Mitchell: I rounded up everything that had some mention of it. The list was longer than the CD would hold. “Song for Sharon” for Sharon Bell. Sharon was a childhood friend of mine from Maidstone who studied voice and was going to become a singer. I was always going to marry a farmer. She ended up marrying a farmer and I became a singer.
I used to be so fond of Jackson Browne - total jerk Phyllis Major, Jackson Browne's first wife, who committed suicide in 1976. Browne began a relationship with Major at the time he ended his relationship with Mitchell. Mitchell had known Major before then.
The Wikipedia entry on 'Hejira' repeats the claim made by Sheila Weller in her 2008 biography of Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carol King, 'Girls Like Us', that 'Song For Sharon' includes a coded reference to Major's suicide.
These words in verse six, 'A woman I knew just drowned herself...She was...punishing somebody' are widedly believed to imply that Browne was to blame for Major's suicide.
David Yaffe's 2017 biography of Mitchell, 'Reckless Daughter', was based on extensive recorded conversations with Mitchell. In explaining Mitchell's angry accusation, Yaffe says, 'A woman [Major], who had been married to an ex-lover, commits suicide. She [Mitchell] feels bad. And she can't let go of her bitterness toward the man who surely drove her to it, which makes her feel even more sympathy, more anger...She would like to be above settling scores, yet she is compelled to do so. It all came rushing back. Jackson had the nerve to dump her. Then she had such a vivid sense of what was wrong with him, and she could see what he was doing to the women who came after.'
After the rumour had circulated that Browne beat Daryl Hannah in 1992, Mitchell released another song widely believed to be an angy attack on Browne, 1994's 'Not to Blame', which implied that Browne was a wife-beater who made women suicidal but said he was not to blame.
See my blogpost, 'Jackson Browne and Daryl Hannah', which includes a detailed account of Mitchell and Browne's relationship and its bitter aftermath. (Facebook won't let me give the URL. Search, if you will, for 'soothfairy browne hannah', and see the Contents.)
Mitchell: I rounded up everything that had some mention of it. The list was longer than the CD would hold. “Song for Sharon” for Sharon Bell. Sharon was a childhood friend of mine from Maidstone who studied voice and was going to become a singer. I was always going to marry a farmer. She ended up marrying a farmer and I became a singer.
ReplyDeleteI used to be so fond of Jackson Browne - total jerk
Phyllis Major, Jackson Browne's first wife, who committed suicide in 1976. Browne began a relationship with Major at the time he ended his relationship with Mitchell. Mitchell had known Major before then.
The Wikipedia entry on 'Hejira' repeats the claim made by Sheila Weller in her 2008 biography of Mitchell, Carly Simon and Carol King, 'Girls Like Us', that 'Song For Sharon' includes a coded reference to Major's suicide.
These words in verse six, 'A woman I knew just drowned herself...She was...punishing somebody' are widedly believed to imply that Browne was to blame for Major's suicide.
David Yaffe's 2017 biography of Mitchell, 'Reckless Daughter', was based on extensive recorded conversations with Mitchell. In explaining Mitchell's angry accusation, Yaffe says, 'A woman [Major], who had been married to an ex-lover, commits suicide. She [Mitchell] feels bad. And she can't let go of her bitterness toward the man who surely drove her to it, which makes her feel even more sympathy, more anger...She would like to be above settling scores, yet she is compelled to do so. It all came rushing back. Jackson had the nerve to dump her. Then she had such a vivid sense of what was wrong with him, and she could see what he was doing to the women who came after.'
After the rumour had circulated that Browne beat Daryl Hannah in 1992, Mitchell released another song widely believed to be an angy attack on Browne, 1994's 'Not to Blame', which implied that Browne was a wife-beater who made women suicidal but said he was not to blame.
See my blogpost, 'Jackson Browne and Daryl Hannah', which includes a detailed account of Mitchell and Browne's relationship and its bitter aftermath. (Facebook won't let me give the URL. Search, if you will, for 'soothfairy browne hannah', and see the Contents.)
Amazing research.
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