawness of their emotions, both deeply personal to Mitchell and universally relatable to her audience. In this intimate biography, composed of dozens of in-person interviews with Mitchell, David Yaffe reveals the backstory behind the famous songs-from her youth on the Canadian prairie, her pre-vaccine bout with polio at age nine, and her early marriage and the child she gave up for adoption, up through the quintessential albums and love affairs, and all the way to the present-and shows us why Mitchell has so enthralled her listeners, her lovers, and her friends.



Yaffe has had unprecedented access both to Mitchell and to those who know her, drawing on interviews with childhood friends and the cast of famous characters (Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, and more) with whom she has crossed paths and influenced, as well as insightful analyses of her famous lyrics, their imagery and style, and what they say about the woman herself.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/23/2017
Drawing on in-depth interviews with Mitchell, her friends, and her musical associates, Yaffe (Fascinating Rhythm) paints a colorful and riveting portrait of a songwriter who has continually broken boundaries and explored new musical territories. In lively, bright prose, Yaffe traces Roberta Joan Anderson from her birth in Alberta, Canada, in 1943, through her early bout of polio, her marriage to Chuck Mitchell in 1964 (when she changed her name to Joni Mitchell), and the birth of her daughter in 1965. Yaffe describes Mitchell’s steely resolve to make her own art, her emergence as a voice of her generation, her creative struggles in the 1980s and 1990s, and her recent recovery from a brain aneurysm. He brilliantly guides readers through Mitchell’s evolution as a musician with vivid descriptions of the making of each of her albums from Song to a Seagull (“If drums and an electric guitar had been added to the mix, Joni would have produced some acid rock herself”) through Shine in 2007. Yaffe introduces readers to the musicians with whom Mitchell worked, including Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash, Judy Collins, and Charles Mingus. The combination of fine writing and extensive access make this the definitive biography of a gifted songwriter and musician. (Oct.)

From the Publisher

"A vivid and dramatic book" —Josephine Livingstone, The New Republic

“The best chronicle to date of Mitchell’s creative process and the specific way her songs were composed.” —Rachel Syme, The Nation

"Yet whatever her listeners might dream or desire, Joni Mitchell was never in it for them, and she certainly wasn’t like them: She was a genius. As David Yaffe shows in his new biography, Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell, to approach her as an open book waiting to be read is to miss the essence of that genius . . . [T]he best full-length treatment of Mitchell yet published." —Jack Hamilton, The Atlantic

"Joni Mitchell’s gift was so enormous that it remade the social space around her. As David Yaffe’s new biography, “Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell” (Sarah Crichton Books), suggests, it is no small burden to possess something as valuable as Mitchell’s talent, and it meant that this girl from the Canadian prairie would be in the world, whether she liked it or not . . . Yaffe, who teaches at Syracuse, charts these encounters with a sure hand, and is a brilliant analyst of how Mitchell’s songs are made. " —Dan Chiasson, The New Yorker

"In prose that shifts between chatty, impressionistic and reportorial, Yaffe sympathetically traces the outline of the musician's life, from her childhood battle with polio through her life-threatening aneurysm in 2015. Working his way through her albums, he offers up detailed takes on recording sessions, song tidbits, even chord changes. . . Reckless Daughter looks at Mitchell's life through all sides now." —David Browne, Rolling Stone

"Yaffe solidly traces the glory and gloom of a musical career that expanded our ears and hearts . . . The lonely girl ill with polio had survived to become a great artist. Yaffe’s books tells us how she got there." —Sibbie O'Sullivan, The Washington Post

"David Yaffe has crafted a beautiful, heartbreaking, fierce and uncompromising look at one of the greatest artists of the past 50 years . . . a lush, complex, carefully researched examination of one of music's most interesting living legends . . . This is a full portrait of an artist who carved a place for herself in the music industry and managed to walk away from it with more than her dignity fully intact." —Christopher John Stephens, PopMatters

"Dazzling . . . A shimmering portrait of one artist's life, illusions and all." —Booklist (starred review)

"[Yaffe] brilliantly guides readers through Mitchell’s evolution as a musician with vivid descriptions of the making of each of her albums from Song to a Seagull (“If drums and an electric guitar had been added to the mix, Joni would have produced some acid rock herself”) through Shine in 2007. Yaffe introduces readers to the musicians with whom Mitchell worked, including Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash, Judy Collins, and Charles Mingus. The combination of fine writing and extensive access make this the definitive biography of a gifted songwriter and musician." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"The essential biography of Joni Mitchell." —Now Toronto

“David Yaffe has composed an abnormally well-written musician biography—descriptive, culturally aware and highly supportive of his subject.” —David Luhrssen, Shepherd Express

“Reckless Daughter is a bewitched, bothered, and bewildered portrayal of one of the most beautiful and enigmatic artists of a beautiful and enigmatic period of American life. It is touching, mystifying, and revealing in equal parts.” —Mary Gaitskill

