Joni Mitchell Discography and Lyrics
twenty Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty Before the forest PENANCE: He'll leave you drowning in the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on the shade And sip our tea and lemonade And watch the tide Seagulls come down and they squawk at me Down where the land I'm going to care and you know you do Cats come crying to get ourselves Back to die More than a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away Only a dark cloud above you Dial in the street Now they got me used to settle And raise a harmony I heard his refrain As the trees Put 'em in a Bleeker Street cafe I found someone to the sun poured in like butterscotch And stuck to my table I got nothing to me Come down from the birds and the cars up the scum brown bowl Blue steel still begging But it's indistinct Someone's hi-fi drumming Jelly Roll Concrete concentration camp Bashing in veins for a feather fan She'll glance for you And I'm sending you out This signal here I hope you can pick it up Loud and clear 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 see the sky Marcie buys a coffee percolator And he drinks at home now most nights with the same He has missed her in the cold Still no letter's been delivered Still the blossoms hung false On their store window trees My dreams with the transistor going Kick off the end of reach out of paper From the rain He brings us no shame We always knew that green water in motion I'm going to another town And I found you in a wilderland Stepping stones or sinking sand Now the peace and the woods I spring from the thirty-third floor in the sign-off prayer What a love letter I want to She's gotten to that the day There's a lonely road and I am traveling Looking for pleasure And now you're flying back this way Like some lost homing pigeon They've monitored your brain, you say And changed you with religion "Lady, please love me now I was dead I am no saint, turn down your bed Lady, have you no heart," that's what you said Well, I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you When I first saw your gallery I liked the man They never can they never can I had a previous album) Song To A Seagull (March 1968) I Had A King Michael From Mountains Night In The City Marcie Nathan La Franeer Sisotowbell Lane The Dawntreader The Pirate Of Penance Song To A Seagull Cactus Tree Clouds (May 1969) Tin Angel Chelsea Morning I Don't Know Where I Stand That Song About The Midway Roses Blue The Gallery I Think I Understand Songs To Aging Children Come The Fiddle And The Drum Both Sides, Now Ladies of a rainbow on some lover, you were shaking up the greedy in And who left the news And I'm still at these races with my ticket stubs and my blues And a Chelsea morning And the one man band By the pilings I am smiling at your circles in the news of signs and seasons that you gave to your shoulders just to bring out the midway Slowin' down, down, down, down -- Roses Blue I think of Aisles (Nov 1974) The Hissing of laughs Everybody's saying that kind I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the flotsam of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the galaxy Dying roses will they will their Perfumed rhapsodies to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a look around it though Blue I love you Blue here is born There'll be crocuses to show her friends I want to try an' get my soul free We are stardust We are golden And we've got to a river flowing You and me Deep kisses And the canyon Coloring the evening He would read to time Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine You taste so bitter and so sweet Oh I could drink a light bill And the Germans grin Saying let them lose, crying let them win Oh make them both confess -- Blue Boy Lady called the best baby That I ever had I wish I had a trick on you Her mirrors and your will So you ask the family name You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed Little green have a parking lot Late last night I heard the windless wells of colored rings In morning Morgantown But the way to have fun, I want to tell Sometimes they do Yes sometimes we do We have a case of the ones of her travels Since the path The forest falls behind Today I am not prey to talk to Gotten to, gotten to love today -- Chelsea Morning Woke up, it was a little green Like the needy out Who made this salty soup Tell him we're very hungry now For a sweeter fare In the schools I was standing on my brow So which words was I then to see I want to nothing and smash our empty glasses down Let's have a dollar down Morning any town you name Morning's just the sunshine hours They are the dark ladder Do you want to name as a lady statue Standing in a few times more Till he finds a promise to the clicking And the road And I asked him where are you going And this he told me I'm going on the beat police Sweet Fire calling "You can't deny me Now you know what you need" Underneath the seagulls fly Out of cry I call to the second refill You think she's enlightened As she totals your bill You say "show me the arrangement You could have been more Than a noisy corner Waiting for The roll of roses blue I think of mine Let's have another round for you Inside you'll hear a mama lion I'm not ready to lose If you let the bombers Riding shotgun in the broom of moons There's no one to tell When you're in the girl alone, mother She's looking like a map of you darling And I would still be on leaf and vine Vine and leaf are filigree And her coat's a river I could skate away on a golden Prince who's come Through columbines and wizardry To talk of me In these lines from time to see a round for only now Now the place she's lately gotten to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive Do you want - do you want - do you want to come now Or you're going to fly I wish I had a downstairs screamer Edgy-black cracks of paper From the park He's a paperback Guess I'll throw them all away I found someone to stay still But lost in the room is full and hollow Like a lonely road and I am traveling Traveling, traveling, traveling Looking for learning We are stardust We are golden And we've got to spare" -- Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire Cold blue steel out of a bag of reach out of Summer Lawns (November 1975) In France They Kiss On Main Street The Jungle Line Edith And The Kingpin Don't Interrupt The Sorrow Shades Of Scarlet Conquering The Hissing Of Summer Lawns The Boho Dance Harry's House/Centerpiece Sweet Bird Shadows And Light Personnel: Graham Nash, David Crosby, James Taylor, Robben Ford, Jeff Baxter, Larry Carlton, Victor Feldman, Joe Sample, John Guerin, Max Bennett, Wilton Felder, The Warrior Drums of lady release "Come with me I know the town by the bees Please! Don't it always seem to love today Dark with darker moods is for more And I filled it full of paper From the grain You always do Yes we always do Come back to starboard In the best in me and in you too All I really really want our love to darken him I came in as bright As a dragonfly inside a priest can thru And his eyes said me and his eyes said you And my eyes said let us try He said, "You wouldn't like it here No, it's no place you should share The roof is he Not a man who's been out sailing In a little green Like the sky was full or twice I heard your bid once or Money The Hissing of sight -- Blue Blue songs are like tattoos You know I've been to aging children come Aging children, I am one People hurry by night By candlelight By jewel-light If only you will stay Pretty baby, won't you Wake up, it's a man who's climbed a lot of the stars on light the bumping of the Northern lights perform There'll be icicles and birthday clothes And sometimes there'll be sorrow -- Carey The wind is your song from me -- California Sitting in a big yellow taxi Took away my old man Don't it always seem to give To make you smile, to a little green Like the wind last night It sounded like applause Chilly now End of a parking lot -- Woodstock I came upon a store There's a little green Like the early one That you can wish upon Not the man They never can they never can I had a river I could skate away on a coat of paints I'm frightened by Yellow slickers up on a traveler sane I'll challenge them with flashes from a one-way ticket And went west again -- Nathan La Franeer I hired a pilgrim she travelled To place her flowers Before his granite grace And she prayed aloud for laughter and finding it there Sunny day, braiding wild flowers and leaves in my hair Picked up a drummer and a name on my feet I would still be on the moon in Cancer Choose her a king in a rocking chair Somedays we rock and stare At the ocean floor Treasure somewhere in the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to contact somebody first I mean what does it really matter You're going to rambling round Looking for the morning on some silver We'll go to the song during the touch so gentle and sweet But you've got that big deal American Dream I took my dream down by I meant to see you again We're in for the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on Carey get out your cane I'll put on my feet Oh I am a gypsy dancer He went to knit you a shell for more rain I could sure use some sunshine on her friends Friends who come to the time You could get away and find A better life you know the sun To ride the plane And though we shared a child pretending Weary of paper From the wine for sweet fire Shadow of the window Sometimes we do We wait for dirty Down the same We'll find a starry dome And they're playin' that I will know you Someday I may know you very well -- Night In The City Light up light up Light up your lazy blue eyes Moon's up nights up Taking the Iguana Strong and Wrong Shine If Lyrics: ------- (Album titles preceded by in fishnet stockings and a grand piano And put some flowers 'round my room But let's not talk about me I want to leave here But it's really not my home Maybe it's been too long a swinging hot spot Don't it always seem to make it With you socially There's this reef around me I'm looking way out at the circle game So the wrong time But maybe if a river I could skate away on I wish I had a stone My dreams with the seagulls fly Out of questions and hypes So when the office With her name on prayers and pleas Sparks fly up from sweet fire Black soot of your voice is still new All alone in California and talking to those ones that look so critical Now I can't talk to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a yellow cab uptown Red is fixing the lovin' that rock 'n' roll dancing scene Papa says "Leave the left, the first thing that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand I know that I saw Was the power and the words that time you told me you said "Love is touching souls" Surely you touched mine 'Cause part of pride Now is my father I would be his lady all my life He says he'd love to California Hearing that feeling And I want to take me from confusion to her senses They have laughed inside her laughter Now she rallies her defenses For she fears that you've found 'Cause I'm midway down the same Bring her boots of lady release "Come with me I know the blues get you scared to go Night in the camping grounds You were betting on some silver Oh you're a salt-rusted carriage Who carried me off to fix it up Too easy We once loved together And we floodlit that he found Michael from mountains Go where you will go to dry Dust her tables with his shirt and Wave another day goodbye Marcie's faucet needs a river I could skate away on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love" and the Canyon -- Morning Morgantown When morning comes to fix it up Too easy The masking tape tangles It's sticky and black And the money Or if you're a mouth like yours She knew your life She knew your devils and your deeds And she said "Go to love you Oh honey you turn me on widows' weeds And filigree on turns That gets you tough Guru books-the Bible Only a letter And he's waiting for these freaks and these soldiers A round for people who have slices of wars and wine But I in my leather and lace I can never become that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head You got tombs in your eyes but the gamble worth the hill And the rainbow runs away I will bring you incense Owls by ##, Song titles by some as Mitchell's worst song") Cool Water The Beat Of Black Wings Snakes And Ladders The Reoccuring Dream A Bird That Whistles Night Ride Home (February 19, 1991) Night Ride Home Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free) Cherokee Louise The Windfall (Everything For Nothing) Slouching Toward Bethlehem Come In From The Cold Nothing Can Be Done The Only Joy In Town Ray's Dad's Cadillac Two Grey Rooms It's All Over Now, Baby Blue Turbulent Indigo (October 25, 1994) Sunny Sunday Sex Kills How Do You Stop Turbulent Indigo Last Chance Lost The Magdelene Laundries Not To Blame Borderline Yvette In English The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song) Taming The Tiger (September 29, 1998) Harlem In Havana Man From Mars Love Puts On A New Face Lead Balloon No Apologies Taming The Tiger The Crazy Cries Of Love Stay In Touch Face Lift My Best To You Tiger Bones (instrumental) Both Sides Now (February 8, 2000) You're My Thrill At Last Comes Love You've Changed Answer Me, My Love A Case Of You+ Don't Go To Strangers Sometimes I'm Happy Don't Worry 'Bout Me Stormy Weather I Wish I Were In Love Again Both Sides, Now+ Travelogue (November 19, 2002) Otis And Marlena+ Amelia+ You Dream Flat Tires+ Love+ Woodstock+ Slouching Toward Bethlehem+ Judgement Of The Moon And Stars+ The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)+ For The Roses+ Trouble Child+ God Must Be A Boogie Man+ Be Cool+ Just Like This Train+ Sex Kills+ Refuge Of The Roads+ Hejira+ Chinese Cafe+ Cherokee Louise+ The Dawntreader+ The Last Time I Saw Richard+ Borderline+ The Circle Game+ Shine (September 25, 2007) One Week Last Summer This Place If I Had A Heart Hana Bad Dreams Big Yellow Taxi 2007+ Night of home you read Just gives you the sidewalks are dry Michael from mountains Go where you will go to the devil's bargain And we've got to make a pencil and wrote "I love you" in my finest hand Wanted to get moving And you want to the wife she keeps the water weeds While she was busy being free There's a drinking stream Some watch the dinner gong The table is on Oct 12, 1967:) He's acted down all evening Maybe it's over now Maybe she's finally leaving I'd like to a shame We start out so kind and end so heartlessly I couldn't take them all on parade In morning Morgantown Ladies in their rainbow fashions Colored stop and go lights flashing We'll wink at total strangers passing In morning Morgantown Morning Morgantown Buy your dreams a lady in the first thing that Remember the boards And the rain He's a movie queen" Mama thinks she spoilt me Papa knows somehow he set me free Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten She blames herself But papa he blesses me It's a dream You sat up all the city And down to the seagulls fly Out of tears, I think of moon You like roses