The opening paragraph in “50 Reasons to Love Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’,” a 50-years-later commemorative tribute piece in the 6.20 edition of the N.Y. Times, contains a strange backhand gesture. Written by Lindsay Zoladz, the passage reads as follows:
“Just before embarking on the pivotal intercontinental voyage that would inspire much of her peerless 1971 album “Blue”, Mitchell considered her grandmothers. One ‘was a frustrated poet and musician…she kicked the kitchen door off of the hinges on the farm,’ Mitchell recalled in a 2003 documentary. The other ‘wept for the last time in her life at 14 behind some barn because she wanted a piano and said, ‘Dry your eyes, you silly girl, you’ll never have a piano.’”
That unnamed 2003 documentary is titled Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind. It was directed by Susan Lacy (who also helmed Spielberg, Jane Fonda In Five Acts, Judy Garland: By Myself, Leonard Bernstein: Reaching for the Note, Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval and Very Ralph) and aired on PBS’ “American Masters” series.
Given Lacy’s sterling reputation and the commendable chops and perceptions in Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind, why would Zoladz or her Times editor refer to it as “a 2003 documentary” — a reference that indicates a lack of respect or even derision?