| Joni Mitchell – Let The Wind Carry Me Lyrics | 4 years ago |
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As someone who has had an often difficult and sometimes straining relationship with my parents as a teenager and well into my adult years, I definitely relate to what Joni is saying here. You have one parent who's disapproving of the person that their child is becoming and then you have the other parent that's just trying to make them feel okay, etc etc. and often those roles can be reversed and vice versa. Joni seemed to rebel against her parents as a teenager. This song is one of many she wrote about her teenage years and the infancy of rock and roll culture on her generation. And often the themes would discuss how the kids were having fun, living it up and enjoying each others presence and doing God knows what. And the parents being extremely displeased with their behavior and what they'd be up to on the weekends. Push and pull occurs between her, her mother and her father. And sometimes her mother and father would clash on raising young Joan. Should we try to shelter her? Should we let her just be a kid while she still is? It's these kind of themes where Joni herself thinks about raising her own children. How it would look if the coins were flipped and SHE was the one raising children. Oddly enough and unbeknownst to many people in 1972, Joni herself DID have a child but put her up for adoption. This happened when she was in her early 20s and wasn't able to afford to take care of the child. In addition, with the advice that her first husband gave her, she put the child up for adoption and never got to meet her until Joni was in her 50's and news came out that Joni Mitchell had a long lost daughter. So there's three things probably happening here. One is that Joni looks back on her own childhood and how her rebellion was a big challenge for her parents. Would she be able to deal with that if she herself has her own children? And then there's perhaps those thoughts that came to Joni about what it would've been like had Joni kept her daughter and raised her herself. Would she be going through the same things her parents did? Who knows. And finally the third thing is that Joni dated a few men by this point. Many of them famous rockstars like Graham Nash, Jackson Browne, and James Taylor. All of these men had their own issues and were in no capacity to take care of a child. Joni obviously wanted children but couldn't quite come to a compromise with any of the men she courted. Especially Graham, who many believe was the love of her life. Regardless, Joni passes it off mournfully after she proclaims that she has a longing to settle down and raise a child, that "it passes like the summer, I'm a wild seed again, let the wind carry me". And ends on a rather somber tone. I think it's this kind of longing and sadness that drove Joni to writing such incredible songs. It's an unfortunate thing that some of the best art comes from artists in pain. Joni is no exception to that concept. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Same Situation Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Joni has gone on to say that it's about a woman who is in pursuit of love but only comes out finding Don Juan's, a ladies man basically. The track is her own "You're So Vain" in a way, but much more detail oriented and also giving the perspective of the woman more so. And the way she describes it may be about Warren Beatty (who ironically is also one of the men Carly Simon name checks on Vain), who had attempted to win over Joni between 1972-73, but she could see right through him. Regardless, it's about a player who's always in the same situation, and a girl (or maybe even a man) who has got themselves in the same situation. "Tethered to a ringing telephone, in a room full of mirrors". Always falling for the wrong person who gets your anxiety going bonkers. "A pretty girl in your bathroom, checking out her sex appeal", the man has been in this predicament before where he's about to or has laid down with a woman who's getting ready in his bathroom. This could also be the woman observing herself as she's in yet another bathroom, about to sleep with yet another man who she thinks is in love with her but that's really not the case. He may have been with "lots of lovely women" but these women always get themselves involved with him sexually, for he himself has a sex appeal. "With heaven full of astronauts and the lord on death row" -- this line has always interested me and I think it's associating religion with the adulations that often a player will utilize on their victims. The lord on death row almost sounds like someone who has used God for other means besides what God is intended to be for. Salvation and perseverance, for example. Instead he uses his time to lure women, buy fancy cars and drink booze, maybe do drugs too. Involving himself in one or two or three or more of the seven deadly sins. The concept of religion is ingrained in the fibers of this song in almost every stanza. "Like the church, like a cop, like a mother, you want me to be truthful" -- point blank is about men who have high expectations on what a woman should be to him. The church being strong, God-fearing and maybe even innocent (perhaps also pure or a virgin), a cop being one who has "morals" per say and a mother, basically someone to take care of him, cook for him and clean. "You want me to be truthful" -- appease his every needs and desires and succumb to his callings whenever necessary. "Sometimes you turn it on me like a weapon, though and I need your approval" after the previous lines oozes with sarcasm. "Oh because I don't wanna coddle you like a baby and I'm not a sweet, pure little dainty girl, you use that against me to make me feel guilty. That I'm a modern woman and I'm not a dotting housewife or your mother who will take care of you.". The last stanza is basically someone who is sick and tired of always catching the same needy men who hides behind a facade that he's not like the rest but really only wants one thing and one thing only out of her. "I said send me somebody who's strong and somewhat sincere, with the millions of the lost and lonely ones, I called out to be released" -- she wants out of this trap she seems to always get herself into. And the last line is quite sad because she knows that the man after this one will probably end up being exactly like the previous one and she'll just end up in a constant search for true love. "Caught in my struggle for higher achievements, and my search for love, that don't seem to cease" echoes Joni's own love life where she has often got herself involved with men who have toxicity or have toxic tendencies. Whether they're emotionally or mentally abusive or are abusing themselves by means of substances. The same can be said for many young people who try so aimlessly to find love that's either not fulfilling at all or becomes almost like a drug that you can't get yourself off of. |
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| Joni Mitchell – Same Situation Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Joni has gone on to say that it's about a woman who is in pursuit of love but only comes out finding Don Juan's, ladies man basically. The track is her own "You're So Vain" in a way, but much more detail oriented and the way she describes it may be about Warren Beatty (who ironically is also one of the men Carly Simon namechecks on Vain), who had attempted to win over Joni between 1972-73, but she could see right through him. Regardless, it's about a player who's always in the same situation, and a girl (or maybe even a man) who has got themselves in the same situation. "Tethered to a ringing telephone, in a room full of mirrors". Always falling for the wrong person who gets your anxiety going bonkers. "A pretty girl in your bathroom, checking out her sex appeal", the man has been in this predicament before where he's about to or has laid down with a woman who's getting ready in his bathroom. He may have been with "lots of lovely women" but these women always get themselves involved with him sexually, for he himself has a sex appeal. "With heaven full of astronauts and the lord on death row" -- this line has always interested me and I think it's associated religion with the adulations that often a player will utilize on their victims. The lord on death row almost sounds like someone who has used God for other means besides what God is intended to be for. Salvation and perseverance, for example. Instead he uses his time to lure women, buy fancy cars and drink booze, maybe do drugs too. Involving himself in one or two or three or more of the seven deadly sins. "Like the church, like a cop, like a mother, you want me to be truthful" -- point blank is about men who have high expectations on what a woman should be to him. The church being strong, God-fearing and maybe even innocent (perhaps also pure or a virgin), a cop being one who has "morals" per say and a mother, basically someone to take care of him. Cook for him and clean. "You want me to be truthful" -- appease his every needs and desires and succumb to his callings whenever necessary. "Sometimes you turn it on me like a weapon, though and I need your approval" after the previous lines oozes with sarcasm. "Oh because I don't wanna coddle you like a baby and I'm not a sweet, pure little dainty girl, you use that against me to make me feel guilty. That I'm a modern woman and I'm not a dotting housewife or your mother who will take care of you.". The last stanza is basically someone who is sick and tired of always catching the same needy men who hides behind a facade that he's not like the rest but really only wants one and one thing only out of her. "I said send me somebody who's strong and somewhat sincere, with the millions of the lost and lonely ones, I called out to be released" -- she wants out of this trap she seems to always get herself into. And the last line is quite sad because she knows that the man after this one will probably end up being exactly like the previous one. "Caught in my struggle for higher achievements, and my search for love, that don't seem to cease" echoes Joni's own love life where she has often got herself involved with men who have toxicity or have toxic tendencies. Whether they're emotionally or mentally abusive or are abusing themselves by means of substances. The same can be said for many young people who try so aimlessly to find love that's either not fulfilling at all or becomes almost like a drug that you can't get yourself off of. |
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| Carly Simon – That's The Way I've Always Heard It Should Be Lyrics | 8 years ago |
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Perhaps one of the most haunting and brutally honest songs about marriage. Even Carly has introduced the song as a "weird song" before she'd play it. I can't tell you just how spine chilling the lyrics are and also Carly's falsetto during the verses (his cigarette glows in the daaaaaaaarrkkkk --- eerily beautiful) What fascinates me is how this is such an unlikely song to be released in 1971, much less by a member of the baby boomer generation. Baby boomers were more likely to get married at a relatively young age and value marriage as an important aspect of their lives and necessary in comparison to later generations, more specifically, millennials. As a millennial myself, this song resonates with me. Because my generation doesn't value marriage as much as older people do. We don't really see the fairy tale fantasy of marriage. For one... because most of our parents are Gen-X'ers and the divorce rate was HUGE for X. Many of us as children witnessed our parents suffer irreconcilable differences, petty arguments and fights and even worse, abuse. Second of all... our economy makes it near impossible to raise a family and invest in real estate/mortgage and marriage. So this song, in retrospect, was way ahead of its time. Especially more so because a female artist was singing the song and it was easily interpreted as a feminist anthem. A disdain for being involved in a trap and becoming someone's housemate and, more than likely, being abused and treated like a slave and not being encouraged to be free and live their life. Carly was, as my generation puts it, woke! But as far as the lyricism of the song, it's much deeper than being adamant about marrying someone. It's also about their perception of marriage from the point of view of a bystander watching their parents, their friends and other people who were significant to their lives have a marriage, eventually falling out of love for each other; which would result in divorcing or worse, staying together because of their children. They feel trapped and feel they're incapable of pursuing the career of their dreams because they have already settled down and most of their income is going toward keeping the marriage afloat by means of paying for a home, etc. or on the kids. And then put on a facade to give people the illusion that their marriage is perfect and suffers no downfalls. This immense amount of pressure to marry, especially for women, was still VERY prevalent during the 70s and even now. Women, as a whole, have often been viewed as nothing more than housewives, especially just ten to twenty years prior to this song being released. Even though this song was released during a period in which women were becoming more free to pursue actual careers and being the breadwinners of their family, it was still a pretty new concept to people and, nevertheless, women were still expected to marry a man and bear his children. This is probably one of my favorite songs of all-time and should go down as one of the pivotal feminist anthems to come out of the 1970's, a time where liberation (for LGBTQ+ people, women, POC, etc) was going on all across the spectrum. |
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