Both sides now
Travelling woman: Ann Powers is, eventually, dazzled by Joni Mitchell’s perpetual motion and periodic renewal.
Getty
An erudite tangle of history, criticism and memoir, ripe for debate. By Grayson Haver Currin.
Travelling: On The Path Of Joni Mitchell ★★★★
Ann Powers
HARPER COLLINS. £25
SOMETHING ASTONISHING happens about three-quarters through Travelling, the informed and argumentative new examination of the life, career and legacy of Joni Mitchell. Ann Powers – one of the United States’ most commanding music critics, ever-ready with thoughtful appraisals of difficult questions – hands over 10 pages to another writer. Powers has been wrestling with the infamous cover of Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter and its oft-forgiven image of Mitchell in blackface, a black man she dubbed “Art Nouveau”. She is considering the assorted contexts: Mitchell’s other appropriations, her black collaborators, works that might have motivated her, the power struggles of a white woman.