Joni Mitchell

 

Today is Joni Mitchell's birthday.  She was born in 1943.  Unfortunately, her golden years haven't been so golden, so I'd rather remember her from the 1970's, when she really was our golden girl of music. I'm not embarrassed to admit that her albums Ladies of the Canyon and Blue are on my ipod.  

She was born in Alberta, Canada, the daughter of a grocer and a schoolteacher.  There are lots of good stories about Joni Mitchell, but this is my favorite: She started out on a $36 baritone ukulele because she couldn't afford a guitar.  Growing up, she listened at night to AM radio broadcasts from the United States.  Along with Bandstand, that was your only access to rock music in those days, unless you could afford records.

As a teenager, I remember listening to AM radio in Colorado. We would tune in after supper while we did our homework, and in cars on dates. The weather and clouds determined how well the signal came in, but we didn't care. When the sun went down, our radios came on. I don't understand radio waves very well, but something about bouncing off the ionosphere at night.

There were very few stations across the Great Plains that played rock music, but 1520 KOMA from Oklahoma City ran a new concept program called "Top 40." It became wildly popular with teenagers.

Exciting stuff-- Chuck Berry, the Supremes, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and the Beatles and so on.  That distinctive, distant sound of the AM music and the corny KOMA promos were imprinted on our young brains forever.

Here's a cool YouTube that brings it all back.