Forget tribute, Joni Mitchell says
Musician asks for return of belongings
SASKATOON — Joni Mitchell wants her stuff back.
The legendary musician with deep roots in Saskatoon says in an interview with Postmedia that her requests to retrieve a collection of personal items, including homemade dresses and dozens of scrapbooks her mother compiled, have been rejected.
Ron Lamb, who has held the possessions for several years, spoke to local media in June and suggested Mitchell gave Saskatoon an ultimatum — find a home for the collection or she’s taking it back.
Mitchell said Lamb does not speak for her and she simply wants her belongings back.
“It’s time to retrieve everything,” she said in a phone interview. “All I want is my stuff back. I just want my stuff back. I have a place to store it. It won’t be of any use to Saskatoon.”
Mitchell, 69, said she’s called Lamb several times and asked him in no uncertain terms to return the collection.
“It was a quick fix to a problem of where to store this stuff,” Mitchell said. “The main thing is to get my mother’s project into the hand of a caring curator. It’s out of respect for her.”
Mitchell has been honoured in numerous ways in numerous countries, including tribute concerts and the Swedish Polar Music Prize, among other Canadian and international honours. But Saskatoon has yet to find a way to celebrate one of its most notable citizens.
Several attempts have failed in the past decade, including a proposed Joni Mitchell cultural centre, a statue project, and a wing in a now-dead plan to expand the Mendel Art Gal- lery, where she would also have helped design a Joni Mitchell Cafe. An ad hoc group recently restarted the discussion of how to honour the artist. Mitchell said those attempts were “laughable,” and she wants to distance herself from any more proposals.
“The first one, the statue, they asked me if I wanted a statue of myself,” Mitchell said.
“That’s a crazy question in the first place, isn’t it? If you say yes, you have an ego. If you say no, you’re unco-operative or snooty.”
In that case, Mitchell said she found a renowned sculptor and together they designed a bronze bench that would face the Broadway Bridge. A statue of Mitchell would have leaned on the bench, which would have also featured the inscription “Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel in the Broadway Bridge,” a line from Mitchell’s song based on the experience of a friend who was molested as a child and hid under the bridge when she couldn’t find help. A group failed to raise enough money to fund the project, Mitchell said.
“All of these attempts involved me to a certain degree, and I tried to make them something inclusive or fun or educational for the populace,” she said.
The importance of the collection remaining in Saskatoon is secondary to the new effort of finding some way to recognize Mitchell’s creativity, said former Saskatchewan premier Lorne Calvert, who is involved with the ad hoc group discussing the musician’s legacy.
“We want to find some- thing that is true to her person and her creativity,” Calvert said in an interview. He added that he understands plans are in the works to return the collection to Mitchell.
Born in Alberta, Mitchell later moved to Saskatoon with her family and spent her formative years in the city. Her time in Saskatoon served as an inspiration for her songs and art. When her parents, Bill and Myrtle Anderson, fell ill years ago, Mitchell helped move them into a long-term care home, packed up their house, sold it and set aside material that could have found a home in a proposed museum centred on her life.
The items included dresses handmade by Mitchell and several dozen scrapbooks her mother filled with clippings and other material from a long, influential career and life.
“These aren’t just about me, she put it into historical context, so artists she knew, like Gordon Lightfoot, are in there too. This is a document of the times, her life’s work and my legacy, really,” she said.
“I want to get my stuff out of there. There aren’t enough people who know what I do. I need to be in a place that recognizes the international achievements.”
For now, Mitchell said she’s more concerned with her ongoing painting and a new ballet based on her music. “Honour me when I’m dead,” she said, laughing. “I don’t want to go through this again.”