My choice of female musician to highlight this Friday is the most important and influential female recording star of the 20th century, according to AllMusic, and "one of the greatest songwriters ever" by Rolling Stone Magazine.

It is the beautiful Joni Mitchell. There is no science lesson for this week. I picked Joni because I love watching her sing and I thought maybe you would too.

The first video I picked is her classic "Big Yellow Taxi".  Many of the younger generation readers are probably very familiar with the 2002 cover of this song by the Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton. But to watch Joni sing it brings it to life.

Big Yellow Taxi was released in 1970 and was a hit in Canada, her native country, along with the UK and Australia. It only reached #67 in the US that year. It reached #24 on the charts in 1975 when it was re-released in a live version. I'm not sure why the song didn't achieve higher rankings in the US. I am sure we can speculate on that.

This first video below, I am not sure what year it is, but I think it must be 1975 based on her awesome hair and dress. I really love the style from the 1970's.

The second video is from 1970 and you can see how sweet and innocent she looks compared to the more mature look she had in 1975.

One last fact about Joni Mitchell worth mentioning. There are only two women on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time. One of them is Joni at number 72. The other is Joan Jett at number 87. You think it's hard for women in science writing to be recognized, try cracking through that glass ceiling. Mad kudos to Joni for showing the world that a woman can play guitar just as well as a man.

Happy Friday to everyone and have a warm and cozy weekend.

Big Yellow Taxi

California

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