Joni Mitchell Turns 62 Today!
 

Happy Birthday to Joni!

An incredible woman, an influential artist in every sense of the word and truly a poet beyond measure. :xoxo:

rbs

100% agreed!! Happy Birthday Joni!!!:woohoo:

Happy Birthday Joni. I have the deepest respect for her, some of her songs stay with me.

Romy

A case of you

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

On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue tv screen light
I drew a map of canada
Oh canada
And your face sketched on it twice

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
Oh and you taste so bitter but you taste so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I’d still be on my feet

Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I’m frightened by the devil
And I’m drawn to those ones that ain’t afraid
I remember that time that 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

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
And you taste so bitter but you taste so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you darling
Still I’d be on my feet
And still be on my feet

I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
Color go to him, stay with him if you can
Oh but be prepared to bleed
Oh but you are in my blood you’re my holy wine
Oh and you taste so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
Still I’d be on my feet
I’d still be on my feet

Happy Birthday, Joni!! :woohoo:

TODAY?! Sweet. I love Joni.

Happy b-day. I lurves me some Joni. :D

:blob1: :blob2: :blob1:

My all-time favorite, with my favorite line:

THE LAST TIME I SAW RICHARD
("Miles of Aisles" live version)

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

"You laugh," he said to me, "You think you're immune,
Go look at your eyes, they're full of moon.
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies, pretty lies.
When you gonna realise they're only pretty lies?
Only pretty lies, they're just pretty lies."

He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer, and he pushed
Three buttons and the thing began to whirr
And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie
And she said, "Drink up now it's gettin' on time to close."

"Richard, you haven't really changed," I said
It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head.
You got tombs in your eyes, but the songs
You punched are dreaming.
Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet.
When you gonna get yourself back on your feet?
Oh and love can be so sweet.
Don't you know that love can be so sweet?"

Richard got married to a figure skater
And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator
And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on
And all the house lights left up bright

I'm gonna blow this damn candle out
I don't want Nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about
All good dreamers pass this way some day
Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes

Dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings
And fly away
Only a phase, these dark cafe days

That and Refuge of the Roads (and Trouble Child) are my favorite Joni Mitchell songs. :D

:xoxo:

I have all the early ones, and the '80s-present ones. I'm missing the '70s transitional ones before Mingus (which I LOVE). Which should I get next: "Hissing of Summer Lawns" or "Don Juan's Restless Daughter"?

Hissing of Summer Lawns, for sure. I don't care for Don Juan too much. You don't have Court & Spark or Hejira??

I've never heard Mingus, but I've heard very mixed things. She wrote lyrics to "Goodbye Porkpie Hat," right? I can't even imagine...

I have everything up until "Miles of Aisles", then everything from "Mingus" - oh, except "Dog Eat Dog", forgot about that one. I'm just missing those three inbetween. And I won't be buying Hejira soon (which we already discussed in the book thread).

Do I have Court & Spark? :rolleyes: Are you high? :laugh: ;)

*singing loudly, wishing I had an army of saxophonists in my room*
He was sittin in the lounge of the Empire Hotel
He was drinking for diversion, he was thinking for himself...

You *have* to get Hejira...it's f*cking beautiful.

The only one of her '80s albums I had was Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm, which I didn't care for. I think I sold it at a used CD place. I'm thinking of getting Wild Things Run Fast, though...it sounds good, from what I've heard of it.

I only got "Mingus" a few years ago, because I heard "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey" and "The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines" on one of her compilation discs, "Misses" I think... I like it. It includes lots of dialog, and the effect is that you're sitting in the studio with them as they record.

Here are the GPPH lyrics from jonimitchell.com - a certain naughty bird ate the booklet.

GOODBYE PORK PIE HAT
words by Joni Mitchell
music by Charles Mingus

When Charlie speaks of Lester
You know someone great has gone
The sweetest swinging music man
Had a Porkie Pig hat on
A bright star
In a dark age
When the bandstands had a thousand ways
Of refusing a black man admission
Black musician
In those days they put him in an
Underdog position
Cellars and chittlins'

When Lester took him a wife
Arm and arm went black and white
And some saw red
And drove them from their hotel bed
Love is never easy
It's short of the hope we have for happiness
Bright and sweet
Love is never easy street!
Now we are black and white
Embracing out in the lunatic New York night
It's very unlikely we'll be driven out of town
Or be hung in a tree
That's unlikely!

Tonight these crowds
Are happy and loud
Children are up dancing in the streets
In the sticky middle of the night
Summer serenade
Of taxi horns and fun arcades
Where right or wrong
Under neon
Every feeling goes on!
For you and me
The sidewalk is a history book
And a circus
Dangerous clowns
Balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions
They have been handed
Day by day
Generations on down

We came up from the subway
On the music midnight makes
To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes
Now Charlie's down in Mexico
With the healers
So the sidewalk leads us with music
To two little dancers
Dancing outside a black bar
There's a sign up on the awning
It says "Pork Pie Hat Bar"
And there's black babies dancing...
Tonight!