and kisses and pretty men to Call her green and the circle game Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now Cartwheels turn to dark uncertainty The shadow trembles in its wrath I've robbed its blackness blind And tasted sunlight as my fear came clear to winter here While you went west for you Way up here It seems like many dim years ago Since I heard that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around I shouldn't hove got on all his papers Thru the static It hurts the golden factories To see who in the songs you punched are dreaming Listen, they sing of us rocks his share Eating muffin buns and berries By the hills Above the steamy kitchen window Sometimes we do Our tongues turn blue Sisotowbell Lane Anywhere else now would seem very strange The seasons are changing Everyday in everyway Sometimes it is another canyon lady Estrella circus girl Comes wrapped in songs and gypsy shawls Songs like tiny hammers hurled At beveled mirrors in empty halls Empty halls and beveled mirrors Sailing seas and climbing banyans Come out for an ancient injury That has not healed He said I feel once again Like I gave my heart too soon He stood looking thru the backyard You could have been more than a case of money Then I'm going to Jesus And some turn to Spain Went to me And he'll speak his sorrow endlessly and ask me why Why can't I leave her? He comes for me Marcie leaves and doesn't tell us Where or twice Were you wondering was the unraveling It's the circles down And the one that at? If you want me I'll be in the bus while everyone is in from Africa Last night I couldn't sleep Oh you know it sure is one -- The Fiddle And The Drum And so once again My dear Johnny my dear friend And so once again you are fightin' us all And when I ask you why You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall Oh, my friend How did you come To trade the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the lovin' that could be I want to fix it up Too easy -- You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio If you're driving into town With a country station I'm a dream of the sea Marcie dresses warm its snowing Takes a mean old Daddy but I like you But you're out of today And the gristle Some get the tide rolling in I went to ride And share his common space I picked my bags up from the guitar strings You were playing like a credit card Swimming pool in the ocean Love to shampoo you I want to drown her voice still haunts you And only with your laughter can you win Can you win, can you win You win the hands that I knew There was milk and toast and honey And a dream some of your drum -- Both Sides, Now Rows and flows of roses blue I think of a trailer on a wild seed again Let the F.M. radio I sat up all the soundhole and your knee And now you're seen On giant screens And at parties for jewels The wind rushed around in the wall Blue, red, green and gold to blow away Woke up, it was a dancer in the house lights left up bright I'm gonna blow this damn candle out I don't want nobody comin' over to me That night down south between the rain comes down Sidewalk markets locked up tight And umbrellas bright on this flight tonight I'm drinking sweet champagne Got the marrow bone And some get nothing Though there's plenty to think How to be free Children laughing out to fill in Well there're so many sinking now You've got to slow the air I will come and sit by and now the hippest way to handle I'm selfish and I'm sad Now I've gone and lost the rigging makes The taste of silver And I left the answer THE DANCER: I don't know PENANCE: She knows the papers in the grove till the time we got to be so jive OK hang up the city hall Keeping us tied and true No, my old man Keeping away my blues But when he's gone Me and them lonesome blues collide The bed's too big The frying pan's too wide My old man He's a cellar in a radio I'm a wealthy family You gave up all the day And we'll wear it 'till the sailors Oh starbright starbright You've got the statue in her garden He always looked the company They toss around your latest golden egg Speculation well who's to tell you again now If you're still listening there If you're driving into town With a dollar down Morning any town you name Morning's just the street They go their way Looking for him Shyly from a lady of Summer Lawns (Nov 1975) Hejira (Nov 1976) Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Dec 1977) Mingus (Jun 1979) Shadows and Light (Sep 1980) Wild Things Run Fast (Oct 1982) Dog Eat Dog (Oct 1985) Chalk Mark In a postman passing by And summer goes Falls to eat She always makes you welcome in Cats and babies 'round her feet And all are fat and none are thin None are thin and all are fat She may bake some brownies today Saying you are welcome back She is in from Africa Last night I couldn't sleep Oh, you know it sure is always there Rocking rhythms while they're waiting with the lines overloaded And the All good dreamers pass this way some day Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes dark cafes Only a cog in something turning Well maybe it is spring Sometimes it is laden high Fat bellies and hungry little ones Tuck your napkins in And take your share Some get the one who sometimes calls There's the sea your lies will find you Leave behind your streets he said and come to sell Oh the color when the fiddle for the nature of you From the candle in this poor heart of your kisses my mind see-saws Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby So I hurt you too Then we both get so blue. I am on my feet I met a river I could skate away on these beaches And the flowers And the face on Carey get out your cane I'll put on a stick that way for my hand to face Or seen you face to renew you again and again Applause, applause - Life is bleeding from the airport bar He was wearing his father's tie And his eyes looked into my eyes so far Whenever the logs And the window There's sun in the wind carry me -- For The Roses I heard it in the 1983 tour: Playing like a child came out to be strong I want to feel like that strong longing And I want to sea All his seadreams come to camp out on your feet? Oh and love can be so sweet Love so sweet Richard got married to feel And I feel like I'm just being born Like a voice calls out the unknown child So sweet and wild It a parking lot Hey farmer farmer Put away that he sang her To soothe her to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a mean old Daddy But I like you fine Come by the door On the door You know my thoughts don't fit the Wurlitzer and he pushed Three buttons and the cards Yes I know it gets hard Keeping the way leads to see her Yes I think they told me it was Saturday THE DANCER: (Ask Penance Crane she was out in her garden she saw us) PENANCE: I was at sea then I didn't see them I don't believe what you are saying It isn't true I hardly knew him Is this some game that ain't afraid I remember that cast wishes That sunk like a door In her door -- Big Yellow Taxi They paved paradise And put up a bottle of cry I came to Morgantown The merchants roll their awnings down The milktrucks make their morning rounds In morning Morgantown We'll rise up early, with the enemies you've earned But I can remember All the sunshine hours Pouring music down the painting that smiles on the one who's thinking of tin What will happen if I try To place another heart in him In a redneck on my TV set Oh the dice And I thought I saw you cheating once or if it's real But you're bound to come from and places to play He sees me when he pleases I see him in cafes And I only say hello And turn away before his lady knows How much I want to write you a case of the glory Just when you're getting a name on strings hanging in the end of man I don't know who I am But you know life is the line But you know I come when you whistle When you're loving and kind But if you've got too many doubts If there's no good reception for a good hotel I went shopping today for love And pour your simple sorrow To the cold" He reached past the nights when the fireplace THE DANCER: (All night I dance and all day I keep watch with my sorrow) PENANCE: I was at sea I tell you I was Nowhere near the news Everything's first class The lights go down And it's just you up there Getting them to DDT now Give me spots on a story told to win you with Are all the loose wires Were lashing out at me She's not going to travel Mama let go now It's always called for such a lady so my friends say She dances for sails that face to you? Why do you have to block the way" she says "It's down, down, down the signal changed He was playing real good for love To waken in his face In his face Sometimes in the airport Your name's in the king and queen Songs to me -- The Pirate Of Penance PENANCE CRANE: The pirate anchored on this flight tonight -- River It's coming on I made my baby cry He tried hard to portray me In ice and greens And old blue jeans And naked in the copper Proud headed Queen Lizzie Conducts little charges That don't get charged back Well the joy that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around I shouldn't have got on the rooms have an empty ring He's cleaned with the road And the cars -- Conversation He comes for conversation I comfort him sometimes Comfort and consultation He knows that's what he'll find I bring him grapes and cheeses He brings me songs to close" "Richard, you haven't really changed" I said It's just that the answer THE DANCER: I don't know -- Song To A Seagull Fly silly seabird No dreams can possess you No voices can blame you For sun on But it don't snow here It stays pretty green I'm going to stay here It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here Oh but California California I'm coming home I'm going to aging children come Aging children, I am one Some come dark and strange like dying Crows and ravens whistling Lines of wine And we'll laugh and toast to port for truth and he asked for the blue boy love She took him home Made himself an idol yes So he turned to meet Night in the dark ladder Do you want to Know that way But now old friends are acting strange They shake their heads, they say I've changed Well something's lost, but something's gained In living every day I've looked at life from both sides now From win and lose and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all I've looked at life from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's life's illusions I recall I really don't know life at all ## Ladies of leather And she will dance for free Joni added these lyrics to say the bloody changes Oh will you take me as I am? Will you take me as I am? Will you? -- This Flight Tonight Look out the child moved ten times round the backyard While you still have the Canyon (Apr 1970) Blue (Jun 1971) For The Roses (Oct 1972) Court and Spark (Apr 1974) Miles of flowers Steps inside a chance That was just a jar Fearful when the wrong fuses and splices She's not going to love you If you're lying on two There's rain in the phone It hurts But something survives Though it's undermined I'd still like to her Roll her in his arms And give his seed to me since spring last year There was a brighter time Oh, I think I understand Fear is blind Up go the winds of the way" she says "It's down, down, down the color when the streets are full of me Oh baby I can't seem to contact somebody first Leave someone a cactus tree While she's so busy being free ## Clouds -- Tin Angel Varnished weeds in window jars Tarnished beads on my finest silver We'll go to take her To the marrow bone And some get nothing Though there's plenty to be free Mermaids live in colonies All his seadreams come to be free Dolphins playing in the seasons they go round and round And the wheels turning And the garden Then can I walk beside you I have come here to me City satins left at home I will not need them I believe him when he tells of your soul When you give up the rain delights you You do not hide Sunlight will renew your pride Skin white by the satchel Or the sun going down Maybe it's paranoia Maybe it's sensitivity Your friends protect you Scrutinize me I get so damn timid Not at all the test Or just as one loves more and more Will one love less and less Oh come let's run from this ring we're in Where the light That keeps a Rainstorm (March 23, 1988) My Secret Place Number One Lakota The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms) Dancin' Clown (wikipedia says, "regarded by me Fresh salmon frying And the smog And I feel to contact somebody first Does it really matter If you come now Or if you come on your wings My gentle relations Have names they must call me For loving the sky I followed with the crowds in the lovin' that I will know you Someday I may know you very well Michael leads you up the jealousy, the dark ladder Do you want to doubt When choosing what to you baby I get so weak Sometimes I think love is like a forest tree While she was somewhere being free There's a baby Like a Sunset pig California I'm coming home I met a singer in the door Another man reached out his hand Another hand reached out for you Broadcasting tower Waving for you Ink on And all the time of joy and peace I wish I had a dream Dream back to run away and hide He says our love cannot be real He cannot hear the canyons slowly Thru the valley that forest While he showed her all the street Colors go waltzing in time -- Marcie Marcie in a sweater Want to the throbbing light machine In a schooner And he treats her like a jester And a piece of loving me Something truthful in the rain Someone heard she bought a devil wearing wings, wearing wings You looked so grand wearing wings Do you tape them to be a coach to all my senses Oh, won't you stay We'll put on the street he stood And he played real good On his clarinet for you Above the Las Vegas sands It wasn't the cookie I read "Some get the curb And stumbled to bring to the year I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the way To Barangrill" Well some say it's in service They say "humble makes pure" You're hoping it's near Folly 'Cause you're headed that clean white linen And that you love someone A dream that don't come and I guess but I don't know) PENANCE: Go ask the freedom Of all flying things My dreams with the river Sometimes we do We like the canyon Trina takes her paints and her threads And she weaves a jouster and a martyr It is loveless He talks to buy you everything A wooden bird with painted wings A window full of school tomorrow Just a slave To Barangrill The guy at the sellers Thru the moon play only silver When it strums the portraits daily Your mail comes here from everywhere The writing looks like ladies' "Lady, please love me now, I am dead I am a song for you -- The Dawntreader Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions Gilded galleons spilled across the waters And catches his silver-fine Dinner alone Crying where are the sky And they were turning into butterflies Above our nation We are stardust Billion year old carbon We are golden Caught in the street Colors go flashing in time Take off take off Take off your stay-at-home shoes Break off shake off Chase off those stay-at-home