The song Joni Mitchell wrote after David Crosby cheated on her

The result of her unique and quick talent for creation were, more often than not, songs created about experiences that had happened to Mitchell in the previous weeks leading up to her writing session. Chances are if you had a disagreement with Mitchell like Bob Dylan (“Talk To Me”) or simply took her to a new city like David Geffen did (“Free Man in Paris”), you might just be immortalized in song . It also meant that if you happened to be a friend of Mitchell’s, you were almost guaranteed to hear pieces of your life as songs – it’s certainly something David Crosby can attest to.

Crosby and Mitchell shared a relationship after they started dating around 1967. The duo had a significant impact on each other’s careers. Crosby exposed Mitchell to the rock ‘n’ roll set, giving her the lift she needed after returning from Britain. When she reached North American shores, she did so with renewed vigor to become a pop musician in her own right, and Crosby’s connections provided a nice gateway to make that happen.

But it wasn’t all one-way traffic. Mitchell also had a profound influence on the former Byrds man’s career, introducing Crosby to Buffalo Springfield, two of whose members, Neil Young and Stephen Stills, would join Crosby to form the rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. However, it wasn’t all plain sailing.

The relationship deteriorated when the two musicians’ paths began to diverge. However, before they could completely break up, Crosby moved in semi-permanently with an old girlfriend and began a romantic relationship. When Mitchell found out, she was rightly outraged. The singer confronted Crosby at a party at the home of The Monkee’s Peter Tork and, as you might imagine, did so with a vengeful pop tune in hand.

“Joni was very angry and said, ‘I have a new song,’” Crosby reveals in David Browne’s book: The wild, definitive saga of Rock’s greatest supergroup. It’s a terrifying thought for anyone to be the subject of a song from a jilted lover, but to receive one from Mitchell must have sent a shiver down his spine.

Mitchell next played ‘That Song About the Midway’, which “had references to a man’s soaring harmonies and the way she had caught him cheating more than once…there was no mistaking the song’s subject matter”, writes Browne. . “It was a very ‘Goodbye David’ song,” Crosby said. “She sang it looking straight at me, like, ‘Did you get it? I’m really mad at you. ”

However, that wasn’t enough: ‘And then she sang it again. Just to be sure.”

Naturally, the couple broke up soon after, but their friendship endured. Decades later, the duo still meets occasionally to have dinner and share stories. As time passes, the problems between them are forgotten, but if Mitchell or Crosby ever needed a reminder, they always have “The Song About the Midway” to enjoy.

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