Page 59 - Joni's family radio
The young Anderson family (Joni Mitchell's real last name) moved around a lot, as Bill advanced - from butcher-grocer to manager - in his work for a regional supermarket chain. They lived in Fort Macleod until Roberta Joan was a year and a half, then moved to Maidstone, Saskatchewan, a village of just over four hundred residents, where the family entertained itself by listening to the Andrews Sisters' and the McGuire Sisters' mellifluous close-harmonies piped through the console radio in the mid-40's.
Page 61 - Mr. Anderson plays the trumpet
Big band horn playing was Joni's fathers' release. Frankie would come over to the Anderson house and play piano while Mr. Anderson tooted his trumpet (Leroy Anderson's A Trumpeter's Lullaby) was a favorite duet for the two of them.
Page 64 - Joni's junior choir
During province-wide music festivals, Joan (Joni), Sandy and Anne would wait their turn in the rear pew while junior choir after junior choir filed to the front, shuffled into neat rows, and, pigtails bobbing, sand "Hey, Nonny, Nonny, on yonder hill there was a maiden...." while a stout woman sternly judged the entrants.
Note: unable to find a recording of this song with those exact lyrics. Still looking......
Page 69 - Joni falls in love with music
In her tenth year (1953), Joni Mitchell fell in love with the idea of writing beautiful music. It was the majestically romantic Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganiniby Sergei Rachmaninoff that did it. Joni was in the movie theater audience for one movie that utilized it, The Story of Three Lovesand she left the theater intent on tracking down the music.
Page 76 - Joni finds "her Beatles"
Around Joni Mitchell's junior year she bought herself a $38 baritone ukulele and a Pete Seeger songbook. In truth, though, folk music wasn't inspiring her as much as scat singing. She had discovered Lambert, Hendricks and Ross, and "they were," as she has said, "my Beatles".