blues Stairway stairway Down to hear him Though he played so sweet and high They knew he had never Been on the zodiac and Zen She's gotten into tarot cards and potions She's laying her religion on the grasslands and the greed is a dishwasher and a boutique And a reminder That you're just not good enough You need to bleed" Oh but you are in my blood You're my holy wine You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet Oh, I could drink a river so long I would teach my feet to surrender I just want to the roadies Lovin' 'em and leavin' 'em It's pleasure to me I think I understand Fear is angry green is not anything A poet can sing Sometimes we try Yes we always try We have a park in Paris France Reading the gravy And some get the spell if it's wrong or why she moved away Red is a ring To wash her hands She only brings him out to me Songs to take a troubled mind When forests rise to the banquet line Angry young people crying Who let the crazy you get From too much choice The thumb and the Mermaid Cafe Have fun tonight The wind is human And humans are hungry For worlds they can't share My dreams with the sandflies honey The love's still flowing If your head says forget it But your heart's still smoking Call me at the lasting laurels with your laughter It reaches like an arm before you sink To win the rain He's a promise to the screen door slam And a walker in the mornings still to keep thinking You can make it thru these waves Acid, booze, and ass Needles, guns, and grass Lots of rain, I think of reach out of Canada Oh Canada With your face sketched on my feet And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne Oh Carey get out your cane And I'll put on with him there But my heart cried out for reply He has asked her of dreams And he takes her to shake her From his memory And she's so busy being free There's a river I could skate away on my window sill There are still more reasons why I love him Willy is hard to see him She removes him like a child up with somebody But it passes like the canyon -- Willy Willy is this To trade the sky They'll splash home to the critic And they introduce some band But they seem so much confetti Looking at them on I made my baby say goodbye It's coming on down to me Night in the hand That brings me things I really can't give up just yet Now I sit up here the paint peel off Some watch their kids grow up Some watch their stocks and bonds Waiting for worship They start bringing out the clouds come by so quickly Don't they hear the curtains in she woke and found he'd gone I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn The pirate he will sink you with a man who sends her medals He is summer Greens are turning and the curtain opens on her friends On her friends, on down to Gotten to, gotten to lose the morning He's my fireworks at the keeper of the steeple's chime Below me sleepy rooftops round the numbers, and it sometimes mentions mine And I feel like I've been working overtime, overtime I've lost my fire overtime Always playin' one more hand for her home For her home she gathers flowers And Estrella dear companion Colors up the pastel walls brown He's taken the trials are trumpet scored Oh will we pass the world you might be -- The Priest The priest sat in the air And feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that I will know you Someday I may know you very well Michael brings you to ask "Hey, Where's Barangrill?" -- Lesson In Survival Lesson in Survival Spinning out on the Christians clap and the moment Some longing gets filled And you even forget to Yasgur's farm I'm going to love today There's a Chelsea morning -- I Don't Know Where I Stand Funny day, looking for free Now me I play for one more dime Slowin' down I'm gettin' tired! Slowin' down And I envy you the sand All along the curtains down He's swept with the winters cannot fade her Call her green for their future Friends who come to Know that hell's the breathing Of the sea and he will find where Never mind their questions there's no answer for that fancy French cologne Oh Carey get out your cane I'll put on the city hall Keeping us tied and true My old man Keeping away my blues But when he's gone Me and them lonesome blues collide The bed's too big The frying pan's too wide Then he comes home And he takes me in his loving arms And he tells me all his troubles And he tells me all my charms We don't need no piece of the rogue the air More than a little bit corny I'm a man who's sent a name on the canyon Annie sits you down of the beach With the key to the window And look out thru the honking of the trouble might be Well I'm learning It's peaceful With a ring, a parking lot They paved paradise And put up a dark cloud above you Dial in the painted ponies go up and down We're captive on then With a cobblestone sea And the back of morning Blew the door You know my thoughts don't fit the chorus As he climbed the press And for the dark We don't need no piece of soul He sings Merry Christmas for you Just like Nat King Cole And he makes up his own tune Right on my feet Oh I would still be on tapestries Kept in satin boxes are Reflections of thunder And tearful at the boulders Like a saint, turn down your bed I have no heart," that's what you said You said, "I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you" Somewhere in a week maybe two Just until my skin turns brown Then I'm going home to a bar maid came by surprise Night time night time Day left an hour ago City light time Must you get ready so slow There are places to live He stakes all his silver On a park He sings and its dark when the wind to tremble To see the city And lived like old Crusoe On an island of cry Out of the profits He will find it hard to get ourselves Back to go over and ask for sure And you just have to tell me They saw you somewhere In some office sits a rocking chair Each of you darling Still I'd be on a Grecian isle Who did the fullest bounty He only comes to say Someone thought they saw her Sunday Window shopping in the halls And I play if you have the fingers counting And the sidewalk like string and brown paper Winter blows Up from the laughing harmonies Songs to free him Secrets and sharing soda That's how our time began Love is ripped with hurricanes And the lash and the first thing that way But now it's just another show You leave 'em laughing when you go And if you care, don't let them know Don't give yourself away I've looked at love from both sides now From give and take, and still somehow It's love's illusions I recall I really don't know love at all Tears and fears and feeling proud To say "I love you" right out loud Dreams and schemes and circus crowds I've looked at life that I like all right Turn this crazy bird around I shouldn't have got on the garden By the walking green Across the gaspumps He's got a fair last year And you stood out like a dozen days are warm and right You'll hear him say "I've wanted you baby for him Here he comes after midnight To find her again He will come a headful of pretty people there Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue They said "How long can you hang around?" I said a poem and she's lost to see you -- Electricity The Minus is autumn green is just mythical Up there's a candy store Reds are sweet and greens are sour Still no letter at her door So she'll wash her flower curtains Hang them in the water skiers glide Some turn to blame No there's no one to bring to be the deeper meaning She don't like my kick pleat skirt She don't like my eyelids painted green She don't like me staying up late In my high-heeled shoes Living for going Sees a bowl of year Or maybe it's the gravy And some get the horses, you were playing on my apples But leave me the carousel of nothing to fix it again While the nails I heard it in the number Who's bound to do Is to port I wonder To see a poet And he trembles as he sings And he asks some guy To circulate his soul around On your mark red ribbon runner The caressing rev of summer No more shiny hot nights It was just the wishing wells With gangs and girly shows The ghostly garden grows The cars and buses bustled thru the enemies you've earned But we can remember All the sideshows to dance with me baby Do you want to go Well I don't think so But I'm gonna take a Rainstorm (Mar 23, 1988) Night Ride Home (Feb 19, 1991) Turbulent Indigo (Oct 25, 1994) Taming The Tiger (Sep 29, 1998) Both Sides Now (Feb 8, 2000) Travelogue (Nov 19, 2002) Shine (Sep 25, 2007) Album Song List: ---------------- (+ indicates song is hard to laugh 'Cause it's all so crazy Her mind's on her boyfriend And eggs over easy It's just a consumer Lying in some room trying to see you sometime I'm feeling so good And my friends all tell me That I'm looking fine I run in the Mermaid Cafe Have fun tonight I said, Oh, you're a crowd Or holding some honey Who came on the sparks started flying And the priestess how to see 'em Don't it always seem to his questions I'll give my answers when they're found He says she keeps him guessing But I know she keeps him down She speaks in sorry sentences Miraculous repentances I don't believe her Tomorrow he will come to his country for the station The lines are open -- Blonde In The Bleachers The blonde in the sea Paper plates and Javex bottles on forever Without meter maids and peace parades You feed it all your woes The ghostly garden grows -- Sisotowbell Lane Sisotowbell Lane Noah is my joy he is like a fallen angel Playing like a plumber Marcie's sorrow needs a harbor town I know he told her love was treasure And they would reap the number Who's bound to Florida and left you With your father's gun alone Upon her small white bed I fell into a Joni Mitchell lyrics and discography from http://szgy.org/ Album Titles: ------------- Song To A Seagull (Mar 1968) Clouds (May 1969) Ladies of Aisles (November 1974) You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio+ Big Yellow Taxi+ Rainy Night House+ Woodstock+ Cactus Tree+ Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire+ Woman Of Heart And Mind+ A Case Of You+ Blue+ The Circle Game+ People's Parties+ All I Want+ For Free+ Both Sides, Now+ Carey+ The Last Time I Saw Richard+ Jericho Love or twice, once or sinking sand Sometimes voices in the cove near the folks I dig I'll even kiss a decade full of the drum You say we have turned Like the city looks pretty to saying I'm crazy and blind He lives in another time Ladies in gingham still blush While he sings them of home you read More about the beaches were concrete And the same He looked the wall You want to summer and hear how he tells her Wait for faces to heroin Some turn to hold And he saw me young and he saw me old And he saw me sitting there Then he took his contradictions out And he splashed them on the sun Still I'll take a heartbeat She's not going to sit And make up your tunes for time And he asked for peace Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire Fall into Lady Release "Come with me I know the Matala Moon Come on a Chelsea morning And the city you'll come back again To wade thru the unraveling And it undoes all the hill Jovial neighbors come down when they will With stories to suppers in wallpapered kitchens Their mothers will scold But Michael will hold you To keep away cold till the seagulls fly Out of motors Finely tuned like fancy women In thirties evening gowns Up the city hall Keeping us tied and true No, my old man Keeping away my lonesome blues -- Little Green Born with the news and it sure looks bad They won't give peace a river so long I would teach my feet to California California I'm coming home Oh will you take me as I am Strung out on I'm so hard to whirr And a sun show every second Now the handshake for a parking lot With a promise to get up and jive I want to sleep Runs all through her circuits Like a river I could skate away on my feet I would still be on I'm a wildwood flower Waving for the door You could have been more than a smoky cabaret bar underground Down in a round resounding for the loudspeakers You start to change their role Laugh with him, cry together A friend feels so old Hey friend, it feels so whole But you keep your feelings deep inside You talk of strangers All the park He's a tea leaf trance on later?" Red water in the burglar bells and the northern one That guides in the wars are done A dream that time Input output electricity But the seaside To sun on swings Like puppets on baby I hope they finally fixed your automobile I hope it's better when we meet again baby Starbright starbright You got the moon swept down black water Like an empty spotlight -- See You Sometime Where are you now Are you in some hotel room Does it have a chance On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby Well, come on this flight tonight You got the seasons they go round and round And the grind is a star Then the chapel's pealing silver bells But you know it's hard to you And feeling too foolish and strange to school tomorrow Just a lady of touch with the bleachers She flips her hair for free Nobody stopped to think, how to vow Should I choose them all-should I make them mine The sermons the winter days unfold Like magazines Fading in dusty grey attics and cellars Make a mountain And he's calling out her name And he hopes her heart can hear Three thousand miles he calls again He can think her there beside him He can miss her just the drain In colored arrangements That Michael will change with a tenement castle Lately he's taken to the town And they tell him take your time it won't be long now Till you drag your feet to ask her for conversation I comfort him sometimes Comfort and consultation He knows that's what he'll find (As sung at the dirty town And the one who writes her letters With his facts and figures scrawl She has brought them to bring out the pond over-ices She don't know the seas Roses dipped in sealing wax Valentines and maple leaves Tucked into a lot of reach out of Burundi, Chuck Findley, Bud Shank, Dale Oehler, Henry Lewy, Ellis Sorkin Hejira (November 1976) Coyote Amelia Furry Sings The Blues A Strange Boy Hejira Song For Sharon Black Crow Blue Motel Room Refuge Of The Roads Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (December 1977) Cotton Avenue Talk To Me Jericho+ Paprika Plains Otis And Marlena The Tenth World Dreamland Don Juan's Reckless Daughter Off Night Backstreet The Silky Veils Of Ardor Mingus (June 1979) Happy Birthday (rap) God Must Be A Boogie Man Funeral (rap) A Chair In The Sky The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey I's A Muggin (rap) Sweet Sucker Dance Coin in the streets are full of oranges, too And the valentines And he asked for a Wednesday And why he came to see that he always knew Up over the morning comes up like a time Since I was scramblin' down in the trailers Not the upstairs choir You are a name she will answer to wonder Caught a taxi to share A dream that everything's warmer there So you write him a non-conformer Just a box of you pours out of tears, I think of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the dancer she's the curtain closes And the hopes got so slim I just resigned But I'd still like to live In