Morning Glory On The Vine: Early Songs and Drawings

“I sing my sorrow, and I paint my joy.” – Joni Mitchell

In the early 1970s I used to carry a sketchbook around with me everywhere I went. I drew with colored pens. Once when I was sketching my audience in Central Park, they had to drag me onto the stage. After a while I had quite a collection of drawings. The drawings were becoming more important to me than the music at that time.

I had put the drawings into a ring binder accompanied by hand-written lyrics. Elliot Roberts, my manager, and David Geffen, my agent, took my binder of drawings and lyrics and had a limited edition of books made up.

It’s been a long time coming in making this book public, but we’re publishing it now. Work is meant to be seen, or heard, as the case may be.

–Joni Mitchell, 2019

(Photo: Norman Seeff)