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"Daydreams of a dying man"
"When she first met Mingus, he was already in a wheelchair [dying of ALS], facing the Hudson River. He had not yet lost his ability to provoke. "That song 'Paprika Plains,'" he told her. "The strings are out of tune." Mingus was testing Joni, but she adored him immediately and, of course, agreed with him about the strings on "Paprika Plains." She wished someone else had noticed. Illness had made Mingus vulnerable. He was sweet, but she saw the devil in him, too. Joni takes pride in her jive detector, and she knew she was in the presence of the real thing."
An excerpt from 'Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell' by David Yaffe
