David Crosby responds to Joni Mitchell’s comment about her work “upsetting the male singer-songwriters”

David Crosby responds to Joni Mitchell’s comment about her work “upsetting the male singer-songwriters”
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Not long ago, Joni Mitchell told Elton John in an interview for his Apple Music show Rocket Hour that she felt her classic albums — like Blue, Ladies of the Canyon and Court and Spark— hadn’t gotten the recognition they deserved because they were “too intimate.” She said, “I think it upset the male singer-songwriters…I think it made people nervous.” But it sounds like that wasn’t an issue for one of those male singer-songwriters: David Crosby.

When asked if Mitchell’s work did indeed make people “nervous,” Crosby tells ABC Audio, “It might have, but for me, it was glorious.” He adds, “To me, it was absolutely shiny, wonderful, incredible work. I think it might have made people who were used to writing silly shallow pop, you know, very uncomfortable.”

Crosby has nothing but glowing things to say about Joni, noting she “was unquestionably the best of us, the best singer-songwriter alive.”

“I don’t think anybody touches her to this day. I don’t think there’s anybody as good as she was,” Crosby adds. “I think she was the most talented one.”  

In fact, Crosby’s upcoming live release David Crosby & The Lighthouse Band Live at the Capitol Theatre features a version of Mitchell’s classic composition “Woodstock,” which, of course, his former group Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young scored a hit with in 1970.  The album arrives December 9.

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