Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now (1969)

The song heard below was written by Joni Mitchell in March of 1967 while on an airplane. She had been reading the book Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, in which the main character was riding in a plane and observing the clouds below him. Mitchell, being on a plane herself at that moment, began to gaze out the window, admiring the clouds, and then began to write this song. As she told Rolling Stone magazine in 1967, “I dreamed down at the clouds, and thought that when I was a kid I had dreamed up at them, and having dreamed at the clouds from both sides as no generation of men has done, one should be able to accept his death very easily.”

A little while after her fruitful plane ride, Mitchell gave the song to Judy Collins to record and release on her October 1967 album Wildflowers. Collins’ version would go on to be released the following year as a single and became an enormous hit, earning the singer a Grammy for Best Folk Performance.

The version heard below is the first version to have been released by Joni Mitchell herself. Mitchell first decided to record and release the song for her second album released in May of 1969, titled Clouds. The singer-songwriter came back to the song again in 2000, when she re-recorded and re-released it for her album Both Sides Now. Both versions of her song received critical acclaim; the song is now regarded as one of her best; and Rolling Stone voted it #171 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.



Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now (1969)

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Lyrics:

Rows and flows 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 laughin’ 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

Joni Mitchell - The Fiddle and the Drum (1969)

One night in late ’67 or early ’68 at The Gaslight South, a club in Coconut Grove, FL, a performance was being put on by Joni Mitchell. In attendance was David Crosby (of The Byrds and CSN), who was amazed with her beauty and musical prowess. He convinced Mitchell to go back to Los Angeles with him where he would introduce her and her music to his friends in the business. He even convinced Reprise Records to allow her to record a purely acoustic album, successfully avoiding their desire to use the overdubs that were popular at the time. Although many songs of hers had been recorded by other artists, Joni Mitchell was about to release her first album, Song to a Seagull. You can hear a track from that album on one of our previous posts.

This song comes from Mitchell’s second album, Clouds, released in 1969. The album cover featured a self-portrait painting of Mitchell with a background featuring her hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Mitchell performed this song on The Dick Cavett Show in August 1969. It was also covered in 2004 by A Perfect Circle who found a new use for it in protesting the Iraq War. In 2007, the song’s title was used for a ballet authorized by Mitchell.



Joni Mitchell - The Fiddle and the Drum (1969)

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Lyrics:

And so, once again
My dear Johnny, my dear friend
And so, once again
You are fighting us all
And when I ask you ‘why?’
You raise your sticks and cry and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum?

You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you, “Please,
Can I help you find the peace and the star?”
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist?

And so, once again
Oh, America, my friend
And so, once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you ‘why?’
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum?

You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you, “Please,
Can we help you find the peace and the star?”
Oh, my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum

David Crosby - Laughing (1971)

Born in 1941, this iconic guitarist, singer, and songwriter is a founding member of The Byrds as well as Crosby, Stills & Nash (and sometimes Young). Raised in Los Angeles, California, he dropped out of college and moved to New York’s Greenwich Village where he came under the tutelage of Fred Neil (who also happened to be mentoring Bob Dylan at the time). From 1964 until 1967, he found immense success with The Byrds and continued that success from 1968 until 1970 with CSN. The remainder of his career has flourished with solo recordings, his groups’ reunions, television acting, voice acting, and an unfortunate short stint in prison. As of today, he is still touring with Crosby, Stills & Nash and was recently seen at the Occupy Wall Street protest movement.

This song is the fourth track on his first solo album If I Could Only Remember My Name, released in 1971. The album featured Graham Nash, Joni Mitchell, and members of the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Santana. This song in particular features vocals by David Crosby, Graham Nash, and Joni Mitchell; the Grateful Dead’s Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann played bass and drums, respectively; and the pedal steel guitar is played by none other than the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia.



David Crosby - Laughing (1971)

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Lyrics:

I thought I met a man
Who said he knew a man
Who knew what was going on

I was mistaken
Only another stranger
That I knew

And I thought that I had found light
To guide me through
My night and all this darkness

I was mistaken
Only reflections of a shadow
That I saw

And I thought, “I've seen someone
Who seemed at last
To know the truth”

I was mistaken
Only a child laughing
In the sun

In the sun

Joni Mitchell - Michael from Mountains (1968)

Born Roberta Joan Anderson in Canada and known as one of the greatest songwriters in history, this female artist first found success when she moved to the US in 1965. The popularity of having other folk artists of the time recording her music led to her debut album in 1968. She has released a total of nineteen studio albums, ranging in style from folk to jazz, classical, and pop.

Coming from her debut album, Song to a Seagull, this song was inspired by Mitchell’s love of classical and folk music. This song, as well as the entire first side of the album, is about Mitchell’s failed marriage to Chuck Mitchell, from where her stage name came.



Joni Mitchell - Michael from Mountains (1968)

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Lyrics:

Michael wakes you up with sweets
He takes you up streets and the rain comes down
Sidewalk markets locked up tight
And umbrellas bright on a grey background
There's oil in the puddles in taffeta patterns
That run down the drain
In colored arrangements
That Michael will change with a stick that he found

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well

Michael brings you to a park
He sings and it’s dark when the clouds come by
Yellow slickers up on swings
Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky
They'll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens
Their mothers will scold
But Michael will hold you
To keep away cold ‘til the sidewalks are dry

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well

Michael leads you up the stairs
He needs you to care and you know you do
Cats come crying to the key
And dry you will be in a towel or two
There's rain in the window
There's sun in the painting that smiles on the wall
You want to know all
But his mountains have called so you never do

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well

Someday I will know you very well