“Joni Mitchell, an artist of innervating and daunting complexity, originality, and importance, could have no better biographer than David Yaffe. He knows the music like the serious musician he is, knows the poetry like the literary scholar he is, and is equally attuned to Mitchell’s tortured soul. On top of all that, he seems to have interviewed everyone important in Mitchell’s life, from her first husband to Leonard Cohen. Reckless Daughter is nothing less than the definitive statement on the life and work of an artist who defies definition.” —David Hajdu, author of Love for Sale: Pop Music in America

“It’s so easy to get Joni Mitchell wrong, or to leave out the most important things, or to miss the point altogether. Reckless Daughter is the definitive correction to all the errors, a sharp yet sprawling look at one of the most brilliant musical artists of modern times. David Yaffe grasps the nuances—of the music, the poetry, the intellect, the madness. He gets it. He gets her. I couldn’t get enough of this fine biography.” —Meghan Daum, author of The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion

“David Yaffe is an artful and incisive critic who writes with such grace and clarity. With Reckless Daughter, he makes a figure as iconic as Joni Mitchell feel wholly new. This portrait is loaded with revelations, both spiritual and actual. I thought I understood something about Mitchell—the way her tough and tender songs move, her sweetness and rebellion—but Yaffe understands everything. What a book.” —Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World’s Rarest 78rpm Records

Amanda Petrusich

David Yaffe is an artful and incisive critic who writes with such grace and clarity. With Reckless Daughter, he makes a figure as iconic as Joni Mitchell feel wholly new. This portrait is loaded with revelations, both spiritual and actual. . . .What a book.

Mary Gaitskill

Reckless Daughter is a bewitched, bothered, and bewildered portrayal of one of the most beautiful and enigmatic artists of a beautiful and enigmatic period of American life. It is touching, mystifying, and revealing in equal parts.

David Hajdu

Joni Mitchell, an artist of innervating and daunting complexity, originality, and importance, could have no better biographer than David Yaffe. . . . Reckless Daughter is nothing less than the definitive statement on the life and work of an artist who defies definition.

Library Journal - Audio

03/01/2018
Among the greatest songwriters in history, Joni Mitchell has enriched the nation's sound track since the late 1960s. The Canadian-born singer suffered polio at age ten and went on to embellish the baby boomer-Woodstock-era songbook with standards such as "Both Sides Now," "Help Me," and "Big Yellow Taxi." Regular access to the singer positioned Yaffe (humanities, Syracuse Univ.) to mine the stories behind her songs, love affairs, heartbreaks, and losses. As Mitchell, narrator Xe Sands builds on this intimacy, channeling the subject believably. Interviews with around 60 of Mitchell's associates—many musical legends themselves—reaped expressions of awe about her crystalline voice, virtuoso strumming, and evocative lyrics. Yaffe has his own musical chops, making him well equipped to add insightful musical exegesis about his subject's work. Because musical nuance can't be fully communicated in narrative, libraries might want to augment their CD collection with albums such as Blue or the DVD of PBS's American Masters episode Joni Mitchell: Woman of Heart and Mind. VERDICT Listeners wishing to reminisce about popular music's role in cultural history, along with younger aficionados seeking introductions, will find Mitchell's life story memorable. ["Fans won't see her star diminished as much as her brilliance and frailties revealed. All music collections need this one": LJ 10/15/17 review of the Sarah Crichton: Farrar hc.]—Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo

Library Journal

10/15/2017
Joni Mitchell (née Roberta Joan Anderson in 1943 Alberta) is the subject of two books this fall. An anthology of articles about the singer/songwriter, edited by Barney Hoskyns, is also pubbing this month. But Yaffe (Bob Dylan: Like a Complete Unknown), a longtime fan who met with Mitchell often between 2007 and 2015, takes the traditional biography route and starts at the beginning, with her less-than-satisfying childhood, her bout with polio, and her self-taught musicianship. Mitchell eventually left home, singing in coffeehouses in Toronto, and on her way to her own legendary status crossed paths with every rising star in the folk and rock firmament: Judy Collins, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, David Crosby, Neil Young, Buffy Sainte-Marie, and Jimi Hendrix among them. Her songwriting magic was as much a lure to these fellow troubadours as her ethereal beauty and original sound. Yaffe follows the music and the stories behind them, covering the marriages and love affairs, the record company woes, and the child she gave up for adoption. Fans won't see her star diminished as much as her brilliance and frailties revealed. VERDICT All music collections need this one. [Illustrations and index not seen.] [See Prepub Alert, 4/24/17.]—Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

DECEMBER 2017 - AudioFile

Find yourself some Joni Mitchell music on whatever platform works for you. Maybe BLUE or HEJIRA, a couple of her best albums. Turn it on. Softly. Begin listening to this audiobook. Float away. The author has done a masterful job of research, including new information from recent interviews, and we learn a great deal about Mitchell and her songs. Narrator Xe Sands adopts an intimate conversational tone that not only supports Yaffe’s intent but pretty much sums up the era in which Mitchell shone the brightest. Sands alternately speeds up and slows down her delivery, but that only serves to keep our attention and makes it seem as though she is speaking only to us. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171388423
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	10/17/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

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