Joni Mitchell was asked to marry her husband 36 hours after meeting. Now, she has a masterpiece about it

At 21, Joni Mitchell was raising a newborn daughter without support and facing intense stigma as an unmarried mother. After meeting fellow musician Chuck Mitchell, she accepted his marriage proposal just 36 hours later, hoping to secure a stable home and work; the relationship soon became unhappy and constrained her music.

Mitchell placed her daughter, Kelly Dale Anderson, for adoption eight months after the birth. She later drew on the failing marriage to write ‘I Had a King’, the opening track of her debut album, *Song to a Seagull*. The couple divorced in 1967, and the song became an early expression of the regret and independence that followed.