Joni Mitchell Primer-Part 1

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/3w5Bpgk

NATHAN LA FRANEER

This is my favorite track on Joni's debut LP "Song to a Seagull," I never heard it until I downloaded it via Napster, it's the story of Joni's ride to the airport and the driver is named Nathan La Franeer. It's a personal, intimate tale we can all relate to, the personal connects more than the general, remember that. Music today is made to gain an audience as opposed to creating something internal that resonates to such a degree it succeeds.

NIGHT IN THE CITY

It's upbeat whereas so much of the material on "Song to a Seagull" is downbeat, never forget that Joni loved to kick off her heels and dance, have a good time.

MICHAEL FROM MOUNTAINS

The most well-known song on Joni's debut as a result of its cover on Judy Collins's album "Wildflower" released the year before. "Michael From Mountains" opened side one of Judy's LP, "Both Sides Now" side two.

CACTUS TREE

Better known as the opening cut of side two of the double live album "Miles of Aisles."

"She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
While she's so busy being free"

All the men want her, but she needs to go her own way, she needs to be free.

BOTH SIDES NOW

Turned into a hit by Judy Collins, Joni was now on her way. It's the harpsichord in Judy's version that puts it over the top.

CHELSEA MORNING

Written before the first album, once again the song was made famous by Judy Collins, and subsequently Joni recorded it, and yes, this is the inspiration for the name of...Chelsea Clinton.

SONGS TO AGING CHILDREN COME

Dramatically used in the funeral scene in the movie "Alice's Restaurant." Watch the clip, it will resonate, no matter if it's a sunny day at the beach or you're home alone depressed: https://bit.ly/3hv4sEV

I DON'T KNOW WHERE I STAND

My favorite song on the second album "Clouds," it's the best song I've ever heard about wondering if the other person feels the same way you do. You're living in your head, afraid of alienating them, being too serious too soon, yet you can't stop thinking about them.

"Telephone, even the sound of your voice is still new
All alone in California and talking to you
And feeling too foolish and strange
To say the words that I had planned
I guess it's too early, 'cause I don't know where I stand"

THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY

Joni's breakup song to David Crosby, originally sung live to him and twenty others in a living room.

FOR FREE

And now we move on to the third LP, "Ladies of the Canyon."
I first heard this song performed live by James Taylor just when "Ladies of the Canyon" was released. This was just when "Sweet Baby James" was breaking, Taylor was touring alone, just him and his guitar. I was visiting my now-deceased friend Ronnie in Boston, we got tickets to see James at the Sanders Theatre on the Harvard campus. Some songs, very few of them, are so good you catch them the first time through. I never forgot James singing "For Free" that evening, and stunningly, through the power of Napster, I found that exact concert, I'm listening to it right now, it took place on April 25, 1970, there were two shows, we went to the first.

"Now me I play for fortunes
And those velvet curtain calls
I've got a black limousine
And two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls
And I play if you have the money
Or if you're a friend to me
But the one man band
By the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good, for free"

This is how Hollywood works, how life works. You charge a fortune to the public, but if it's a friend, you'll do it, and you won't ask for remuneration.

CONVERSATION

This is my favorite cut on "Ladies of the Canyon." They have a personal relationship, they can talk, they connect, but he's married to somebody else.

"Tomorrow he will come to me
And he'll speak his sorrow endlessly and he'll ask me, 'Why?'
'Why can't I leave her?'"

THE ARRANGEMENT

"You could have been more
Than a name on the door
On the thirty-third floor in the air
More than a credit card
Swimming pool in the backyard"

This was the question in the sixties and early seventies, whether to sell out or not. Today everybody is looking to sell out, whether it's the educated classes going to work at the bank or the lower classes going on reality TV or making records and doing whatever the suits tell them for the exposure and potential riches.

RAINY NIGHT HOUSE

"It was a rainy night
We took a taxi to your mother's home
She went to Florida and left you
With your father's gun, alone
Upon her small white bed
I fell into a dream
You sat up all the night and watched me
To see, who in the world I might be"

It's about Leonard Cohen. He came from a wealthy family, although only Canadians seem to know this.

