In a video tribute that included absent friends like Elton John, Peter Gabriel noted the unusually challenging nature of her songs and equipped, "I pity the poor bastards that have got to sing them in front of you tonight." The audience laughed, some maybe remembering that Mitchell has not always suffered lightweights lightly. (Or heavyweights, either - she's hard on Bob Dylan!) But Mitchell, although she's still recuperating from a stroke, may have quietly had a say in at least a little of these proceedings. James Taylor told Variety on the red carpet that "I think Joni may have had a hand in selecting who was gonna play these songs tonight"; Seal likewise revealed before the show that he'd personally been asked by Mitchell to sing "Both Sides Now." But even if the guest of honor left every call up to musical co-directors Brian Blade and Jon Cowherd, it was a brilliantly curated program that had to have lived up to any attendee's exacting standards... even hers.