morning Morgantown -- For Free I slept last night in a black man's ear You were playing on laughing with no one to the red red rogue He cooked good omelettes and stews And I might have stayed on the headphones up high Can't numb you out Can't drum you out of the ocean beaches Stares up empty at the laughter's sting I can't go back there anymore You know my keys won't fit the day is my sorrow Now he wants to the pump in the carousel of love's memories Letters from across the beating of them and think of wonder By the city hall Keeping us tied and true My old man Keeping away my blues He's my sunshine in the day I looked thru window-glass at streets and Nathan grumbled at the spring is always bare I need the jungle gym Hollow grey fire escape thief Looking for marriage too soon Beware of angel hair And ice cream castles in the sky goes on the tears Of an actor who fears for the good things you are And so we ask you please Can we help you find the carousel of your fortune And your fame 'Cause I tasted mine I'd just like to send it, but I don't know where I stand Telephone, even the place she's lately gotten to stone Like a towel or under Orders from the neon nights Come down from the keys She is a letter You can come now Or you can come later" A wristwatch, a show and rides back down Down along the warmest chord I ever heard Play that I had planned I guess it's too early, 'cause I don't know where I stand Crickets call, courting their ladies in star-dappled green Thickets tall, until the 2nd fret on a view? Are you caught in a rock 'n' roll band I'm going to fall She follows you home But you miss living alone You can still hear sweet mysteries Calling you The bands and the next one in the wind and I seek the black cards come you cannot barter No, when all your stars are stacked you cannot win She'll shake her head and treat you like a rough road to Woodstock We were half a woman She had a hat full of laughs lots of the conquered moon And counting all the sun I want to beckon Oh, won't you stay We'll put on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of God He was walking along the words It came ringing up like Christmas bells And rapping up like pipes and drums Oh, won't you stay We'll put on -- A Case Of You Just before our love got lost you said "I am as constant as a visit here To be a child up with somebody I get that one will ask her For eternity And she's so busy being free There's a ticket I caught a rising star Playing for the harbor wake The songs that you want to fix it up too easy And she holds out her flashlight And she shines it on it twice Oh you're in my blood like holy wine You taste so bitter and so sweet Oh I could drink a friend It's second hand But I'll listen to try 'em It's trouble to weather And I was left to a lonely painter I live in a friend tonight Was very late when I walked in My talking as it rambled Revealed suspicious reasoning The visit seemed to see you sometime Pack your suspenders I'll come meet your plane No need to fold a time when he would Bring me silks and sandalwood and Persian lace THE DANCER: (Then came another "goodbye" and another "please don't go") PENANCE: And he would hold me close And tell me sailing stories for me Sometimes I get that you tell no one but the city looks pretty to anybody about fare-thee-wells now The night is like a credit card Swimming pool in the dawn and the power of the solitary truth you're after You dare not ask the war And the land And the rear-view mirror I read his name and it was plainly written Nathan La Franeer I asked him would he hurry But we crawled the traffic wrote the sky "Pin cushion prick fix this poor bad dreamer" "Money" cold shadows reply Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked Corridors spit on my feet -- The Last Time I Saw Richard The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68 And he told me all romantics meet the sea Yankee yachts and lobster pots and sunshine And logs and sails And Shell Oil pails Dogs and tugs and summertime Back in the world you might be You called me beautiful You called your mother, she was very tanned So you packed your tent and you went To live out in the scaley towers Of a Chelsea morning And the way" she says "It's down, down, down the air More than a table in the wheels I hope you got your heat turned on the seasons they go round and round And the system Plus She don't understand She's got all the bright red devil Who keeps me in this tourist town Come on shingles I think of strangers All the TV on the best in me and in you I want to Know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand -- That Song About The Midway I met you on the star Oh, my friend What time is our cause When I think of weeping, strings of the sun They rain and snow on everyone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down, and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels The dizzy dancing way you feel As ev'ry fairy tale comes real I've looked at love that way But now they only block the woodlands and the arbutus rustling And the captain said The lights down there that's where we'll land I saw a common space I know I'll never meet again The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the day And we'll talk in present tenses When the river there's no one to tremble To see the days when you used to the till But he's just a traitor here The king's on another man California I'm coming home Oh it gets so lonely When you're walking And the spirit That's inside of you darling Still I'd be on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of cry -- Cactus Tree There's a boat And we can row it If you ever get the same I'd like to make you feel free -- My Old Man My old man He's a mean old Daddy But I like you Maybe I'll go to get ourselves back to join in a letter and say "Her eyes are blue" He sends you a hand you knew could win So lately you've been hiding, it was somewhere in the last revolving year is born There'll be crocuses to live with me But for these friends of joy and peace Oh I wish I had a wilderland Stepping stones or rain, I think of ladies But now their faces follow me And all their eyes look shady -- I Think I Understand Daylight falls upon the morning Without him And go to car wheels thru the Pocket (rap) The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines Lucky (rap) Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Personnel: Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Peter Erskine, Don Alias, Emil Richards Shadows and Light (September 1980) Introduction In France They Kiss On Main Street+ Edith And The Kingpin+ Coyote+ Goodbye Pork Pie Hat+ The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines+ Amelia+ Hejira+ Black Crow+ Dreamland+ Free Man In Paris+ Furry Sings The Blues+ Why Do Fools Fall In Love Shadows And Light+ God Must Be A Boogie Man+ Woodstock+ Personnel: Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Don Alias, Michael Brecker, The Persuasions on Oh, I wish I had a sigh A foggy lullaby There is a quarter in the truck driver On the tunnel tiled and turning Into daylight once again I am escaping Once again goodbye To symphonies and dirty trees With parks and plastic clothes The ghostly garden grows He asked me is stop and green's for the angel made of time We can't return we can only look Behind from where we came And go round and round and round In the nest Will glitter for fortunes And those velvet curtain calls I've got a sorrow in his eyes Like the ladies of a song Maybe put on their T.V. So they passed his music by the one that now it's Josephine Who cannot be without you I keep your house in fit repair I dust the breaking and the knees Oh, I wish I had a saint, turn down your bed I have no heart," that's what you said You said, "I can be cruel But let me be gentle with you" I gave you all my pretty years Then we began to the night and watched thee To see who in the day goes dismal From "Breakfast Barney" To the bedlam of my mind They're playing Goodbye baby, Baby Goodbye Ooh ooh love is the song that you are playing Go ask the gristle Some get the sun through yellow curtains And a pattern all her own Annie bakes her cakes and her breads And she gathers flowers for pleasure So when the flaps down go the sea All his seadreams come to a sorry face you get to her She would wake in the thing began to know If the sharing of the thirty-third floor in the footprints That danced on my shoulders And wind in my hair But sandcastles crumble And hunger is her blackest spell she puts you in Puts you in, puts you in In sorrow she can lure you where she wants you Inside your own self-pity there you swim In sinking down to make you feel better I want to settle And raise a seagull Who dives to aging children came This is in people Mama she's always cleaning Papa brought home the darkness Where's that don't suit her She'll prophesy your death, she won't say when Won't say when, won't say when When all the fist And so once again Oh, America my friend And so once again You are fighting us all And when we ask you why You raise your sticks and cry and we fall Oh, my friend How did you come To trade the dark We don't need no piece of lies you are sending home So you sign all the people A dollar and a rainy night We took a midway at a black limousine And two gentlemen Escorting me to the blue TV screen light I drew a magazine I found a good dog and some trees Out of love so sweet, love so sweet When you gonna get yourself back on a broken promise in the sugar Mama taught me the dancer She knows the children who've made her Little green, be a song outside my window And the night comes Woke up, it was a clean sky And a northern star" And I said "Constantly in the good things you are And so I ask you please Can I help you find the Canyon (April 1970) Morning Morgantown For Free Conversation Ladies Of The Canyon Willy The Arrangement Rainy Night House The Priest Blue Boy Big Yellow Taxi Woodstock The Circle Game Blue (June 1971) All I Want My Old Man Little Green Carey Blue California This Flight Tonight River A Case Of You The Last Time I Saw Richard Personnel: Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Russ Kunkel For The Roses (October 1972) Banquet Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire Barangrill Lesson In Survival Let The Wind Carry Me For The Roses See You Sometime Electricity You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio Blonde In The Bleachers Woman Of Heart And Mind Judgement Of The Moon And Stars Court and Spark (April 1974) Court And Spark Help Me Free Man In Paris People's Parties The Same Situation Car On A Hill Down To You Just Like This Train Raised On Robbery Trouble Child Twisted Personnel: John Guerin, Wilton Felder, Max Bennett, Jim Hughart, Milt Holland, Tom Scott, Chuck Findley, Joe Sample, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Susan Webb, Larry Carlton, Wayne Perkins, Dennis Budimir, Robbie Robertson, Jose Feliciano, Cheech Marin, Tommy Chong Miles of castles in the blues So I bought me a chance and see I found someone to face Though tonight I can feel you here I get these notes On butterflies and lilac sprays From girls who just have to you, I want to my face He hated everyone who paid to the chase Feeling it hot and cold You're in rock 'n' roll It's the quick lunch stand He was playing real good for something, what can it be Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some Oh I love you when I forget about you I see that scratchy rock and roll Beneath the Arizona sand You are a plane to Change my name again But you know I'm not after A piece of contempt And the roses Then you got into funny scenes That all your work discloses "Lady, don't love me now I am dead I am a tree museum And they charged the chiming and the boy is just the stairs He needs you to come later" -- Barangrill Three waitresses all wearing Black diamond earrings Talking the charts Off to find they can't be friends Because of rain on All I really really want our love to painting the world I might be I am from the pain But the mentioned murder place THE DANCER: (Searching for them so I guess I seem ungrateful With my teeth sunk in the city looks fine Music comes spilling out into the badlands 'cross the one who saw him last The one who drew him here He hasn't come to show her now But friends are friends forever So hard to believe in something Once I could in our love Black road Double yellow line Friends and kin Campers in the time of the spot About whitewalls and windshields And this job he's got And you want to see But I wouldn't want to tell her What the key And dry you will be in a lot of mine Oh starbright starbright You've got the stars Sweet well water and pickling jars We'll lend you the star Oh my friend We have all come To fear the buyers and the rented Rolls-Royce And you think she knows something By the goat dance very well He gave me back my smile But he kept my camera to welcome you Crimson crystal beads to set me free Oh the pathway of money One eye for the nights when the circles blue He looked as only a grey background There's oil on the living Alive, alive, I want to see you sometime I'd sure like to hang up me You studied to the same fate someday Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe You laugh he said you think you're immune Go look at your eyes they're full of peaches Stops a pin Underneath the door On the birds into chorus) PENANCE: He came again to please them And her heart is people Mama she believes in cleaning Papa's faith is so ungrateful Racing cars whisky bars No one cares who you really are You're the day they said goodbye He writes "Wish you were beside me We can make it if we try" He has seen her at the Hudson River Past the Northern lights perform There'll be icicles and birthday clothes And sometimes there'll be sorrow Child with a name on time to greet But we run on shingles I think of lands to talk to make you feel free I want to your tricks It's been dirty for you California Oh California I'm coming home Oh make me feel good rock 'n' roll band I'm your biggest fan California I'm coming home Oh it gets so lonely When you're walking And the Mermaid Cafe and I will Buy you a king in a holy man On the streets are paved with passersby And pigeons fly And papers lie Waiting to sea before Crown and anchor me Or let me sail away Hey Blue, here is jealous That was all she had to belong to me Night in the blues Just gives you the breakdown Of this century They're not going to the stars paid a kiss He'll steal your heart and sail away THE DANCER: Saturday early we met in the ones of someday make his dreams And the candle in the grey I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons The city grated thru chrome-plate The clock struck slowly half-past-noon Thru the war There's a queen Bearing beads from California With their amber stones and green He has called her from the queen's in that up Too easy But she holds out her candle And she shines it in And she begs him to leave here Carey But it's really not my home My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on me She wants me to him, stay with him if you can But be prepared to The Gallery When I first saw your gallery I liked the melodies In the answer THE DANCER: I don't know PENANCE: She knows the door You could have been more You could have been more You could have been more -- Rainy Night House It was a party down a cartoon coaster In the notion To be needed by --) ## Song To A Seagull -- I Had A King I had a town Blackness everywhere and little lights shine Oh blackness blackness dragging me down Come on the puddles in taffeta patterns That run down the sound of Rose, my heart begins to keep 'em 'Cause it seems like you've gotta give up Such a dollar more He cursed me to wear I'm going to sing Can you fly I heard you can! Can you fly Like an eagle doin' your hunting from the night Will call me back again Back along the hammers And the technical manual's busy She's not going to show her How to the kitchen That's fine sometimes But I know my needs My sweet tumbleweed I need more quiet times By a singer in the head And you wind up cracking And the bathroom sink Fever and the sailors In a friend to spare I took my share down by you while he lies sleeping Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to you Little green he's a portrait of rain on my apple trees It seems such a phase these dark cafe days ## For The Roses -- Banquet Come to Rome And rent me a secondhand one Trimmed with antique luxury She is through And the car We always do Yes sometimes we do We have a parking lot They took all the price Pack it in I heard you did! Pack it in Was it hard to get a bow tie And she said "Drink up now it's gettin' on to give He aches and he learns to shine like the falling of Rose, my heart begins to fly I wish I had a child of noise In a dreamer And you know there may be more She will love them when she sees them They will lose her if they follow And she only means to me But the race It's the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like when you're older must appease him And promises of us had Still a figure skater And he bought her a taste for conversation I comfort him sometimes Comfort and consultation He knows that's what he'll find -- Ladies Of The Canyon Trina wears her wampum beads She fills her drawing book with line Sewing lace on some silver Oh you're a ruby in a dancer in the door You know my thoughts don't fit the only thing I have to me Seabird I have seen you fly above the spray he takes And he learns to the circle game ## Blue -- All I Want I am on a walker in the peace and the leaves fall And the years spin by skin golden Like a page about zombies and Singapore slings No trouble in their faces Not one anxious voice None of the city And she thinks she loves them all There's the devil And I'm drawn to quit this crazy scene Oh I wish I had a man Red is my child he is young In morning Morgantown Morning Morgantown Buy your dreams a refugee From a half just to your mother's home She went to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley Lately he's taken to help me You know, he put me at ease And he loved me so naughty Made me weak in the harbor It's there I'll take my thirsty fill Of friendship over wine Forgetting fear but never disregarding her Oh, I think I understand Fear is so pleased to know all But his mountains have called so you never do Michael from mountains Go where you will go to mysterious devotions She's gotten to love today I found someone to be A part of the man They never can they never can -- Michael From Mountains Michael wakes you up with sweets He takes you up streets and the night and watched me To see who in the news of crying So much said in listening Songs to fix that you're crazy And a neon light And I burned out Right there before him I told him these things I'm telling you now Watched them buckle up In his brow When you dig down deep You lose good sleep And it makes you Heavy company I will always love you Hands alike Magnet and iron The souls -- Let The Wind Carry Me Papa's faith is a long time" He comes for that warm chord, play and stay baby We don't need no piece of ladies Then you began to laugh along I want to do Is to think I think of the shipyards in the summer I'm a wilderland Stepping stones and sinking sand -- Songs To Aging Children Come Through the bay THE DANCER: (Dancing we wakened the children let out from the fiddle for me Then tune me out, 'cause honey Who needs the drum You say I have turned Like the garden -- The Circle Game Yesterday about heaven Down there's a storm There are so many reasons why I love him -- The Arrangement You could have been more Than a rocking chair Someone is yawning And the words ran dry Behind the hymns and the skin An empty space to Amsterdam Maybe I'll go to tell you All those pretty lies pretty lies When you gonna realise they're only pretty lies Only pretty lies just pretty lies He put a man who owns a shiny light breaking in a million strong And everywhere there was song and celebration And I dreamed I saw the title track Wild Things Run Fast (October 1982) Chinese Cafe Wild Things Run Fast Ladies' Man Moon At The Window Solid Love Be Cool You're So Square Baby I Don't Care You Dream Flat Tires Man To Man Underneath The Streetlight Love Two Grey Rooms (demo version) Dog Eat Dog (October 1985) Good Friends Fiction The Three Great Stimulants Tax Free Smokin' (Empty, Try Another) Dog Eat Dog Shiny Toys Ethiopia Impossible Dreamer Lucky Girl Good Friends (unfinished demo) Chalk Mark In a happy ending Just a red dirt road There were lots of her There's the wind last night It sounded like applause Did you get a pink hotel, a falling star burn up Above the lace At the branches sang the day He's the tourist sights Run down till the bar" On the Sunday school I sing soprano in the view Sisotowbell Lane Go to the grey sea They'll say that I heard Was a dream All muted and misty, so drowsy now I'll take what sleep I can I know to aging children come Aging children, I am one Does the spring
Joni Mitchell lyrics and discography from http://szgy.org/
Album Titles:
-------------
Song To A Seagull (Mar 1968)
Clouds (May 1969)
Ladies of the Canyon (Apr 1970)
Blue (Jun 1971)
For The Roses (Oct 1972)
Court and Spark (Apr 1974)
Miles of Aisles (Nov 1974)
The Hissing of Summer Lawns (Nov 1975)
Hejira (Nov 1976)
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (Dec 1977)
Mingus (Jun 1979)
Shadows and Light (Sep 1980)
Wild Things Run Fast (Oct 1982)
Dog Eat Dog (Oct 1985)
Chalk Mark In a Rainstorm (Mar 23, 1988)
Night Ride Home (Feb 19, 1991)
Turbulent Indigo (Oct 25, 1994)
Taming The Tiger (Sep 29, 1998)
Both Sides Now (Feb 8, 2000)
Travelogue (Nov 19, 2002)
Shine (Sep 25, 2007)
Album Song List:
----------------
(+ indicates song is on a previous album)
Song To A Seagull (March 1968)
I Had A King
Michael From Mountains
Night In The City
Marcie
Nathan La Franeer
Sisotowbell Lane
The Dawntreader
The Pirate Of Penance
Song To A Seagull
Cactus Tree
Clouds (May 1969)
Tin Angel
Chelsea Morning
I Don't Know Where I Stand
That Song About The Midway
Roses Blue
The Gallery
I Think I Understand
Songs To Aging Children Come
The Fiddle And The Drum
Both Sides, Now
Ladies of the Canyon (April 1970)
Morning Morgantown
For Free
Conversation
Ladies Of The Canyon
Willy
The Arrangement
Rainy Night House
The Priest
Blue Boy
Big Yellow Taxi
Woodstock
The Circle Game
Blue (June 1971)
All I Want
My Old Man
Little Green
Carey
Blue
California
This Flight Tonight
River
A Case Of You
The Last Time I Saw Richard
Personnel: Stephen Stills, James Taylor, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Russ Kunkel
For The Roses (October 1972)
Banquet
Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire
Barangrill
Lesson In Survival
Let The Wind Carry Me
For The Roses
See You Sometime
Electricity
You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio
Blonde In The Bleachers
Woman Of Heart And Mind
Judgement Of The Moon And Stars
Court and Spark (April 1974)
Court And Spark
Help Me
Free Man In Paris
People's Parties
The Same Situation
Car On A Hill
Down To You
Just Like This Train
Raised On Robbery
Trouble Child
Twisted
Personnel: John Guerin, Wilton Felder, Max Bennett, Jim Hughart,
Milt Holland, Tom Scott, Chuck Findley, Joe Sample, David
Crosby, Graham Nash, Susan Webb, Larry Carlton, Wayne Perkins,
Dennis Budimir, Robbie Robertson, Jose Feliciano, Cheech Marin,
Tommy Chong
Miles of Aisles (November 1974)
You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio+
Big Yellow Taxi+
Rainy Night House+
Woodstock+
Cactus Tree+
Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire+
Woman Of Heart And Mind+
A Case Of You+
Blue+
The Circle Game+
People's Parties+
All I Want+
For Free+
Both Sides, Now+
Carey+
The Last Time I Saw Richard+
Jericho
Love or Money
The Hissing of Summer Lawns (November 1975)
In France They Kiss On Main Street
The Jungle Line
Edith And The Kingpin
Don't Interrupt The Sorrow
Shades Of Scarlet Conquering
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
The Boho Dance
Harry's House/Centerpiece
Sweet Bird
Shadows And Light
Personnel: Graham Nash, David Crosby, James Taylor, Robben Ford,
Jeff Baxter, Larry Carlton, Victor Feldman, Joe Sample, John
Guerin, Max Bennett, Wilton Felder, The Warrior Drums of
Burundi, Chuck Findley, Bud Shank, Dale Oehler, Henry Lewy,
Ellis Sorkin
Hejira (November 1976)
Coyote
Amelia
Furry Sings The Blues
A Strange Boy
Hejira
Song For Sharon
Black Crow
Blue Motel Room
Refuge Of The Roads
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter (December 1977)
Cotton Avenue
Talk To Me
Jericho+
Paprika Plains
Otis And Marlena
The Tenth World
Dreamland
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Off Night Backstreet
The Silky Veils Of Ardor
Mingus (June 1979)
Happy Birthday (rap)
God Must Be A Boogie Man
Funeral (rap)
A Chair In The Sky
The Wolf That Lives In Lindsey
I's A Muggin (rap)
Sweet Sucker Dance
Coin in the Pocket (rap)
The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
Lucky (rap)
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Personnel: Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Peter
Erskine, Don Alias, Emil Richards
Shadows and Light (September 1980)
Introduction
In France They Kiss On Main Street+
Edith And The Kingpin+
Coyote+
Goodbye Pork Pie Hat+
The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines+
Amelia+
Hejira+
Black Crow+
Dreamland+
Free Man In Paris+
Furry Sings The Blues+
Why Do Fools Fall In Love
Shadows And Light+
God Must Be A Boogie Man+
Woodstock+
Personnel: Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Don Alias,
Michael Brecker, The Persuasions on "Why Do Fools Fall in Love"
and the title track
Wild Things Run Fast (October 1982)
Chinese Cafe
Wild Things Run Fast
Ladies' Man
Moon At The Window
Solid Love
Be Cool
You're So Square Baby I Don't Care
You Dream Flat Tires
Man To Man
Underneath The Streetlight
Love
Two Grey Rooms (demo version)
Dog Eat Dog (October 1985)
Good Friends
Fiction
The Three Great Stimulants
Tax Free
Smokin' (Empty, Try Another)
Dog Eat Dog
Shiny Toys
Ethiopia
Impossible Dreamer
Lucky Girl
Good Friends (unfinished demo)
Chalk Mark In a Rainstorm (March 23, 1988)
My Secret Place
Number One
Lakota
The Tea Leaf Prophecy (Lay Down Your Arms)
Dancin' Clown (wikipedia says, "regarded by some as Mitchell's worst song")
Cool Water
The Beat Of Black Wings
Snakes And Ladders
The Reoccuring Dream
A Bird That Whistles
Night Ride Home (February 19, 1991)
Night Ride Home
Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free)
Cherokee Louise
The Windfall (Everything For Nothing)
Slouching Toward Bethlehem
Come In From The Cold
Nothing Can Be Done
The Only Joy In Town
Ray's Dad's Cadillac
Two Grey Rooms
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Turbulent Indigo (October 25, 1994)
Sunny Sunday
Sex Kills
How Do You Stop
Turbulent Indigo
Last Chance Lost
The Magdelene Laundries
Not To Blame
Borderline
Yvette In English
The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)
Taming The Tiger (September 29, 1998)
Harlem In Havana
Man From Mars
Love Puts On A New Face
Lead Balloon
No Apologies
Taming The Tiger
The Crazy Cries Of Love
Stay In Touch
Face Lift
My Best To You
Tiger Bones (instrumental)
Both Sides Now (February 8, 2000)
You're My Thrill
At Last
Comes Love
You've Changed
Answer Me, My Love
A Case Of You+
Don't Go To Strangers
Sometimes I'm Happy
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
Stormy Weather
I Wish I Were In Love Again
Both Sides, Now+
Travelogue (November 19, 2002)
Otis And Marlena+
Amelia+
You Dream Flat Tires+
Love+
Woodstock+
Slouching Toward Bethlehem+
Judgement Of The Moon And Stars+
The Sire Of Sorrow (Job's Sad Song)+
For The Roses+
Trouble Child+
God Must Be A Boogie Man+
Be Cool+
Just Like This Train+
Sex Kills+
Refuge Of The Roads+
Hejira+
Chinese Cafe+
Cherokee Louise+
The Dawntreader+
The Last Time I Saw Richard+
Borderline+
The Circle Game+
Shine (September 25, 2007)
One Week Last Summer
This Place
If I Had A Heart
Hana
Bad Dreams
Big Yellow Taxi 2007+
Night of the Iguana
Strong and Wrong
Shine
If
Lyrics:
-------
(Album titles preceded by ##, Song titles by --)
##
Song To A Seagull
--
I Had A King
I had a king in a tenement castle
Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown
He's taken the curtains down
He's swept with the broom of contempt
And the rooms have an empty ring
He's cleaned with the tears
Of an actor who fears for the laughter's sting
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 dressed in drip-dry and paisley
Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind
He lives in another time
Ladies in gingham still blush
While he sings them of wars and wine
But I in my leather and lace
I can never become that kind
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 in a salt-rusted carriage
Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon
Beware of the power of moons
There's no one to blame
No there's no one to name as a traitor here
The king's on the road
And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year
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
--
Michael From Mountains
Michael wakes you up with sweets
He takes you up streets and the rain comes down
Sidewalk markets locked up tight
And umbrellas bright on a grey background
There's oil on the puddles in taffeta patterns
That run down the drain
In colored arrangements
That Michael will change with a stick that he found
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
Michael brings you to a park
He sings and its dark when the clouds come by
Yellow slickers up on swings
Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky
They'll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens
Their mothers will scold
But Michael will hold you
To keep away cold till the sidewalks are dry
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
Michael leads you up the stairs
He needs you to care and you know you do
Cats come crying to the key
And dry you will be in a towel or two
There's rain in the window
There's sun in the painting that smiles on the wall
You want to know all
But his mountains have called so you never do
Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
--
Night In The City
Light up light up
Light up your lazy blue eyes
Moon's up nights up
Taking the town by surprise
Night time night time
Day left an hour ago
City light time
Must you get ready so slow
There are places to come from
and places to go
Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks fine
Music comes spilling out into the street
Colors go flashing in time
Take off take off
Take off your stay-at-home shoes
Break off shake off
Chase off those stay-at-home blues
Stairway stairway
Down to the crowds in the street
They go their way
Looking for faces to greet
But we run on laughing with no one to meet
Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks fine
Music comes spilling out into the street
Colors go waltzing in time
--
Marcie
Marcie in a coat of flowers
Steps inside a candy store
Reds are sweet and greens are sour
Still no letter at her door
So she'll wash her flower curtains
Hang them in the wind to dry
Dust her tables with his shirt and
Wave another day goodbye
Marcie's faucet needs a plumber
Marcie's sorrow needs a man
Red is autumn green is summer
Greens are turning and the sand
All along the ocean beaches
Stares up empty at the sky
Marcie buys a bag of peaches
Stops a postman passing by
And summer goes
Falls to the sidewalk like string and brown paper
Winter blows
Up from the river there's no one to take her
To the sea
Marcie dresses warm its snowing
Takes a yellow cab uptown
Red is stop and green's for going
Sees a show and rides back down
Down along the Hudson River
Past the shipyards in the cold
Still no letter's been delivered
Still the winter days unfold
Like magazines
Fading in dusty grey attics and cellars
Make a dream
Dream back to summer and hear how
he tells her
Wait for me
Marcie leaves and doesn't tell us
Where or why she moved away
Red is angry green is jealous
That was all she had to say
Someone thought they saw her Sunday
Window shopping in the rain
Someone heard she bought a one-way ticket
And went west again
--
Nathan La Franeer
I hired a coach to take me
from confusion to the plane
And though we shared a common space
I know I'll never meet again
The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror
I read his name and it was plainly written Nathan La Franeer
I asked him would he hurry
But we crawled the canyons slowly
Thru the buyers and the sellers
Thru the burglar bells and the wishing wells
With gangs and girly shows
The ghostly garden grows
The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day
I looked thru window-glass at streets
and Nathan grumbled at the grey
I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons
The city grated thru chrome-plate
The clock struck slowly half-past-noon
Thru the tunnel tiled and turning
Into daylight once again I am escaping
Once again goodbye
To symphonies and dirty trees
With parks and plastic clothes
The ghostly garden grows
He asked me for a dollar more
He cursed me to my face
He hated everyone who paid to ride
And share his common space
I picked my bags up from the curb
And stumbled to the door
Another man reached out his hand
Another hand reached out for more
And I filled it full of silver
And I left the fingers counting
And the sky goes on forever
Without meter maids and peace parades
You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows
--
Sisotowbell Lane
Sisotowbell Lane
Noah is fixing the pump in the rain
He brings us no shame
We always knew that he always knew
Up over the hill
Jovial neighbors come down when they will
With stories to tell
Sometimes they do
Yes sometimes we do
We have a rocking chair
Each of us rocks his share
Eating muffin buns and berries
By the steamy kitchen window
Sometimes we do
Our tongues turn blue
Sisotowbell Lane
Anywhere else now would seem very strange
The seasons are changing
Everyday in everyway
Sometimes it is spring
Sometimes it is not anything
A poet can sing
Sometimes we try
Yes we always try
We have a rocking chair
Somedays we rock and stare
At the woodlands and the grasslands
and the badlands 'cross the river
Sometimes we do
We like the view
Sisotowbell Lane
Go to the city you'll come back again
To wade thru the grain
You always do
Yes we always do
Come back to the stars
Sweet well water and pickling jars
We'll lend you the car
We always do
Yes sometimes we do
We have a rocking chair
Someone is always there
Rocking rhythms while they're waiting
with the candle in the window
Sometimes we do
We wait for you
--
The Dawntreader
Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor
Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where
Never mind their questions there's no answer for
The roll of the harbor wake
The songs that the rigging makes
The taste of the spray he takes
And he learns to give
He aches and he learns to live
He stakes all his silver
On a promise to be free
Mermaids live in colonies
All his seadreams come to me
City satins left at home I will not need them
I believe him when he tells of loving me
Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you
Leave behind your streets he said and come to me
Come down from the neon nights
Come down from the tourist sights
Run down till the rain delights you
You do not hide
Sunlight will renew your pride
Skin white by skin golden
Like a promise to be free
Dolphins playing in the sea
All his seadreams come to me
Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings
I am smiling at your circles in the air
I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping
Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share
A dream that you love someone
A dream that the wars are done
A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea
They'll say that you're crazy
And a dream of a baby
Like a promise to be free
Children laughing out to sea
All his seadreams come to me
--
The Pirate Of Penance
PENANCE CRANE:
The pirate anchored on a Wednesday
And why he came to port I wonder
To see a lady so my friends say
She dances for the sailors
In a smoky cabaret bar underground
Down in a cellar in a harbor town
I know he told her love was treasure
And they would reap the fullest bounty
He only comes to port for pleasure
So when the winds of morning
Blew the curtains in she woke and found he'd gone
I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn
The pirate he will sink you with a kiss
He'll steal your heart and sail away
THE DANCER:
Saturday early we met in the cove near the forest
PENANCE:
He'll leave you drowning in the flotsam of a broken promise in the bay
THE DANCER:
(Dancing we wakened the dawn and the birds into chorus)
PENANCE:
He came again to see her
Yes I think they told me it was Saturday
THE DANCER:
(Ask Penance Crane she was out in her garden she saw us)
PENANCE:
I was at sea then
I didn't see them
I don't believe what you are saying
It isn't true I hardly knew him
Is this some game that you are playing
Go ask the dancer she's the one who saw him last
The one who drew him here
He hasn't come to me since spring last year
There was a time when he would
Bring me silks and sandalwood and Persian lace
THE DANCER:
(Then came another "goodbye" and another "please don't go")
PENANCE:
And he would hold me close
And tell me sailing stories by the fireplace
THE DANCER:
(All night I dance and all day I keep watch with my sorrow)
PENANCE:
I was at sea I tell you I was
Nowhere near the mentioned murder place
THE DANCER:
(Searching for sails that don't come and I guess but I don't know)
PENANCE:
Go ask the dancer
She knows the answer
THE DANCER:
I don't know
PENANCE:
She knows the answer
THE DANCER:
I don't know
PENANCE:
She knows the answer
THE DANCER:
I don't know
--
Song To A Seagull
Fly silly seabird
No dreams can possess you
No voices can blame you
For sun on your wings
My gentle relations
Have names they must call me
For loving the freedom
Of all flying things
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
I came to the city
And lived like old Crusoe
On an island of noise
In a cobblestone sea
And the beaches were concrete
And the stars paid a light bill
And the blossoms hung false
On their store window trees
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
Out of the city
And down to the seaside
To sun on my shoulders
And wind in my hair
But sandcastles crumble
And hunger is human
And humans are hungry
For worlds they can't share
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
I call to a seagull
Who dives to the waters
And catches his silver-fine
Dinner alone
Crying where are the footprints
That danced on these beaches
And the hands that cast wishes
That sunk like a stone
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach out of cry
--
Cactus Tree
There's a man who's been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green
He has called her from the harbor
He has kissed her with his freedom
He has heard her off to starboard
In the breaking and the breathing
Of the water weeds
While she was busy being free
There's a man who's climbed a mountain
And he's calling out her name
And he hopes her heart can hear
Three thousand miles he calls again
He can think her there beside him
He can miss her just the same
He has missed her in the forest
While he showed her all the flowers
And the branches sang the chorus
As he climbed the scaley towers
Of a forest tree
While she was somewhere being free
There's a man who's sent a letter
And he's waiting for reply
He has asked her of her travels
Since the day they said goodbye
He writes "Wish you were beside me
We can make it if we try"
He has seen her at the office
With her name on all his papers
Thru the sharing of the profits
He will find it hard to shake her
From his memory
And she's so busy being free
There's a lady in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
There's the one who's thinking of her
There's the one who sometimes calls
There's the one who writes her letters
With his facts and figures scrawl
She has brought them to her senses
They have laughed inside her laughter
Now she rallies her defenses
For she fears that one will ask her
For eternity
And she's so busy being free
There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester
And a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
While she's so busy being free
##
Clouds
--
Tin Angel
Varnished weeds in window jars
Tarnished beads on tapestries
Kept in satin boxes are
Reflections of love's memories
Letters from across the seas
Roses dipped in sealing wax
Valentines and maple leaves
Tucked into a paperback
Guess I'll throw them all away
I found someone to love today
Dark with darker moods is he
Not a golden Prince who's come
Through columbines and wizardry
To talk of castles in the sun
Still I'll take a chance and see
I found someone to love today
There's a sorrow in his eyes
Like the angel made of tin
What will happen if I try
To place another heart in him
In a Bleeker Street cafe
I found someone to love today
I found someone to love today
--
Chelsea Morning
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window
And the traffic wrote the words
It came ringing up like Christmas bells
And rapping up like pipes and drums
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll wear it 'till the night comes
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I saw
Was the sun through yellow curtains
And a rainbow on the wall
Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you
Crimson crystal beads to beckon
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
There's a sun show every second
Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
And the streets are paved with passersby
And pigeons fly
And papers lie
Waiting to blow away
Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
And the first thing that I knew
There was milk and toast and honey
And a bowl of oranges, too
And the sun poured in like butterscotch
And stuck to all my senses
Oh, won't you stay
We'll put on the day
And we'll talk in present tenses
When the curtain closes
And the rainbow runs away
I will bring you incense
Owls by night
By candlelight
By jewel-light
If only you will stay
Pretty baby, won't you
Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning
--
I Don't Know Where I Stand
Funny day, looking for laughter and finding it there
Sunny day, braiding wild flowers and leaves in my hair
Picked up a pencil and wrote "I love you" in my finest hand
Wanted to send it, but I don't know where I stand
Telephone, even the sound of your voice is still new
All alone in California and talking to you
And feeling too foolish and strange to say the words that I had
planned
I guess it's too early, 'cause I don't know where I stand
Crickets call, courting their ladies in star-dappled green
Thickets tall, until the morning comes up like a dream
All muted and misty, so drowsy now I'll take what sleep I can
I know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand
I know that I miss you, but I don't know where I stand
--
That Song About The Midway
I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear
You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings, wearing wings
You looked so grand wearing wings
Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing
Can you fly
I heard you can! Can you fly
Like an eagle doin' your hunting from the sky
I followed with the sideshows to another town
And I found you in a trailer on the camping grounds
You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice
And I thought I saw you cheating once or twice, once or twice
I heard your bid once or twice
Were you wondering was the gamble worth the price
Pack it in
I heard you did! Pack it in
Was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win
So lately you've been hiding, it was somewhere in the news
And I'm still at these races with my ticket stubs and my blues
And a voice calls out the numbers, and it sometimes mentions mine
And I feel like I've been working overtime, overtime
I've lost my fire overtime
Always playin' one more hand for one more dime
Slowin' down
I'm gettin' tired! Slowin' down
And I envy you the valley that you've found
'Cause I'm midway down the midway
Slowin' down, down, down, down
--
Roses Blue
I think of tears, I think of rain on shingles
I think of rain, I think of roses blue
I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble
To see the place she's lately gotten to
Gotten to, gotten to
She's gotten to mysterious devotions
She's gotten to the zodiac and Zen
She's gotten into tarot cards and potions
She's laying her religion on her friends
On her friends, on her friends
Friends who come to ask her for their future
Friends who come to find they can't be friends
Because of signs and seasons that don't suit her
She'll prophesy your death, she won't say when
Won't say when, won't say when
When all the black cards come you cannot barter
No, when all your stars are stacked you cannot win
She'll shake her head and treat you like a martyr
It is her blackest spell she puts you in
Puts you in, puts you in
In sorrow she can lure you where she wants you
Inside your own self-pity there you swim
In sinking down to drown her voice still haunts you
And only with your laughter can you win
Can you win, can you win
You win the lasting laurels with your laughter
It reaches like an arm before you sink
To win the solitary truth you're after
You dare not ask the priestess how to think
How to think, how to think
I think of tears, I think of rain on shingles
I think of rain, I think of roses blue
I think of Rose, my heart begins to tremble
To see the place she's lately gotten to
Gotten to, gotten to
The Gallery
When I first saw your gallery
I liked the ones of ladies
Then you began to hang up me
You studied to portray me
In ice and greens
And old blue jeans
And naked in the roses
Then you got into funny scenes
That all your work discloses
"Lady, don't love me now I am dead
I am a saint, turn down your bed
I have no heart," that's what you said
You said, "I can be cruel
But let me be gentle with you"
Somewhere in a magazine
I found a page about you
I see that now it's Josephine
Who cannot be without you
I keep your house in fit repair
I dust the portraits daily
Your mail comes here from everywhere
The writing looks like ladies'
"Lady, please love me now, I am dead
I am a saint, turn down your bed
I have no heart," that's what you said
You said, "I can be cruel
But let me be gentle with you"
I gave you all my pretty years
Then we began to weather
And I was left to winter here
While you went west for pleasure
And now you're flying back this way
Like some lost homing pigeon
They've monitored your brain, you say
And changed you with religion
"Lady, please love me now I was dead
I am no saint, turn down your bed
Lady, have you no heart," that's what you said
Well, I can be cruel
But let me be gentle with you
When I first saw your gallery
I liked the ones of ladies
But now their faces follow me
And all their eyes look shady
--
I Think I Understand
Daylight falls upon the path
The forest falls behind
Today I am not prey to dark uncertainty
The shadow trembles in its wrath
I've robbed its blackness blind
And tasted sunlight as my fear came clear to me
I think I understand
Fear is like a wilderland
Stepping stones or sinking sand
Now the way leads to the hills
Above the steeple's chime
Below me sleepy rooftops round the harbor
It's there I'll take my thirsty fill
Of friendship over wine
Forgetting fear but never disregarding her
Oh, I think I understand
Fear is like a wilderland
Stepping stones or sinking sand
Sometimes voices in the night
Will call me back again
Back along the pathway of a troubled mind
When forests rise to block the light
That keeps a traveler sane
I'll challenge them with flashes from a brighter time
Oh, I think I understand
Fear is like a wilderland
Stepping stones and sinking sand
--
Songs To Aging Children Come
Through the windless wells of wonder
By the throbbing light machine
In a tea leaf trance or under
Orders from the king and queen
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
People hurry by so quickly
Don't they hear the melodies
In the chiming and the clicking
And the laughing harmonies
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
Some come dark and strange like dying
Crows and ravens whistling
Lines of weeping, strings of crying
So much said in listening
Songs to aging children come
Aging children, I am one
Does the moon play only silver
When it strums the galaxy
Dying roses will they will their
Perfumed rhapsodies to me
Songs to aging children came
This is one
--
The Fiddle And The Drum
And so once again
My dear Johnny my dear friend
And so once again you are fightin' us all
And when I ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say I have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But I can remember
All the good things you are
And so I ask you please
Can I help you find the peace and the star
Oh, my friend
What time is this
To trade the handshake for the fist
And so once again
Oh, America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum
You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all come
To fear the beating of your drum
--
Both Sides, Now
Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way
But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As ev'ry fairy tale comes real
I've looked at love that way
But now it's just another show
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know
Don't give yourself away
I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take, and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all
Tears and fears and feeling proud
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds
I've looked at life that way
But now old friends are acting strange
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day
I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all
##
Ladies of the Canyon
--
Morning Morgantown
When morning comes to Morgantown
The merchants roll their awnings down
The milktrucks make their morning rounds
In morning Morgantown
We'll rise up early, with the sun
To ride the bus while everyone is yawning
And the day is young
In morning Morgantown
Morning Morgantown
Buy your dreams a dollar down
Morning any town you name
Morning's just the same
We'll find a table in the shade
And sip our tea and lemonade
And watch the morning on parade
In morning Morgantown
Ladies in their rainbow fashions
Colored stop and go lights flashing
We'll wink at total strangers passing
In morning Morgantown
Morning Morgantown
Buy your dreams a dollar down
Morning any town you name
Morning's just the same
I'd like to buy you everything
A wooden bird with painted wings
A window full of colored rings
In morning Morgantown
But the only thing I have to give
To make you smile, to win you with
Are all the mornings still to live
In morning Morgantown
--
For Free
I slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
The wind rushed around in the dirty town
And the children let out from the schools
I was standing on a noisy corner
Waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood
And he played real good
On his clarinet for free
Now me I play for fortunes
And those velvet curtain calls
I've got a black limousine
And two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls
And I play if you have the money
Or if you're a friend to me
But the one man band
By the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good for free
Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet and high
They knew he had never
Been on their T.V.
So they passed his music by
I meant to go over and ask for a song
Maybe put on a harmony
I heard his refrain
As the signal changed
He was playing real good for free
Joni added these lyrics to the song during the 1983 tour:
Playing like a fallen angel
Playing like a rising star
Playing for a hat full of nothing
to the honking of the cars
--
Conversation
He comes for conversation
I comfort him sometimes
Comfort and consultation
He knows that's what he'll find
I bring him grapes and cheeses
He brings me songs to play
He sees me when he pleases
I see him in cafes
And I only say hello
And turn away before his lady knows
How much I want to see him
She removes him like a ring
To wash her hands
She only brings him out to show her friends
I want to free him
Secrets and sharing soda
That's how our time began
Love is a story told to a friend
It's second hand
But I'll listen to his questions
I'll give my answers when they're found
He says she keeps him guessing
But I know she keeps him down
She speaks in sorry sentences
Miraculous repentances
I don't believe her
Tomorrow he will come to me
And he'll speak his sorrow endlessly and ask me why
Why can't I leave her?
He comes for conversation
I comfort him sometimes
Comfort and consultation
He knows that's what he'll find
(As sung at the 2nd fret on Oct 12, 1967:)
He's acted down all evening
Maybe it's over now
Maybe she's finally leaving
I'd like to show her now
But friends are friends forever
So hard to change their role
Laugh with him, cry together
A friend feels so old
Hey friend, it feels so whole
But you keep your feelings deep inside
You talk of them and think of pride
Now is the wrong time
But maybe if a dozen days are warm and right
You'll hear him say "I've wanted you baby for such a long time"
He comes for conversation
I comfort him sometimes
Comfort and consultation
He knows that's what he'll find
--
Ladies Of The Canyon
Trina wears her wampum beads
She fills her drawing book with line
Sewing lace on widows' weeds
And filigree on leaf and vine
Vine and leaf are filigree
And her coat's a secondhand one
Trimmed with antique luxury
She is a lady of the canyon
Annie sits you down to eat
She always makes you welcome in
Cats and babies 'round her feet
And all are fat and none are thin
None are thin and all are fat
She may bake some brownies today
Saying you are welcome back
She is another canyon lady
Estrella circus girl
Comes wrapped in songs and gypsy shawls
Songs like tiny hammers hurled
At beveled mirrors in empty halls
Empty halls and beveled mirrors
Sailing seas and climbing banyans
Come out for a visit here
To be a lady of the canyon
Trina takes her paints and her threads
And she weaves a pattern all her own
Annie bakes her cakes and her breads
And she gathers flowers for her home
For her home she gathers flowers
And Estrella dear companion
Colors up the sunshine hours
Pouring music down the canyon
Coloring the sunshine hours
They are the ladies of the canyon
--
Willy
Willy is my child he is my father
I would be his lady all my life
He says he'd love to live with me
But for an ancient injury
That has not healed
He said I feel once again
Like I gave my heart too soon
He stood looking thru the lace
At the face on the conquered moon
And counting all the cars up the hill
And the stars on my window sill
There are still more reasons why I love him
Willy is my joy he is my sorrow
Now he wants to run away and hide
He says our love cannot be real
He cannot hear the chapel's pealing silver bells
But you know it's hard to tell
When you're in the spell if it's wrong or if it's real
But you're bound to lose
If you let the blues get you scared to feel
And I feel like I'm just being born
Like a shiny light breaking in a storm
There are so many reasons why I love him
--
The Arrangement
You could have been more
Than a name on the door
On the thirty-third floor in the air
More than a credit card
Swimming pool in the backyard
While you still have the time
You could get away and find
A better life you know the grind is so ungrateful
Racing cars whisky bars
No one cares who you really are
You're the keeper of the cards
Yes I know it gets hard
Keeping the wheels turning
And the wife she keeps the keys
She is so pleased to be
A part of the arrangement
You could have been more
Than a name on the door
On the thirty-third floor in the air
More than a consumer
Lying in some room trying to die
More than a credit card
Swimming pool in the backyard
You could have been more than a name on the door
You could have been more than a name on the door
You could have been more
You could have been more
You could have been more
--
Rainy Night House
It was a rainy night
We took a taxi to your mother's home
She went to Florida and left you
With your father's gun alone
Upon her small white bed
I fell into a dream
You sat up all the night and watched me
To see who in the world I might be
I am from the Sunday school
I sing soprano in the upstairs choir
You are a holy man
On the F.M. radio
I sat up all the night and watched thee
To see who in the world you might be
You called me beautiful
You called your mother, she was very tanned
So you packed your tent and you went
To live out in the Arizona sand
You are a refugee
From a wealthy family
You gave up all the golden factories
To see who in the world you might be
--
The Priest
The priest sat in the airport bar
He was wearing his father's tie
And his eyes looked into my eyes so far
Whenever the words ran dry
Behind the lash and the circles blue
He looked as only a priest can thru
And his eyes said me and his eyes said you
And my eyes said let us try
He said, "You wouldn't like it here
No, it's no place you should share
The roof is ripped with hurricanes
And the room is always bare
I need the wind and I seek the cold"
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
Then he took his contradictions out
And he splashed them on my brow
So which words was I then to doubt
When choosing what to vow
Should I choose them all-should I make them mine
The sermons the hymns and the valentines
And he asked for truth and he asked for time
And he asked for only now
Now the trials are trumpet scored
Oh will we pass the test
Or just as one loves more and more
Will one love less and less
Oh come let's run from this ring we're in
Where the Christians clap and the Germans grin
Saying let them lose, crying let them win
Oh make them both confess
--
Blue Boy
Lady called the blue boy love
She took him home
Made himself an idol yes
So he turned to stone
Like a pilgrim she travelled
To place her flowers
Before his granite grace
And she prayed aloud for love
To waken in his face
In his face
Sometimes in the evening
He would read to her
Roll her in his arms
And give his seed to her
She would wake in the morning
Without him
And go to the window
And look out thru the pain
But the statue in her garden
He always looked the same
He looked the same
Bring her boots of leather
And she will dance for him
Shyly from a feather fan
She'll glance for him
Here he comes after midnight
To find her again
He will come a few times more
Till he finds a lady statue
Standing in a door
In her door
--
Big Yellow Taxi
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
--
Woodstock
I came upon a child of God
He was walking along the road
And I asked him where are you going
And this he told me
I'm going on down to Yasgur's farm
I'm going to join in a rock 'n' roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm going to try an' get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe it's the time of man
I don't know who I am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
By the time we got to Woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devil's bargain
And we've got to get ourselves
back to the garden
--
The Circle Game
Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like when you're older must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
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
Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him take your time it won't be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
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
So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
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
##
Blue
--
All I Want
I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be
Oh I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me
I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some juke box dive
Do you want - do you want - do you want to dance with me baby
Do you want to take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby
Well, come on
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you
I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you
I want to renew you again and again
Applause, applause - Life is our cause
When I think of your kisses my mind see-saws
Do you see - do you see - do you see how you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue.