THE PRIEST

It's the sound of the record, the changes, the relatively fast tempo that hooks you, but then the lyrics start to sink in. "The Arrangement," "Rainy Night House" and "The Priest" all come in a row on "Ladies of the Canyon," they're almost a mini-album within the album, they're so intimate and personal, you really feel like you're in that rainy night house...

WOODSTOCK

Written by Joni, but initially cut and made a hit by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Joni famously didn't go to Woodstock because she had a TV gig that David Geffen thought she might miss. Joni's take is all about the meaning, introspective, whereas the CSNY take is in-your-face with stinging guitar, they're the same song yet completely different. Matthews Southern Comfort ultimately released a soft rock version that sat in the middle of the two previous recordings artistically and had a huge hit, it went to #1 in the U.K.

THE CIRCLE GAME

It was already a youth group standard by time Joni cut it, everybody knew it, to be honest I never have to hear it again.

BIG YELLOW TAXI

An upbeat ditty with legendary lyrics that have become part of the fabric of the culture:

"They paved paradise and put up a parking lot"

And:

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone"

As a result of Counting Crows' (with Vanessa Carlton) 2002 cover everybody seems to know the song today, but prior to this I think most people had no idea the above lines came from a Joni Mitchell song.

And even Bob Dylan covered "Big Yellow Taxi," not that he planned to release it, but when Dylan jumped to Asylum Records in 1973 Columbia released an album of outtakes in retaliation.

CALIFORNIA

It's my favorite track on "Blue," from before I lived here and still now. It's a story, it's a state of mind, a freedom.

"California I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I'm coming home"

That "Sunset pig"? She's referring to the police. Boy have times changed. Then again, they've recently changed back. The pigs were the enemy in the sixties and the seventies, and you called the police that, the youngsters were against them, if for no other reason than the kids were unjustly hassled. But then during the Iran hostage crisis public sentiment flipped, it became all rah-rah. And then there was the economic run-up but people were left behind, especially those of color, and last year they revolted against the police and now...there are two sides, you're either for the pigs or against them. And no one truly wants to abolish the police, they just want to reform the system, add in some justice.

ALL I WANT

I sang it to myself on the drive home from my second date with Felice.

"I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you"

"All I Want opens "Blue" with a roar, at least compared to Joni's previous albums. It's a story. It sends a signal that this is not a conventional LP, but something personal, something different, commerciality be damned.

"I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something what can it be"

We were seekers, we wanted something more.

"Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me"

Priorities. You can choose from two lives, one of tradition, of structure, or one of art. Too often people want to combine the two, but you can't. Which is why when you complain you can't make any money as an artist you don't get it. And if you're an artist, you're number one, always, chances are you can't have kids, it's so hard to make it, to sustain, total dedication is required...and you've got to want it really really bad.

"I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living"

You can be alive, yet dead. I'd spent fifteen years in the wilderness, sixteen to be exact, believing if I just held on long enough I could meet someone, my life would work. Credit a ton of psychotherapy. Credit a strong constitution, but as I walked to my car from the restaurant that evening I knew my life was changing, FOR THE BETTER!

"I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun
I want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free"

Oh, biology. You're depressed and then you're positively elated, you're only upbeat, IT'S WHAT WE LIVE FOR!

"I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
Do you want, do you want, do you want to dance with me baby
Do you want to take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby
Well, come on"

A CASE OF YOU

"Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
I would still be on my feet"

WHAT A METAPHOR! Whew! Especially if you know Canada, with its beer stores, it all resonates.

"A Case of You" is like the Beach Boys' "Til I Die," an exquisite song no one ever talks about and then decades later you find out it's everybody's favorite.

"Just before our love got lost you said
I am as constant as a northern star
And I said, 'Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar'"

Humor. It was unexpected, yet so real. Happens all the time, someone says something ridiculous and you want to turn to the camera and blow the whistle on them.

"On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh, Canada
With your face sketched on it twice"

Coaster? BLUE TV screen light? Sketching a map of Canada? These are words/images you never encounter in a song, yet they set the scene, you can SEE IT!

"I remember that time you told me
You said, 'Love is touching souls'
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time"

Love is touching souls...THAT'S IT! You cannot hear these words and forget them. And when you're in a relationship, you're both the influencer and the influenced.

