Legend: The Joni Mitchell Story

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY (320kbs-m4a/415mb/2hrs56mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 2nd November to 7th December 2023

Legend is a new music biography series from BBC Radio 4 exploring the extraordinary life stories of pioneering artists who changed music forever.

Joni Mitchell's songs have soundtracked our lives and her pioneering work changed music forever. Jesca Hoop explores her extraordinary story to reveal the life behind the legend.

"I've always been a creature of change" - Joni Mitchell

Through archive, fresh interviews, narration, immersive sound design and an original score, we trace the story of an extraordinary life and explore what makes Joni Mitchell a singular artist: the genius of her lyrics; her incredible talent as guitarist, painter and producer; and her restless drive for innovation.

We follow Joni from her 'flatlander' childhood on the Canadian prairies, through the folk clubs of Toronto and Detroit, to a redwood cottage in L.A.'s Laurel Canyon, to a cave in Crete, to a deserted desert highway, to recording studios and stages around the world. From her earliest home recordings to masterpieces like Blue, Court and Spark, and Hejira, we explore some of the stories behind her best-loved songs and celebrate her remarkable return to live performance in the past year: "like seeing, in the wild, a rare bird long feared extinct".

Our guide through the series is the California-born, Manchester-based musician, Jesca Hoop. We hear tributes from musicians who have played alongside Joni and from those who have been inspired and influenced by her music. We hear from friends, including Larry Klein and Graham Nash; and from music critics and biographers, including Ann Powers, David Yaffe, Lindsay Zoladz, Kate Mossman, Barney Hoskyns, Miles Grier and Jenn Pelly.

The Joni Mitchell Story comes from the production team behind BBC Radio 4's award-winning podcast Soul Music - "… the gold standard for music podcasts…" (Esquire).

Producers: Mair Bosworth and Eliza Lomas
Production Coordinator: Andrew Lewis
Editor: Chris Ledgard
Story Editor: Emma Harding
Story Consultant: John Yorke
Sound Design and Original Music: Hannis Brown
Studio Engineers: Ilse Lademann and Michael Harrison

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 0. INTRODUCING LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY (320kbs-m4a/7mb/3mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 22nd October 2023

How did the greats become the greats? And what did it cost them to get there? Legend is a musician biography series from BBC Radio 4 exploring the life and music of the pioneering artists who shaped modern music.

Series one tells the story of Joni Mitchell and explores her incomparable body of work - from her earliest home recordings to masterpieces like Blue, Court and Spark, and Hejira.

It's a story that takes us from the remote prairie towns of Saskatchewan to the bohemian idyll of Laurel Canyon; through the hippie dreams of the Woodstock generation and into the dog-eat-dog world of 1980s LA.

Her path has not been straightforward. There have been lonely roads and wrong turns. Road rage, and car crashes - symbolic and real. Joni walked away from fame many times. She gave up a daughter and found her again. She came close to death more than once. And now, she's back on stages again at the age of 80.

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 1. URGE FOR GOING (320kbs-m4a/67mb/29mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 2nd November 2023

In the first episode, we hear how young Joni loves to watch the trains go by from the window of her house in a Saskatchewan prairie town. Even as a child, there is a desire to see what's around the next bend. She's a tomboy and an athlete, until polio forces her into a period of convalescence; she's no longer picked first for sports teams but when she gets the use of her legs back she rock 'n' roll dances her way through her teens. Her childhood ambition is to be a painter, but when she finally makes it to art school everything changes....

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 2. LADY OF THE CANYON (320kbs-m4a/71mb/31mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 9th November 2023

In episode two we follow Joni from 1964 through to late 1969. Joni makes a 'bad marriage', signs adoption papers, leaves a bad marriage, makes it to Greenwich Village and then to LA's Laurel Canyon. We find out about the inspiration for some of her best known songs, including Little Green and Both Sides Now. In 1968, her recording career begins with her debut album 'Song to a Seagull'; with two more records following in quick succession - Clouds, and Ladies of the Canyon. In 1969, she is heartbroken to miss out on one of the biggest events of her generation - Woodstock. But - despite not getting to go - she writes a song that will help to define the event, and the era, in the popular imagination.

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 3. BLUE (320kbs-m4a/69mb/30mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 16th November 2023

In episode three we follow Joni from 1970 through to 1974 - an incredibly fertile period during which she creates her albums Blue, For the Roses and Court and Spark. A period of romantic highs and lows, heady successes and hermit-like retreats, of psychoanalysis and vulnerability, and of new creative directions.

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 4. REFUGE OF THE ROADS (320kbs-m4a/72mb/31mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 23rd November 2023

In episode four we follow Joni from 1974 through to 1978. In 1974 Court and Spark is released to huge acclaim but already Joni is heading in new directions musically. This is the era of The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Through '74 and '75 she tours extensively and joins Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. Her creative restlessness and refusal to be put in a box take her in new directions, but also into controversial territory.

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 5. DOG EAT DOG (320kbs-m4a/64mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 30th November 2023

In episode five, we hear how meeting a towering figure of jazz leads to a new collaboration, but Joni's hopes for a hit are unfulfilled. As the 1980s arrive, Joni continues to experiment with new sounds, but discovers the cost of being a middle-aged woman in pop. This is the decade of new politics and new love, hard knocks and bad omens. Joni experiences a series of misfortunes, and the pain of giving up her daughter resurfaces once more, in a song.

LEGEND: THE JONI MITCHELL STORY - 6. BOTH SIDES NOW (320kbs-m4a/65mb/28mins)
BBC Radio 4 broadcast: 7th December 2023

In the final episode, we hear how Joni comes full circle. She reunites with the daughter she gave up for adoption, retires then returns to music, suffers from and then recovers from a near-fatal brain aneurysm, all those years after contracting and surviving polio. With the love and support of a community of musicians, Joni once again returns to the stage, celebrating all that she's created over 80 years.