Happy Birthday, Joni

Down on your knees, all of you! Wow, so many of you were already there...

It is the birth date of my personal goddess, one Joni Mitchell. This here is a call to worship, people. Actually, Joni wouldn't want a big deal made...

"I never wanted to be a star. I didn't like entering the room with all eyes on me. I still don't like the attention of a birthday party. I prefer Christmas, which is everybody's holiday."

It's weird, whenever I read her words, I hear them in her voice, sometimes with her laugh. So, in celebration of her artistry, genius and all around beauty, Joni's words:


Songs are like tattoos
~Blue


You know the times you impress me the most
are the times when you don't try.
~Woman of Heart and Mind

All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too.
~All I Want

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door,
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can,
They never can~I Had a King



Marcie's faucet needs a plumber
Marcie's sorrow needs a man~Marcie




Some get the gravy, some get the gristle.
~Banquet


It seems such a shame
We start out so kind and end so heartlessly~See You Sometime


There's no comprehending
Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes
And the lips you can get,
And still feel so alone
And still feel related~Coyote

But now it's cloak and dagger
Walk on eggshells and analyze
Every particle of difference
Gets like mountains in our eyes~Good Friends


He reached past the wine for my hand to hold
And he saw me young and he saw me old
And he saw me, sitting there.
~The Priest


He's the warmest chord I ever heard~My Old Man



And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
~River

I know you don't like weak women
You get bored so quick,
And you don't like strong women
'Cause they're hip to your tricks
~You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio



Now she rallies her defenses,
For she fears that one will ask her
For eternity
And she's so busy being free.
~Cactus Tree


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~People's Parties

Sitting in a park in Paris France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had~California

Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on~River




With kids nearly grown and gone
Grown so fast,
Like the turn of a page
We look like our mothers did now,
When we were those kids' age
Nothing lasts for long~Chinese Café


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~The Circle Game

Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet.
Oh I could drink a case of you darling,
And I would still be on my feet...
I would still be on my feet~Case of You



Happy Birthday, Joni.