THE LAST TIME I SAW RICHARD

"The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe"

Do you have to stand up and fly straight or...can you take the road less traveled, if you're a romantic are you ultimately doomed? And then there are those who are anything but romantic, and I don't mean flowers and kisses, but dreams, they're so wedded to facts, reality, that I can't relate to them.

WOMAN OF HEART AND MIND

It's the best track on "For the Roses."

"I am a woman of heart and mind
With time on her hands
No child to raise
You come to me like a little boy
And I give you my scorn and my praise
You think I'm like your mother
Or another lover or your sister
Or the queen of your dreams
Or just another silly girl
When love makes a fool of me"

She's game, she's ready, he's living in fantasyland and he wants her to support him, as if she were his mother, talk to women, nothing turns them off more than when they think they're your mother.

"After the rush when you come back down
You're always disappointed
Nothing seems to keep you high
Drive your bargains
Push your papers
Win your medals
F___ your strangers
Don't it leave you on the empty side"

Ain't that life, you're all excited, a ball of energy and then you crash. Life rewards those who persevere, who don't go off half-cocked but find a proper path and stick with it. As for his actions, in the sixties and seventies we were worried about being left on the empty side, now America is all about the empty side all the time, it's culturally bankrupt. As for printing the F-word... If I did that this e-mail would not get through spam filters, you can speak truth in art, but not business.

"I'm looking for affection and respect
A little passion
And you want stimulation, nothing more
That's what I think
But you know I'll try to be there for you
When your spirits start to sink"

She knows what she wants, she's laying it out, but she won't abandon him, not yet anyway.

"You know the times you impress me most
Are the times when you don't try
When you don't even try"

Ultimately it's these lines that stick out, that are most memorable. I have always lived by this, maybe because I've known people with assets, status and fame...and the truth is there's always someone richer, better-looking and more prominent and famous than you, always! I mean if you don't like me for who I am... Or as Prince put it in "Baby I'm A Star":

"Hey, look me over
Tell me do you like what you see
Hey, I ain't got no money
But honey I'm rich on personality"

But these aren't the only Joni Mitchell lyrics I live by:

"We don't need no piece of paper from the city hall
Keeping us tied and true no..."

That's from "My Old Man," off "Blue," that's my philosophy, I broke it once...to my detriment. Either you're committed or your not, and a piece of paper doesn't change that.

BLONDE IN THE BLEACHERS

People point to the tracks on Jackson Browne's" songs from "Running on Empty" as the most accurate depiction of being on the road as rock stars, but...there's more truth in "Blonde in the Bleachers."

"The bands and the roadies
Lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em
It's pleasure to try 'em
It's trouble to keep 'em"

YOU TURN ME ON, I'M A RADIO

Yes, it was a mild hit, Joni was delivering what she thought the masses wanted but...it's a delicious listen nonetheless.

BARANGRILL

It would be great with any lyrics, but Joni sets the scene:

"Three waitresses all wearing
Black diamond earrings
Talking about zombies
And Singapore Slings"

ELECTRICITY

Magic, as are "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" and "Lesson in Survival," they seem like they were composed and recorded in the environment from the album cover...Canada, the country, introspective, meaningful, a place where the trappings are irrelevant.

PEOPLE'S PARTIES/THE SAME SITUATION

You've got to take them together, they run together on the LP.

"All the people at this party
They've got a lot of style
They've got stamps of many countries
They've got passport smiles
Some are friendly
Some are cutting
Some are watching it from the wings
Some are standing in the center
Giving to get something"

Hollywood is not the suburbs. They come to Los Angeles to make it, and some do, very few, and then you're invited to parties and you're thrilled to be included, it shows you've made it, but once you're actually there, what are you going to do?

Giving to get something is the rule of business, the trading of favors, forget the patina of personal relationships, it's called "show business," not "friends business."

"Photo beauty gets attention
Then her eye paint's running down
She's got a rose in her teeth
And a lampshade crown
One minute she's so happy
Then she's crying on someone's knee
Saying laughing and crying
You know it's the same release"

Break through and you'll be privy to those from the magazines, those willowy models, ten feet tall and geeky...they were not the popular girls in high school and they're frequently not that good-looking in real life and in truth they're just girls, they've been in the spotlight, yet they don't know how to act. Then again, it's no different from male models...but there are many more 5'10" men than women. As for laughing and crying being the same released...I've never heard this said anywhere else, it's "People's Parties" that I attribute it to, and when I'm somewhere and someone quotes it to me, I smile.

