Dylan, it seems, has been accused of plagiarism before, connected with his 2006 album Modern Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n Both Mitchell and Dylan have changed their names, but obviously Mitchell did not take kindly to the comparison in her interview with the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, Mitchell also pours scorn on Madonna, whom, she says, marks a turning-point in American culture which has been \u2018stupid and shallow since 1980.\u2019 Bear in mind, however, that this was the decade that gave film Oliver Stone\u2019s Platoon<\/em> (1986),\u00a0 and literature Tom Wolfe\u2019s classic Bonfire of the Vanities<\/a>,\u00a0(1987), as well as\u00a0the photography of Cindy Sherman<\/a>, to name but a few redeeming cultural icons.<\/p>\n There was blood on Mitchell\u2019s career tracks in the 1980s, when\u00a0 her career took something of a dive after her success in the 70s: it was only with Night Ride Home<\/a><\/em> in 1991 that her career surged back to critical acclaim. Perhaps that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about, really….<\/p>\n Although anyone who can list Court and Spark<\/em>, The Hissing of Summer Lawns<\/em> and Hejira <\/em>amongst their back catalogue deserves our respect.<\/p>\n![\"Album](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/files\/2010\/04\/JoniMitchellBlue-150x150.jpg\" "\\"JoniMitchellBlue\\"")
<\/a>Of course, those who live in the glare of publicity always have an element of deception about them, creating a public persona behind which to shelter themselves from the media\u2019s remorseless stare. As the great French poet Jean Cocteau famously declared<\/a>, \u2018I am a lie who always speaks the truth.\u2019<\/p>\n