Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Many wonderful things have already been said about this book, so I won't be repetitive. The one word that makes me crazy that I see and hear used again and again, even in reviews here, to describe Joni's attitude toward herself and her work, is "arrogant." An artist, a master of many mediums, and of her stature is rarely found in any age, and yet Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are repeatedly described as "poets"; Joni is never, to my knowledge, put in their class. Her work is always qualified by her gender. This is grossly unfair, and in interviews one can tell how much this irritates her. And it should! She tells of being "short-sheeted" at New York venues by envious male performers such as Dylan...her guitar destroyed prior to a performance because the boys were pissed that she played better than they, and she was only a girl. I laud Joni for taking her praise into her own hands, and for saying she really had no peer...neither Cohen or Dylan had the vocal chops that she did, or painted with words as skillfully as she did, or used such complex harmonies, or made so many gutsy changes in her creative direction. I think many almost-greats copied her and resented her at the same time: she refused to be held down or put in a corner or pigeonhole. How frustrating that must have been! My deal is, those whose work goes beyond praise need to be glorified, regardless of gender. Joni continues to be short-sheeted, and she is irritated and goading into telling the truth, setting the record straight. Those who love her work, all of it, are stunned by her musical and poetical honesty...why would she make dishonest boasts? It seems to me ironic beyond words that she is painted with such a brush, and to think she is arrogant is to totally miss the point of the gender issues involved and her compulsion to right a true wrong, not one she perceives. Can we drop the word "arrogant" from the Joni Mitchell lexicon, once and for all? I think it's about time.