{"id":111906,"date":"2023-10-04T19:27:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T19:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/04\/revisiting-joni-mitchells-lead-balloon-a-kiss-off-to-jann-wenner-and-rock-misogyny\/"},"modified":"2023-10-04T19:27:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T19:27:22","slug":"revisiting-joni-mitchells-lead-balloon-a-kiss-off-to-jann-wenner-and-rock-misogyny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2023\/10\/04\/revisiting-joni-mitchells-lead-balloon-a-kiss-off-to-jann-wenner-and-rock-misogyny\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Joni Mitchell\u2019s \u201cLead Balloon,\u201d a Kiss-Off to Jann Wenner and Rock Misogyny"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Last month, The New York Times<\/em> ran an interview<\/a> with Rolling Stone<\/em> founder Jann Wenner that so damningly revealed sexist and racist prejudices in his considering that he was swiftly faraway from the board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which he co-founded in 1983. In the interview, Wenner shared his opinion that Joni Mitchell<\/a> was \u201cnot a philosopher of rock\u2019n\u2019roll,\u201d therefore her exclusion\u2014and that of any ladies musicians or artists of coloration\u2014from his new guide of interviews with well-known white males. The irony is that Joni Mitchell not solely wrote peerless critiques of rock\u2019n\u2019roll\u2014exposing the myths of \u201cthe star maker machinery behind the popular song\u201d on \u201cFree Man in Paris,\u201d the sex-drugs-ego desperation of male rock stars on \u201cWoman of Heart and Mind,\u201d and loads of others\u2014but additionally gave a number of the biggest Rolling Stone<\/em> interviews of all time.<\/p>\n

Much has been stated in regards to the Wenner guide fiasco. The discourse helps contextualize one other event: the twenty fifth anniversary<\/a> of the discharge of \u201cLead Balloon,\u201d the fierce rock track Mitchell wrote in 1998 about an notorious confrontation with Wenner. \u201c\u2018Kiss my ass!\u2019 I said\/And I threw my drink\/It came a-trickling\/Down his business suit,\u201d Mitchell sang on the atmospheric Taming the Tiger<\/em>, her third document of the \u201990s following Night Ride Home<\/em> and Turbulent Indigo<\/em>, each broadly acquired then as her finest for the reason that \u201970s. \u201cMust be the Irish blood\/Fight before you think\/Turn it down\/You can\u2019t cowtow\/You can\u2019t undo it\/It\u2019s his town\/And that went down\/Like a lead balloon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident allegedly occurred at an awards ceremony, although the small print have largely evaded the historic document. Mitchell had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997, however she didn\u2019t attend that ceremony. Still, the long-vexed relationship between Mitchell and Rolling Stone<\/em>, hinging on Wenner\u2019s flagrant misogyny, has been effectively documented.<\/p>\n

In 1971, Mitchell launched her homesick Blue<\/em> traditional, \u201cCalifornia,\u201d the place she sang of \u201clots of pretty people\u201d in Los Angeles \u201creading Rolling Stone<\/em>, reading Vogue<\/em>,\u201d and, as creator Joe Hagan put it in his Wenner biography Sticky Fingers<\/em>, her references \u201c[were] telling, capturing the glint of celebrity and self-regard that now animated the youth culture.\u201d It wasn\u2019t lengthy after, in February 1972, that the journal printed a chart mapping an internet of males Mitchell had supposedly slept with. Under the auspices of \u201cHollywood\u2019s Hot 100,\u201d the tabloid-fodder graphic included Mitchell\u2019s identify on the middle of a lipstick stain, with arrows pointing in direction of the names of David Crosby, James Taylor, and Graham Nash\u2014labeling her \u201cQueen of El Lay.\u201d The journal correspondent who drew up the chart, Jerry Hopkins, claimed to have completed it as a joke; Wenner insisted on publishing it. At the tip of the 12 months, Rolling Stone<\/em> confirmed that its unapologetic sexism wasn\u2019t an remoted oversight when it named Mitchell \u201cOld Lady of the Year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n