MCS&V Sunday Sermonette #2—Joni Mitchell

Today’s Sermon comes from the pulpit of Joni Mitchell via her interview with Cameron Crowe from the July 26, 1979 issue of Rolling Stone magazine (Full Interview from The Uncool: http://www.theuncool.com/journalism/rs296-joni-mitchell/):

“…Then she laughed and took a long drag from her cigarette. “Here’s the thing, ” she said forcefully. “You have two options. You can stay the same and protect the formula that gave you your initial success. They’re going to crucify you for staying the same. If you change, they’re going to crucify you for changing. But staying the same is boring. And change is interesting. So of the two options,” she concluded cheerfully, “I’d rather be crucified for changing.”

“…There’s only a certain amount of fine work in any idiom. The rest of it is just copyists. Regurgitation. Obvious rip-offs. Mingus has a song, “If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats.” Sometimes I find myself sharing this point of view. He figured you don’t settle for anything else but uniqueness. The name of the game to him—and to me is to become a full individual. I remember a time when I was very flattered if somebody told me that I was as good as Peter, Paul and Mary. Or that I sounded like Judy Collins. Then one day I discovered I didn’t want to be a second-rate anything. I have to remember to be compassionate. Otherwise it really pisses me off to hear somebody getting a whole lot of public roar and, “Oh, this is the newest and the greatest,” when it’s really the newest and greatest copy. There are bands coming now that are really good. They’re interesting; they’ve got some vitality and some fire, but—say they’re Englishmen who sound like Bob Dylan. I listen to it and it’s pleasant on the radio, but as an artist I say to myself, “If you’re that good, how come you can’t be yourself?”