Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T21:36:30.232Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Back to the garden again: Joni Mitchell's ‘Woodstock’ and utopianism in song

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 November 2015

Amy Kintner
Amy Kintner*
Affiliation:
62023 Hwy 90 Montrose, CO 81403USA E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Joni Mitchell's ‘Woodstock’ is one of the most recognisable songs about the 1969 festival, yet Mitchell did not attend Woodstock and instead wrote her song in a New York City hotel room. The song ‘Woodstock’, then, represents the event not as it literally happened, but as it could have been, as an idealised depiction of nostalgia for the festival and the era's utopian potential. I analyse Mitchell's song as a utopian text and investigate the political efficacy of ‘Woodstock's musical and lyrical content for Mitchell, for other artists who cover the song, and for audiences who may recognise it as the festival's ‘theme’. As her career continues, Mitchell abandons the folk-based style of her early albums, but keeps ‘Woodstock’ an active part of her performance repertoire. I trace three later versions to show that the utopianism of the original disappears as Mitchell re-imagines the song, the event and its ideological legacy.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 1 - 22
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References and bibliography

Bloch, E. 1971. ‘Geist der Utopie’, in Gesamptausgabe der Werke Ernst Blochs, Vol. 16 (Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp)Google Scholar
Boym, S. 2002. The Future of Nostalgia (New York, Basic Books)Google Scholar
Echols, A. 2010. Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture (New York, W.W. Norton), pp. 7–13Google Scholar
Edwards, R. 2009. Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music (Toronto: University of Toronto Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eyerman, R., and Jamison, A. 1998. Music and Social Movements: Mobilizing Traditions in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fellezs, K. 2011. Birds of Fire: Jazz, Rock, and the Creation of Fusion (Durham, NC, Duke University Press)Google Scholar
Foucault, M. 1986 [1967]. ‘Of other spaces’, trans. Miskowiec, J., Diacritics, 16, pp. 22–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frye, N. 1976. ‘Conclusion’, in Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, ed. Klinck, C.F. (Toronto, University of Toronto Press)Google Scholar
Jacoby, R. 2005. Picture Imperfect: Utopian Thought for an Anti-Utopian Age (New York, Columbia University Press)Google Scholar
Johns, A. 2010. ‘Feminism and Utopia’, in The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature, ed. Claeys, G. (New York, Cambridge University Press), pp. 174–99CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marcuse, H. 1969. An Essay on Liberation (Boston, MA, Beacon Press)Google Scholar
Marin, L. 1993. ‘Frontiers of Utopia: past and present’, Critical Inquiry, 19, p. 415CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, S. 2011. Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past (New York, Faber & Faber)Google Scholar
Vieira, F. 2010. ‘The concept of Utopia’, in The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature, ed. Claeys, G. (New York, Cambridge University Press), pp. 3–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whitesell, L. 2008. The Music of Joni Mitchell (New York, Oxford University Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Selected Discography

Mitchell, Joni. Ladies of the Canyon. Reprise Records. 1970Google Scholar
Mitchell, Joni. Miles of Aisles. Asylum Records. 1974Google Scholar
Mitchell, Joni. Shadows and Light. Asylum Records. 1980Google Scholar
Mitchell, Joni. Travelogue. Nonesuch Records. 2002Google Scholar