Reckless Daughter, David Yaffe

A biography on Joni Mitchell, one of the finest singer/songwriters of a generation in my humble opinion. Yaffe conducted dozens of interviews those who know her and interviewed her as well 2007-2015. He dissects each of her notable and not so notable songs, telling the backstory- historically, lyrically, musically. He dives in to her lovers, her lyrics. A complicated and complete musician, an overall badass who did/does as she pleases, mind wide-open, and whose soul she let fly through her songs. You want to know Joni? Just listen to her library of music. She’s a Dylan, Carole King, a Springsteen… the few who care their souls time-and-time again in each and every song and words they create. She’s the goddess of songwriting, who doesn’t care what anybody thinks, and we all wish we could be that way. The book also does a good job on relaying how her smoking affected her voice (she smoked from sun up to sun down); the drugs; the complicated relationships; her insomnia; on tour; how she wouldn’t scale back her lifestyle at times. As I read the book I’d listen to during the day while working her albums… the classics of her early works, such as ‘Blue’, and also, not so well-known such as ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’, which was Prince’s favorite album of hers.