Here’s what I talked about back in early May: So, finally, we got around to doing something to honour Canada’s legendary singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell who spent enough years growing up in Saskatoon for us to claim she is from here. Her dad was an RCAF officer just like mine was and so, like me, she moved around in her young life before coming to Saskatoon at age 11. She went to Aden Bowman Collegiate, although I don’t think there is anything commemorating that at the school. Rolling Stone Magazine has called her one of the greatest songwriters ever and her 1971 album, Blue, is called by some the greatest album of all time. She was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and AllMusic, the largest music database on the web, has stated that when the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the 20th century. And, in spite of all this, we’ve been wrangling for 20 years as to somehow honour her in this city. Apparently it even got to a point a few years ago where she got fed up and made a comment or two that led some people to believe she doesn’t like our city and couldn’t care less whether we recognized her or not. I met her once at a reception and we had a nice chat. I found her pleasant and gracious and she never uttered a discouraging word about Saskatoon. I’m glad we have settled on naming a walkway after her at River Landing, Anyone who doesn’t like her will get over it and we can get on to other things.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.