Joni Mitchell and Tammi Terrell

My two most loved female singers are Joni Mitchell and Tammi Terrell. I'm going to deal with Joni today and Tammi another day.

Joni Mitchell first came to my notice when I was at university in Manchester doing a joint degree in English and French. At first I wasn't keen on her; her voice was very high and a little bit whiny at times. Another reason was that the boy I was with at that time thought she was wonderful and beautiful. Overcoming my jealousy, I decided to give her a good hearing. I was enraptured. The nuances of that voice I had once thought whiny, the range of her vocals and her superb lyrics, that noone, not even Bob Dylan had previously created, were evidence of a musical genius.

Blue, Court and Spark, For the Roses, Hejira, The Hissing of Summer Lawns - I listened to them all with a mixed sense of disbelief and adoration. There wasn't only me adoring Joni, many men were entranced by her including Leonard Cohen, Graham Nash, David Crosby, James Taylor and others.

At the age of 19 she lost her virginity and became pregnant, She did her best to protect her parents from the dreadful scandal, as it was regarded at the time. She was their only child too. Joni gave up her daughter for adoption but in the late nineties she made it public that she wanted to find her daughter. She did find her, Kilaurin Gibb, and for a while the two were happily reunited. But only for a while sadly.

Joni lives alone now, saying she prefers it that way. She will be 70 years old on November 7th, and by that time she will have been smoking for 61 years. She began at age 9 when she became ill with polio. Incredible - and even now, unapologetically, she smokes like a chimney.

You would think that Joni Mitchell would be a feminist, but interestingly she declares herself not to be a feminist. She becomes very exercised by the label and disassociates herself from it wholeheartedly. The reason she gives is that feminists don't like men and they wish to separate themselves from the male of the species. Well, not quite Joni; maybe the radical, lesbian, separatist feminists do, but not the vast majority of feminists. Anyway, who cares that she may be a bit eccentric on this, when she can write lyrics such as - 'I met a woman, she had a mouth like yours, she knew your life, she knew your devils and your deeds.'  What better way to describe the mother of the man she loves. Genius.