Bob 'n' Joni

“I’ve known Joni since I was 18. I met her in one of the coffeehouses. She was beautiful. That was my first impression. She was real frail and wispy looking. And her cheekbones were so beautifully shaped. She’d always wear light satins and silks. I remember thinking that if you blew hard enough, you could probably knock her over. She could hold up a Martin D-18 pretty well though. What an incredible talent she is. She writes about her relationships so much more vividly than I do. I guess I put more of a veil over what I’m talking about. I’ve written a few songs that were as stark as hers. Songs like “Pardon My Heart,” “Homefires,” “Love Art Blues,”…almost all of Homegrown. I’ve never released any of those. And I probably never will. I think i’d be too embarrassed to put them out. They’re a little too real.”

Neil Young on his friendship with Joni Mitchell and their first encounter—Zach Sang Show, November 19, 2022.

“The three great stimulants of a morally decaying culture, as Nietzsche observed in Germany prior to World War II, are artifice, brutality, and innocence, or should I say, the exploitation and corruption of innocence. Artifice increases as a culture declines. Real emotions become rare. Insights are nowhere. The voyeuristic appetite for brutality dominates entertainments - blood sports, sick fascination with criminal violence, “shock and awe” and all that…”