10 Greatest Female Singers In Rock History
8. Joni Mitchell
In the wake of Bob Dylan's rise, the rock scene was about to get a lot more intellectual. Since this was a genre that wasn't meant to think too hard at the best of times, you had people like Jim Morrison and Lou Reed who took their lyrics incredibly seriously and poured over their words to get just the right message. While that may have seemed like work, capturing pure emotion just comes naturally to Joni Mitchell.
Outside of her amazing folk melodies, Mitchell was always known to set up different scenarios in your head, almost treating her lyrics like a painter treats a blank canvas. From the sound of something like River or Blue, you can feel the pure heartache and desperation in her voice, almost like she could crumble to pieces in the middle of the song. At the same time, you have tracks like California and Woodstock, which put you right in the time and place that she experienced for a few seconds.
When it comes to the music though, Mitchell is one of the few who actually knows her stuff, having played with some of the best instrumentalists in the business like Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny. If you're just starting out writing lyrics of your own, this is the kind of mandatory listening for how to set up a scene with your song.