One of my favourite songs ever - so being played at my funeral to make everyone cry....well, gotta get a tear out of them all some how.
The song is indeed about depression and "the blues". More specifically the song is about the blues felt due to the end of the hippy era. This song was the title track of Joni's first album released after a long draught of iconic Hippy music.
Acid, booze, and ass
Needles, guns, and grass
Lots of laughs, lots of laughs
These lyrics confirm the idea. Hippies had great plans and a great dream but it ended up lost in hedonism.
I think the shell Joni refers to at the end is herself - there was a great depression in the hippy culture at the end of it, spurned on by a few high profile drug overdose cases of iconic singers. The shell is herself, she still believes in "hippy" but she's been left a shell of her former self seeing where her culture and people got themselves.
Ultimately the song is written to the "end of the hippy era" as though it were a tangable being - which is why she offers up herself "here is a shell for you" - "i still believe in you hippy era"
One of my favourite songs ever - so being played at my funeral to make everyone cry....well, gotta get a tear out of them all some how.
The song is indeed about depression and "the blues". More specifically the song is about the blues felt due to the end of the hippy era. This song was the title track of Joni's first album released after a long draught of iconic Hippy music.
Acid, booze, and ass Needles, guns, and grass Lots of laughs, lots of laughs
These lyrics confirm the idea. Hippies had great plans and a great dream but it ended up lost in hedonism.
I think the shell Joni refers to at the end is herself - there was a great depression in the hippy culture at the end of it, spurned on by a few high profile drug overdose cases of iconic singers. The shell is herself, she still believes in "hippy" but she's been left a shell of her former self seeing where her culture and people got themselves.
Ultimately the song is written to the "end of the hippy era" as though it were a tangable being - which is why she offers up herself "here is a shell for you" - "i still believe in you hippy era"
Rant over
i love this song, i think you guys have pretty much summed it up. and Joni's original can never be beaten. so much emotion.
i love this song, i think you guys have pretty much summed it up. and Joni's original can never be beaten. so much emotion.