Let The Wind Carry Me

I can't believe no one has commented on this song yet! Great lyrics, great music (I love the interplay of the background vocals and the horns/saxophones). But this song paints such a wonderful, almost tragic picture of a child whose parents are very different from each other, and don't see eye to eye on how to raise their daughter, and what is best for her.

Amazing and moving lyric! You can literally feel her throwing off the weight of her mother's disapproval. And I just want to hug her Dad.

Magnificent and beautiful song. I remember cutting about the Brighton seafront on my bike c. 1992 listening to this beautiful album. Genius is Joni Mitchell xx

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.