# Joni Mitchell wrote some of her greatest songs on a guitar that survived the Vietnam War

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/joni-mitchell-wrote-some-of-her-greatest-songs-on-a-guitar-that-survived-the-vietnam-war/
- Published: 2026-10-28T22:27:01+00:00
- Updated: 2026-10-29T03:12:16+00:00
- Original publisher: Far Out
- Original article: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/joni-mitchell-wrote-some-of-her-greatest-songs-on-a-guitar-that-survived-the-vietnam-war/
- Topics: Entertainment, Music

## Key points

- Mitchell’s Martin D-28 survived a shrapnel strike in Vietnam.
- She wrote several celebrated songs on the guitar.
- It was damaged in transit and later stolen in Maui.

## Summary

Joni Mitchell’s 1956 Martin D-28 survived damage from a Vietnam War shrapnel strike before she bought it from a Marine captain in the mid-1960s. She used it to write songs including “Both Sides Now”, “Chelsea Morning” and “Big Yellow Taxi”, and its distinctive sound helped shape her early music.

The guitar’s stable intonation suited Mitchell’s unusual tunings, which she developed after childhood polio weakened her left hand. Around 1970, its top was crushed during a flight; after repairs, Mitchell felt it had lost its sound, and it was later stolen from an airport carousel in Maui. She never recovered it, though decades later she found instruments that met her standards.

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