Joni Mitchell

Mitchell's singing began in small nightclubs and busking on the streets of Toronto in her native western Canada subsequently became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. Mitchell achieved fame in the late 1960s and was considered a key part of the Southern California folk rock scene. Throughout the 1970s, she explored and combined the pop and jazz genres. Mitchell has amassed a body of work that is highly respected by both critics and fellow musicians, with the influential All Music Guide going as far as stating that, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century". Mitchell is also an accomplished visual artist. She has, through photography or painting, created the artwork for each of her albums and, in 2000, in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance". A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell had stopped recording over the last several years, focusing mainly on her visual art, but in 2007 released Shine, her first album of new songs in nine years. Mitchell has won nine Grammy Awards as well as The Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

I listened to this song for the first time in years and it reminded me of Janet. It’s most likely because I’ve been reminiscing a lot since Janet’s death and this song is all about reminiscence and Janet looks alot like Joni Mitchell too. In the song, Joni Mitchell’s childhood recollections are told. She blends the Righteous Brothers’ Unchained Melody into the song which she used to listen to at a Chinese Café as a youngster.

Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody