07 November 2007

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.

17 comments:

  1. I'm all goose pimpley now. What a perfectly perfect tribute.

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  2. Y'know, ever since last Friday, I've been listening to Joni non-stop. Just sayin'.

    Have you been to Starbucks to purchase the new CD yet? I know that Seattleans are supposed to avoid the Evil Empire of the Caffinated Mermaid, but apparently that's the only place you can buy it.

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  3. I know that we have discussed this before but "Case of You" has to be one of my all time favoritest favorite songs ever.

    Happy birthday, Joni!

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  4. Beautifully done....Shine is wonderful....I have it....I wish I had beach tar on my feet right now.

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  5. I hope somehow she sees your tribute. It was lovely.

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  6. Thank you. Well done. She was the first triple threat I really worshipped: Poet, Musician, Painter. I think she is actually more than that though. The woman is so emotive, and so piercing with those lyrics that it is impossible not to be moved by her.

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  7. All hail the day of the birth of the genius. She had me for life the first time I ever heard her voice.. and she's seen my psyche through some very ugly times.

    Many, many more Joni!

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  8. I saw Joni on the "Today" show a couple weeks ago.She's still beautiful.Happy Birthday Joni!

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  9. What a great tribute. Her talents and abilities are still untarnished by age. Recently she assisted one of the ballet companies in Canada in a dance piece based on her work - I understand it was a beautiful piece of theatre - her lyrics and music made dance.

    Happy Birthday Joni.

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  10. Happy Birthday Joni! I remember Blue from when I was in high school, Court and Spark from college and The Hissing of Summer Lawns from when I first moved to Boston. Oh yeah, and she's Canadian. I have to get the most recent album, which I hear is great.

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  11. Hat: She does to spawn the goosey pimples, doesn't she?

    Red: Not yet. Yeah, not sure how I'm feeling about the Starbucks connection...

    Lorraine: And how!

    Rosemary: I heard a few clips from Shine - not sure what I think yet. A lot of her later stuff takes a bit to grow on me.

    KA: I'm sure I'm only one of gazillions who did some sort of tributey thing.

    Tater: Yes! She actually considers herself more of a painter than a musician. I just think she's genius. What a mind.

    DL: Me too - she runs soundtrack through a lot of situations in my life, from childhood on.

    Sling: Isn't she, though?

    Willym: Oh, I saw something about that -- I'll have to find out more, I don't know anything about it.

    Evil-G: Yeah, she's like a running soundtrack in my life. I think there may be something to that Canadian thing -- Alannis Morrisette is also Canadian, and her music is also very different with insightful lyrics. Joni rules.

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  12. She's legendary. Led Zeppelin paid tribute to Joni Mitchell in "Going to California" -- she's the girl with flowers in her hair who cries and sings.

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  13. I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
    Looking for the key to set me free
    Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
    Its the unraveling
    And it undoes all the joy that could be

    *simple truths* I heart Joni

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  14. Oh and this for the daughter she had when she was so young, which she gave up for adoption:

    Born with the moon in cancer
    Choose her a name she will answer to
    Call her green and the winters cannot fade her
    Call her green for the children who've made her
    Little green, be a gypsy dancer.

    I understand she reunited with her daughter at some point, but don't know much about the story there.

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  15. Tater: Damn, that one from All I Want, about the jealousy/greed being the unraveling, that is one of my favorites - how did that not get in there? And the "Little Green" one - i don't know too much about the daughter story eihter, but there is a reference to catch in "Woman of Heart and Mind", where she says "I am a woman of heart and mind, with time on my hands and no child to raise,". After I found out about the daughter, that one just jumped out at me.

    I also like this from that same song:

    All this talk about holiness now
    It must be the start of the latest style
    Is it all books and words
    Or do you really feel it?
    Do you really laugh?
    Do you really care?
    Do you really smile
    When you smile?

    That whole "do you really smile when you smile?"

    Genius.

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  16. Shine is a lesson to be passed from parent to child. The first time I listened to it I was driving down the mountain to take the POS car to the shop....I had to pull over and read the lyric insert....I was moved to tears and was late for the stupid car appointment.

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