3. Joni MitchellLadies Of The Canyon
My mum loved Joni Mitchell – like a lot of women. Having said that, my 24-year-old son is a huge fan, so that was a totally inappropriate sexist remark to make! It was on a lot when my mum was allowed anywhere near the record player! And obviously very different to a lot of the stuff that my dad would put on. So it was fantastic to hear the skills of the most accomplished songwriter of our time and to be totally blown away as a 10/11/12-year-old. The fantasy lyrics were inspiring and sparked my imagination. Such a beautiful vocal range. The fact that she was a female singer-songwriter was very inspiring even though it took me many years to write songs. I sort of blame Joni Mitchell in a way because her songs were so beyond attainment that I just thought, why even bother?! It took me many years to understand that no one else is me. No one else is her and no one else is me and no one else sees the world like I do. And that is valid enough for me to write my own version of how I experience being alive on this planet. Nonetheless, I was totally inspired by Ladies Of The Canyon and I subsequently bought Blue.