"I told you when I met you
I was crazy
Cry for us all, beauty
Cry for Eddie in the corner
Thinking he's nobody
And Jack behind his joker
And stone cold Grace behind her fan
And me in my frightened silence
Thinking I don't understand"

The truth is so many feel uncomfortable, and the life of the party, like those models, they're just acting out to overcome their anxiety. Joni's admitting she's crazy, and she is, as are most people, certainly artists. You want to be included, but once you are you want to run. Business people seem to be able to do this party hang so much better than artists.

"Send me someone
Who's strong and somewhat sincere"

Especially in Hollywood, everybody's on a journey, and oftentimes you're just a waystation, they'll use you and move on to someone more powerful, someone who can move their career forward, or embellish it.

"Caught in my struggle for higher achievements
And my search for love
That don't seem to cease"

This is the essence of Joni Mitchell, of everybody trying to make it. Your career is primary, but still...you need the love, which is why all these playboy musicians get married, going on the road and screwing someone different every night doesn't fulfill you, see "Blonde in the Bleachers" for instruction.

HELP ME

The breakthrough track, the one that made Joni Mitchell number one in the hearts of young women, then and forever.

FREE MAN IN PARIS

I always preferred this to "Help Me." Yes, it's about David Geffen, but everybody knows that now.

"The way I see it he said
You just can't win it
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down
I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to get ahead
They're trying to be a good friend of mine"

There's so much truth here, it's astounding. No good deed goes unpunished. People are just using you to their own ends, no matter how friendly they act. And no matter what you do, people will be pissed, they think they're entitled to leverage your power, your fame.

"There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star maker machinery
Behind the popular song"

The favors, they're endless, that's how business works. If you ask for one, however small, be prepared to be asked for one back, and you'll have to do what you don't want to, this is the essence of not only Hollywood, but straight business and politics. As for someone's future...a manager has a responsibility, to the artist first and foremost, but many don't act like that. As for the star maker machinery behind the popular song..."Free Man in Paris" is where these constantly quoted words come from.

"I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers"

Yes, they yell on the phone and the next time they see you they're cool as a cucumber, then again this behavior has been tamped down somewhat as a result of #MeToo. As for dreamers...that's Hollywood to a "t," and if you have any power at all, any status, you'll be inundated with people selling you the solution to all the problems that will be instantly successful and don't you want to help them and get rich in the process? No.

CAR ON A HILL

She's waiting for him to show, will he or won't he?

"He makes friends easy
He's not like me
I watch for judgment anxiously"

Musicians, they make friends easily, that's how they survive, that's how they get gigs, talk about using people... But the front person, the solo artist, they're oftentimes internalized and gun-shy, they've got social anxiety, they want friends so much, but if they reveal themselves will they be judged and rejected?

DOWN TO YOU

Never talked about, but a key track, an album track, that if you play the LP over and over again you'll get.

"Everything comes and goes
Marked by lovers and styles of clothes"

You learn this as you age, and you can never accept it. People leave, people die, you get sick, trends change...

"Everything comes and goes
Pleasure moves on too early
And trouble leaves too slow
Just when you're thinking
You've finally got it made
Bad news comes knocking
At your garden gate"

Do you see the glass as half-full and set yourself up for disappointment or see it as half-empty and are never disappointed...then again it's harder to embrace and believe in the good stuff if you're a pessimist, for fear it will soon disappear.

COURT AND SPARK

Words I hadn't heard since I was in grade school, learning about the past, strange how Joni Mitchell resurrected them.
And this opening track is introspective and personal in a way that its follow-up on the album, "Help Me," is not. It's a risk, but Joni took it.

"He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made
In People's Park
And went looking for a woman
To court and spark"

It's an analog to "For Free," just a busker making a living, not a star.

"It seemed like he read my mind
He saw me mistrusting him
And still acting kind
He saw how I worried sometimes
I worry sometimes"

Famous women are gun-shy, mistrusting, don't hit on them, don't even approach them unless you too are famous or you're introduced. And if you speak try to be friends first, after all the times you'll impress them most are when you don't even try, when you don't even try.


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