Bad news for Joni Mitchell fans...
11-13-02, 01:35 PM
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Bad news for Joni Mitchell fans...
Joni Mitchell Says New Album Will Be Her Last
Veteran singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, disgusted with the music business, has said her latest album will also be her last. "These are my last two records," the influential Canadian songstress said of her forthcoming double album "Travelogue," due Nov. 19 via Nonesuch.
"I'm quitting after this because the business has made itself so repugnant to me," Mitchell, 59, is quoted as telling the December edition of W magazine. Mitchell, whose eclectic career spans 35 years across folk, rock, and jazz, has been hinting for weeks that she might end the recording career that made her one of the most respected and outspoken artists of her generation.
"The willingness to do anything to stay in the news -- that's the formula now," Mitchell told Billboard in September 2001. "But no real artist has the stomach for all that commodification. I'm not ambitious to be a bigger star, and we live in a decadent time when people shrug about misogyny or that there are crooks in power. I can't write songs in this climate. I'm basically phasing out; I'm retiring again. I'm a painter, and I got derailed into this other game, and so I'm going back to my paints."
She has refused to do anything to make her music more salable. "What would I do?" she asked in the W magazine interview. "Show my t***? Grab my crotch? Get hair extensions and a choreographer? It's not my world."
"Travelogue," a two-disc. 22-track collection, features orchestrated versions of some but not all of Mitchell's best known songs, including "Woodstock," "You Dream Flat Tires," "God Must Be A Boogie Man," and "The Last Time I Saw Richard." As with her 2000 album "Both Sides Now" (Reprise), Vince Mendoza served as arranger and conductor for the project, which also includes appearances by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
"Both Sides Now" peaked at No. 9 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart and No. 66 on The Billboard 200.
Veteran singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell, disgusted with the music business, has said her latest album will also be her last. "These are my last two records," the influential Canadian songstress said of her forthcoming double album "Travelogue," due Nov. 19 via Nonesuch.
"I'm quitting after this because the business has made itself so repugnant to me," Mitchell, 59, is quoted as telling the December edition of W magazine. Mitchell, whose eclectic career spans 35 years across folk, rock, and jazz, has been hinting for weeks that she might end the recording career that made her one of the most respected and outspoken artists of her generation.
"The willingness to do anything to stay in the news -- that's the formula now," Mitchell told Billboard in September 2001. "But no real artist has the stomach for all that commodification. I'm not ambitious to be a bigger star, and we live in a decadent time when people shrug about misogyny or that there are crooks in power. I can't write songs in this climate. I'm basically phasing out; I'm retiring again. I'm a painter, and I got derailed into this other game, and so I'm going back to my paints."
She has refused to do anything to make her music more salable. "What would I do?" she asked in the W magazine interview. "Show my t***? Grab my crotch? Get hair extensions and a choreographer? It's not my world."
"Travelogue," a two-disc. 22-track collection, features orchestrated versions of some but not all of Mitchell's best known songs, including "Woodstock," "You Dream Flat Tires," "God Must Be A Boogie Man," and "The Last Time I Saw Richard." As with her 2000 album "Both Sides Now" (Reprise), Vince Mendoza served as arranger and conductor for the project, which also includes appearances by Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter.
"Both Sides Now" peaked at No. 9 on Billboard's Top Internet Albums chart and No. 66 on The Billboard 200.
11-14-02, 10:58 AM
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That is sad news, considering that I consider her two strongest albums to be made in the 90s - "Night Ride Home" and "Turbulent Indigo". However, her last two were quite middling, and the reviews have not been kind to her newest 2-disc set either. Perhaps it would be good for her to take a break, though not permanently, from music.
11-14-02, 11:08 AM
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Joni Mitchell is quitting the music business?
She was still releasing albums?
I'm just kidding....
Seriously, though, if she REALLY hates the "business" side of the music business (as ALL fans of music really should), then she should just release her new CDs herself on her own label, and sell them through her own website and selected retailers and e-tailers. Stick it to the industry by doing it yourself, that's the best way to go if you've got the financing, which I would imagine she does.
My brother's band has 2 CDs out locally, and they paid less than $2,000 for 1,000 fully packaged, full color printed, multi page fold-out booklet, shrink wrapped CDs. They could have gotten them even cheaper per CD if they ordered 2,500 or 5,000.
Joni Mitchell could print up 10,000 copies (with full color multi page booklets, shrink wrapping, and thw works) for around $12,500. She could then sell them for $10 each and only need to sell 1250 of them to break even, and anything after that would be profit. If she sold out, she could just have more printed.
It's really pretty easy these days, so I don't get this "retirement" thing. She doesn't NEED the major labels - or ANY label for that matter! It could be JUST about the music.
She was still releasing albums?
I'm just kidding....
Seriously, though, if she REALLY hates the "business" side of the music business (as ALL fans of music really should), then she should just release her new CDs herself on her own label, and sell them through her own website and selected retailers and e-tailers. Stick it to the industry by doing it yourself, that's the best way to go if you've got the financing, which I would imagine she does.
My brother's band has 2 CDs out locally, and they paid less than $2,000 for 1,000 fully packaged, full color printed, multi page fold-out booklet, shrink wrapped CDs. They could have gotten them even cheaper per CD if they ordered 2,500 or 5,000.
Joni Mitchell could print up 10,000 copies (with full color multi page booklets, shrink wrapping, and thw works) for around $12,500. She could then sell them for $10 each and only need to sell 1250 of them to break even, and anything after that would be profit. If she sold out, she could just have more printed.
It's really pretty easy these days, so I don't get this "retirement" thing. She doesn't NEED the major labels - or ANY label for that matter! It could be JUST about the music.
