Breakups and Millions
When Mitchell opened for CSNY in Chicago in August 1969, Young took his fellow Canadian to the side and whispered to her that it should be the other way around – that they should be opening for her. Young later wrote the song Only Love Can Break Your Heart about the end of Mitchell’s affair with Graham Nash.
Joni Mitchell and Neil Young circa 1970. Photo by Larry Hulst / Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Images
The Nash-Mitchell break-up affected everybody in the Geffen-Roberts inner circle. But as Mitchell and other female artists of the ‘60s were becoming part of the feminist uprising, Geffen was becoming a bona fide millionaire.