Joni Mitchell -
Roberta Joan Mitchell, is widely considered the most influential female
recording artist and composer to have emerged from the folk scene of the 1960’s
Joni Mitchell's gift of melody and her lyrics, which approach pure poetry brought a new import and seriousness to pop. To my mind she was more than a pop or folk singer, her music traversed the aesthetics of music right across folk, rock and Jazz.
Renowned lyric poets and contemporaries, Bob
Dylan and Leonard Cohen admired her. She was revered by such groundbreaking
jazz musicians as Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, and Herbie Hancock.
Here’s what her musician friends say about her – David Crosby: “She's a better poet than Dylan and without question a far better musician. I don't think there's anybody who can touch her”. On another occassion, he said, "She’s the best singer-songwriter of her time. She’s as good a poet as Bob [Dylan], and she’s 10 times the musician Bob is.”
Neil Young: “I love Joni. She’s wonderful. She’s one of
the greatest artists of our generation. She may be the
greatest artist of our generation.” 
Dianne Reeves: “Joni Mitchell's music reaches generations of listeners because it is beautiful poetry set to elegant music”
Herbie Hancock
understood something implicit about Mitchell when he said “she was never --
ever -- a folksinger. Her compositions have always walked wildly adventurous
rhythmic and harmonic terrain”
“Joni Mitchell exists
outside the typical conceptions of modern music as she balances narrative and
musical complexity”
Joni Mitchell had a
soaring soprano voice in the beginning of her career, her voice dipped to a
lower register later, but was equally compelling, and in addition to her
expressive singing voice, her guitar, piano and dulcimer playing were
innovative, ethereal and refined.
I will feature two of the songs that I first
heard by Joni Mitchell that made a lasting impression. Born
in November 1943 in Canada, Joni Mitchell was 24 - 25 years old when she
performed/recorded these songs. THE CIRCLE GAME and BOTH SIDES NOW.
THE CIRCLE GAME - In this poetic song, Joni Mitchell tells the story of a child's journey to adulthood,
expressing the inevitability of time and growing up. She uses a carousel as a
metaphor for the years that go by, pointing out how we can look back, but we
can't return to our past.
The
Circle Game was partly written in response to Neil Young's song about lost
innocence, "Sugar Mountain". Young and Mitchell are both from Canada
and met in the mid-'60s. Joni Mitchell said: "I didn't write 'Circle Game'
as a children's song, but I'm very pleased to see it go into the culture in
that way."
THE CIRCLE GAME
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like when you're older must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look
Behind from where we came
And go round and round and round
© March 22, 1966; R. Joan Mitchell
Musicares tribute to Joni Mitchell 2022- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AikTwSXdKrQ
BOTH SIDES NOW is another wonderful song. This is how Joni introduced the song when she first performed it: "This is a song that talks about sides to things. In most cases there are both sides to things and in a lot of cases there are more than just both. His and a hers. His and theirs. But in this song, there are only two sides to things… there’s reality and I guess what you might call fantasy. There’s enchantment and dis-enchantment, what we’re taught to believe things are and what they really are."
At
another performance she said she was inspired by a certain idea while reading Saul
Bellow’s book ‘Henderson the Rain King’. She said, “there's a line in "Henderson
the Rain King" that I especially got hung up on, that was about when he
was flying to Africa and searching for something, he said that in an age when
people could look up and down at clouds, they shouldn't be afraid to die. And so,
I got this idea 'from both sides now.'”
BOTH SIDES NOW
Rows and floes of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way
But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away
I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
© June 19, 1967
Dianne Reeves & Caecilie Norby - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tne9onzuqDU
For one who never wanted to be a pop star. Joni explained she was nothing more than “a painter derailed by circumstances”
She says, "I am a painter who writes songs. My songs are very visual".
All I can say is, I consider myself lucky to have lived in a time of poets who wrote stories and put them to music.
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