healing wishes...

Be ok plz thx

I hope it isn't going to take her from us yet. She is in her 70s and is a smoker...

I lost a good friend quite suddenly last week, I don't want to lose one of my life-long inspirations now too.

One of my favorite songs of her's. Grew up with the "Blue" album.

&spfreload=10

Free on Youtube.

. . . to the version of "Both Sides Now" that she recorded about 10 years ago, when she was 60-ish. I posted it in #20 below. Hearing the words of that song that we've known and loved for so long, suddenly sung by an aging, world-weary voice in which one can hear all of the joys and sorrows of someone who has lived life tot he full is a revelation!

compare to Katy Perry's recent halftime SuperBowl show. I guess you need dancers, huge props, skimpy outfits and fake sharks when your songs are mediocre at best

Here is my favorite song of hers.

... I was having a bad day, and Joni blew all the grey clouds away.

I first heard her about 20 years ago, in a record shop in York, England.

I know I'm a latecomer, but I've been a huge fan ever since.

Stay with us, Joni. You've been an inspiration to so many of us here.

Ethereal. Joni was the soundtrack of my college years and just after. My single woman times. So talented. I was fortunate to finally see her live several years back. I was so moved by the story of her reunification with the daughter she gave up as a baby.

I thought more of her when I read this.

Came across it some time back. That quote is on her wiki page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joni_Mitchell

expressive and human and brilliant.

. . . including for songs that were recorded and made famous by other artists. "Both Sides Now" is a good example. I've known this song since I was kid, and always associated it with Judy Collins (and had assumed she wrote it). It wasn't until about 10 years ago, when Mitchell, then 60-ish, released her album titled "Both Sides Now," that I realized Mitchell had written it. Collins, of course, recorded it and made it famous. But on this new album, here were those same, long-familiar words, suddenly sung by a voice of a 60-year-old. It's very different from the sound of Mitchell in the 60s and 70s. For one thing, her voice is about an octave lower than it used to be. And it is the voice of someone who has fully lived those 60 years -- a voice that, yes, shows signs of age, but also contains within it all of the joys and sorrows of a lifetime. It conveys such pathos -- a pathos a younger Mitchell couldn't have carried off. After years and years of hearing this song sung in the dulcet tones of Judy Collins' soprano, to hear those words I knew so well sung by this sultry, husky-voiced woman who had seen it all -- it was as if I were hearing a totally new song. The words suddenly took on a new depth. And much as I still admire Judy Collins, to be perfectly frank,when it comes to this particular song, hers isn't the voice I want to hear singing it. Now, nothing but the war-weary voice of its creator will do. Here is that recording. And the words appear below:

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 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

Saw her in concert many years ago, she's really a treasure in our time.

Get well soon!

don't skate away on that forever river just yet...

And send good wishes

Joni has been an important part of my life. Although the lyrics above are from Blue, thanks to Court and Spark, she deserves at least partial credit for many of my girlfriends.

Blessings and speedy recovery.

and there's quite a bit of competition.

Woodstock, Joni on a grand piano.

I hope she's well.

Amazing musician and artist.

http://jonimitchell.com/

i began downloading my joni cd's to my itunes...so, she has been foremost in my mind - her gift to the world and to me, personally. her songs have woven their gleaming threads through so many significant parts of my life. sending her my love and best wishes to keep on keeping on ... 71 is just the beginning of mid afternoon ...

other artists wrote songs about Joni Mitchell: Going to California by Led Zepellin, CSNY had a few, it is said that Bob Dylan wrote Tangled up in BLue after listening to Joni's Blue album, Guinnevere by CS&N.

Adding another - a classic showcasing her vocal range...

And nobody paints with words quite like Joni...........


Song For Sharon
by Joni Mitchell

I went to Staten Island, Sharon
To buy myself a mandolin *
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars
All for something lacy
Some girl's going to see that dress
And crave that day like crazy

Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
Because as soon as this ferry boat docks
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks

I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
Because I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling's always written on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke
And she lit a candle for my love luck
And eighteen bucks went up in smoke

Sharon I left my man
At a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big Apple" here
To face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well I do accept the changes
At least better than I used to do

A woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Or punishing somebody
My friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line
and so far from satisfaction

Dora says "Have children"
Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology"
Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover
But all I really want to do right now
Is find another lover

When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon
I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses
And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything

And when I went skating after Golden Reggie
You know it was white lace I was chasing
Chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
And then you get the tears
But the ceremony of the bells and lace
Still veils this reckless fool here

Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink *
Circling in singles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and
stares and stares and stares and stares
And the power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me
Only to deceive me

Sharon you've got a husband
And a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation
And a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
You sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by

... but my all-time favorite album of hers was "Court and Spark." Tom Scott and the L.A. Express backed her up on that one, and I believe the stars aligned to make it her pinnacle of achievement. Her cover of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross' "Twisted" was pure genius. I hope she recovers.

What a fabulous album, I still have it

Art work here with her commentary: http://jonimitchell.com/paintings/

Click right links to see the art