Misty memories

Thank you, Robert Hilburn, for your sensitive portrait of artist Joni Mitchell (“An Art Born of Pain, An Artist in Happy Exile,” Sept. 5), and for deconstructing her work and songwriting method. It threw me back to 1975, listening to “The Hissing of Summer Lawns.” I’d never heard anything like her voice and music and haven’t since.

After brushing away the tears, I pulled out the musty album and am listening to it now. Thank you, Joni, for sharing your deeply personal artistry, which helped me on my journey.

Kaye Kittrell

Pacific Palisades

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As someone who believes that most of Mitchell’s best work was done well after her commercial peak in the first half of the ‘70s, I’m saddened by her retirement from the music industry.

I have read that when a fan told Mitchell that her work had changed his life, the famously direct Mitchell asked “Really? How?” My answer to that question is she taught me to tell the difference between an original talent and an imitator. The imitators far outnumber the originals -- even more so now that Mitchell is out of the business.

Michael Logan

Los Angeles