Canadian music icon Joni Mitchell waves to the crowd after singing at the end of "Joni: A portrait in Song", a musical birthday party at Massey Hall in Toronto, June 19, 2013.J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
"I just want my stuff back." Joni Mitchell does not want a collection of her homemade dresses and youthful scrapbooks to be put into a museum, not even if they charged people a dollar and a half just to see 'em.
The iconic singer told her hometown Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper that the items, currently in the possession of a family friend, were of no practical use to the city, regardless of whether or not lingering plans for a civic recognition of her career ever amounted to anything.
Meanwhile, the city still struggles to find a way to honour the artist who in 2005 issued Songs of a Prairie Girl, a compilation Mitchell saw as her contribution to Saskatchewan's Centennial Celebration.
A museum or a statue would be an uninspired tribute, so why not return her possessions and give her what she beautifully wished for in 1971? Rename a river, a freezable one called The Joni Mitchell – something to skate away on.
Brad Wheeler