Joni Mitchell on singing with Neil Young

THE LAST WALTZ - 'HELPLESS' NEIL YOUNG & THE BAND

“The story has often been told that Joni sang “Helpless” during The Last Waltz from behind the curtain, so as not to detract from making a grand entrance before it was time for her set. But Joni remembers it somewhat differently. “I said, ‘I’ll do it offstage,’ because it was going to take such concentration.” Neil and Robbie wanted her to “lock up with them in three-part harmony. No way I could do that.” she recalled. “Their pitch was all over the place. And Neil calls out to me, 'Sing with me somehow,’ not realising why I can’t. He was just unaware. CSN was always out of tune. They were never aware of how out of tune they were, partially because of drugs, I guess. When Neil played on 'Furry Sings the Blues’ he had to play on four harmonicas. It was kind of adventuresome. It was very unusual harmonica.”

— Joni Mitchell, “Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell,” David Yaffe, 2017.

source: bobdylan-n-jonimitchell

In later life and being asked ( I guess) to comment on the past, Mitchell has become somewhat taciturn and unforgiving not to say snide and ungracious lately. [See her small minded accusations of Dylan's plagiarism!] Known largely as having been often outrageously off key to out of tune herself the folkie develops an interest in jazz for good reason mostly that you can slide around the note until you hit it! Some reviewers have even stated she cannot really sing! At all! There are examples where the cocaine (mountains of it allegedly) has effected the singing on some songs that nobody else knows what key she is in. Certainly the chain smoking nicotine addict has damaged her once icily cool tones to a gravel pitched growl. The once thin reedy mezzo-soprano with it's wavering highlights to a by now at best contralto,  the piercing falsetto wavering high notes are mercifully a thing of the past

This statement about Robbie and Neil Young and the additional dig at CSN is a bit rich and I would say disingenuous at best it is about making an entrance and clearly everyone will have know who it was singing behind a curtain. She did it so that she could make an entrance for her own appearance later to sing 'Coyote' on her own! Disingenuous because Neil Young's unique and extraordinary voice is not known for its technical perfection, like hers (sic), it is often an expression of pain, sadness and sorrow. The rest of the band have a fine fine time accompanying him and following the song, not stood behind a curtain howling some invented backing track that only she has heard. 

'Coyote' - Joni Mitchell The Last Waltz

A conversational style at best and certainly nothing to sing about (sic!) in terms of song structure and what key is that in anyway?

Note: that wrestling with your ego nobody is expected to sing along with YOU! 

Ha ha ha ha . . . . . .