| Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| I see this comment is from 7 years ago, but I'm compelled to add my two cents, as I am just discovering this song. I agree with your overall assessment of the song having to do with illusion versus reality. Wonderfully put. But I don't think it's as much of a choice as you make it out to be. I think this is best expressed in the line "something's lost, but something's gained in living every day." Perhaps the only choice to make is the choice to see life from both sides, not one or the other. If anything, the illusion is what is lost... but what is gained is the real, in all of it's ugliness and beauty--which makes the illusion that much more desirable. It's an expression of yearning for the innocence lost, but with a tone of gratitude for having tasted the purity of illusions at all. It's a song of realization. We are the dreamer. Hopeful and unrealistic and all. | |
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