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David Yaffe: Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell

Clinton Heylin, unpublished, Fall 2017

WARREN ZEVON, a Laurel Canyon contemporary of Joni Mitchell, once wrote a song called 'Accidentally Like A Martyr'. Taking a leaf from Zevon, David Yaffe's new biography of the Lady of the Canyon could perhaps have been subtitled Accidentally Like A Biography – as opposed to A Portrait of Joni Mitchell – for it is all too often a self-portrait from a rueful, latter-day Mitchell with occasional interjections from a besotted Yaffe.

Total word count of piece: 1131

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