"When Mitchell released her Hejira album in 1976 with the song Furry Sings the Blues, he hated the song and “that woman,” as he would put it that sang it. From what I understand, the song was inspired by this meeting, but mostly it was a commentary of the existing landscape of Beale Street which was getting very run down by that time in the seventies. The song paints a bleak picture of the current state of affairs on Beale Street as she recalled when she was there. The song was more about that mood than anything else. She only mentioned his name and a few aspects, but the song was never totally about him… However, many people close to Furry would disagree. Furry thought he should have received some kind of a royalty for singing about him."
https://thebluesblogger.com/71/beale-street-furry-sings-the-blues
"When Mitchell released her Hejira album in 1976 with the song Furry Sings the Blues, he hated the song and “that woman,” as he would put it that sang it. From what I understand, the song was inspired by this meeting, but mostly it was a commentary of the existing landscape of Beale Street which was getting very run down by that time in the seventies. The song paints a bleak picture of the current state of affairs on Beale Street as she recalled when she was there. The song was more about that mood than anything else. She only mentioned his name and a few aspects, but the song was never totally about him… However, many people close to Furry would disagree. Furry thought he should have received some kind of a royalty for singing about him." https://thebluesblogger.com/71/beale-street-furry-sings-the-blues