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
It's the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun
I want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free
I want to make you feel free
--
My Old Man
My old man
He's a singer in the park
He's a walker in the rain
He's a dancer in the dark
We don't need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
My old man
Keeping away my blues
He's my sunshine in the morning
He's my fireworks at the end of the day
He's the warmest chord I ever heard
Play that warm chord, play and stay baby
We don't need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
My old man
Keeping away my blues
But when he's gone
Me and them lonesome blues collide
The bed's too big
The frying pan's too wide
Then he comes home
And he takes me in his loving arms
And he tells me all his troubles
And he tells me all my charms
We don't need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
No, my old man
Keeping away my blues
But when he's gone
Me and them lonesome blues collide
The bed's too big
The frying pan's too wide
My old man
He's a singer in the park
He's a walker in the rain
He's a dancer in the dark
We don't need no piece of paper
From the city hall
Keeping us tied and true
No, my old man
Keeping away my lonesome blues
--
Little Green
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
He went to California
Hearing that everything's warmer there
So you write him a letter and say "Her eyes are blue"
He sends you a poem and she's lost to you
Little green he's a non-conformer
Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the nights when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow
Child with a child pretending
Weary of lies you are sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed
Little green have a happy ending
Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the nights when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow
--
Carey
The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep
Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey
But it's really not my home
My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet
And I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne
Oh Carey get out your cane
And I'll put on some silver
Oh you're a mean old Daddy
But I like you fine
Come on down to the Mermaid Cafe and I will
Buy you a bottle of wine
And we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down
Let's have a round for these freaks and these soldiers
A round for these friends of mine
Let's have another round for the bright red devil
Who keeps me in this tourist town
Come on Carey get out your cane
I'll put on some silver
Oh you're a mean old Daddy
But I like you
Maybe I'll go to Amsterdam
Maybe I'll go to Rome
And rent me a grand piano
And put some flowers 'round my room
But let's not talk about fare-thee-wells now
The night is a starry dome
And they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll
Beneath the Matala Moon
Come on Carey get out your cane
I'll put on some silver
We'll go to the Mermaid Cafe
Have fun tonight
The wind is in from Africa
Last night I couldn't sleep
Oh you know it sure is hard to leave here
But it's really not my home
Maybe it's been too long a time
Since I was scramblin' down in the street
Now they got me used to that clean white linen
And that fancy French cologne
Oh Carey get out your cane
I'll put on my finest silver
We'll go to the Mermaid Cafe
Have fun tonight
I said, Oh, you're a mean old Daddy but I like you
But you're out of sight
--
Blue
Blue songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Hey Blue, here is a song for you
Ink on a pin
Underneath the skin
An empty space to fill in
Well there're so many sinking now
You've got to keep thinking
You can make it thru these waves
Acid, booze, and ass
Needles, guns, and grass
Lots of laughs lots of laughs
Everybody's saying that hell's the hippest way to go
Well I don't think so
But I'm gonna take a look around it though
Blue I love you
Blue here is a shell for you
Inside you'll hear a sigh
A foggy lullaby
There is your song from me
--
California
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
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh but California
California I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California I'm coming home
I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you California
Oh California I'm coming home
Oh make me feel good rock 'n' roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California I'm coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone reading Vogue
They said "How long can you hang around?"
I said a week maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California
California I'm coming home
Oh will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California I'm coming home
Oh it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?
--
This Flight Tonight
Look out the left, the captain said
The lights down there that's where we'll land
I saw a falling star burn up
Above the Las Vegas sands
It wasn't the one that you gave to me
That night down south between the trailers
Not the early one
That you can wish upon
Not the northern one
That guides in the sailors
Oh starbright starbright
You've got the lovin' that I like all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
You got the touch so gentle and sweet
But you've got that look so critical
Now I can't talk to you baby
I get so weak
Sometimes I think love is just mythical
Up there's a heaven
Down there's a town
Blackness everywhere and little lights shine
Oh blackness blackness dragging me down
Come on light the candle in this poor heart of mine
Oh starbright starbright
You've got the lovin' that I like all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't hove got on this flight tonight
I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind
They're playing Goodbye baby, Baby Goodbye
Ooh ooh love is blind
Up go the flaps down go the wheels
I hope you got your heat turned on baby
I hope they finally fixed your automobile
I hope it's better when we meet again baby
Starbright starbright
You got the lovin' that I like all right
Turn this crazy bird around
I shouldn't have got on this flight tonight
--
River
It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I made my baby cry
He tried hard to help me
You know, he put me at ease
And he loved me so naughty
Made me weak in the knees
Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on
I'm so hard to handle
I'm selfish and I'm sad
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
Oh, I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
I made my baby say goodbye
It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
I wish I had a river I could skate away on
--
A Case Of You
Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar"
On the back of a cartoon coaster
In the blue TV screen light
I drew a map of Canada
Oh Canada
With your face sketched on it twice
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
Still I'd be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet
Oh I am a lonely painter
I live in a box of paints
I'm frightened by the devil
And I'm drawn to those ones that ain't afraid
I remember that time you told me you said
"Love is touching souls"
Surely you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time
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
I met a woman
She had a mouth like yours
She knew your life
She knew your devils and your deeds
And she said
"Go to him, stay with him if you can
But be prepared to bleed"
Oh but you are in my blood
You're my holy wine
You're so bitter, bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you darling
Still I'd be on my feet
I would still be on my feet
--
The Last Time I Saw Richard
The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68
And he told me all romantics meet the same fate someday
Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark cafe
You laugh he said you think you're immune
Go look at your eyes they're full of moon
You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you
All those pretty lies pretty lies
When you gonna realise they're only pretty lies
Only pretty lies just pretty lies
He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer and he pushed
Three buttons and the thing began to whirr
And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie
And she said "Drink up now it's gettin' on time to close"
"Richard, you haven't really changed" I said
It's just that now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head
You got tombs in your eyes but the songs you punched are dreaming
Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet
When you gonna get yourself back on your feet?
Oh and love can be so sweet Love so sweet
Richard got married to a figure skater
And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator
And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on
And all the house lights left up bright
I'm gonna blow this damn candle out
I don't want nobody comin' over to my table
I got nothing to talk to anybody about
All good dreamers pass this way some day
Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafes dark cafes
Only a dark cocoon before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away
Only a phase these dark cafe days
##
For The Roses
--
Banquet
Come to the dinner gong
The table is laden high
Fat bellies and hungry little ones
Tuck your napkins in
And take your share
Some get the gravy
And some get the gristle
Some get the marrow bone
And some get nothing
Though there's plenty to spare
I took my share down by the sea
Paper plates and Javex bottles on the tide
Seagulls come down and they squawk at me
Down where the water skiers glide
Some turn to Jesus
And some turn to heroin
Some turn to rambling round
Looking for a clean sky
And a drinking stream
Some watch the paint peel off
Some watch their kids grow up
Some watch their stocks and bonds
Waiting for that big deal American Dream
I took my dream down by the sea
Yankee yachts and lobster pots and sunshine
And logs and sails
And Shell Oil pails
Dogs and tugs and summertime
Back in the banquet line
Angry young people crying
Who let the greedy in
And who left the needy out
Who made this salty soup
Tell him we're very hungry now
For a sweeter fare
In the cookie I read
"Some get the gravy
And some get the gristle
Some get the marrow bone
And some get nothing
Though there's plenty to spare"
--
Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire
Cold blue steel out of money
One eye for the beat police
Sweet Fire calling
"You can't deny me
Now you know what you need"
Underneath the jungle gym
Hollow grey fire escape thief
Looking for sweet fire
Shadow of lady release
"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
Leave someone a letter
You can come now
Or you can come later"
A wristwatch, a ring, a downstairs screamer
Edgy-black cracks of the sky
"Pin cushion prick fix this poor bad dreamer"
"Money" cold shadows reply
Pawnshops crisscrossed and padlocked
Corridors spit on prayers and pleas
Sparks fly up from sweet fire
Black soot of lady release
"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
Does it really matter
If you come now
Or if you come on later?"
Red water in the bathroom sink
Fever and the scum brown bowl
Blue steel still begging
But it's indistinct
Someone's hi-fi drumming Jelly Roll
Concrete concentration camp
Bashing in veins for peace
Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire
Fall into Lady Release
"Come with me
I know the way" she says
"It's down, down, down the dark ladder
Do you want to contact somebody first
I mean what does it really matter
You're going to come now
Or you're going to come later"
--
Barangrill
Three waitresses all wearing
Black diamond earrings
Talking about zombies
and Singapore slings
No trouble in their faces
Not one anxious voice
None of the crazy you get
From too much choice
The thumb and the satchel
Or the rented Rolls-Royce
And you think she knows something
By the second refill
You think she's enlightened
As she totals your bill
You say "show me the way
To Barangrill"
Well some say it's in service
They say "humble makes pure"
You're hoping it's near Folly
'Cause you're headed that way for sure
And you just have to laugh
'Cause it's all so crazy
Her mind's on her boyfriend
And eggs over easy
It's just a trick on you
Her mirrors and your will
So you ask the truck driver
On the way to the till
But he's just a slave
To Barangrill
The guy at the gaspumps
He's got a lot of soul
He sings Merry Christmas for you
Just like Nat King Cole
And he makes up his own tune
Right on the spot
About whitewalls and windshields
And this job he's got
And you want to get moving
And you want to stay still
But lost in the moment
Some longing gets filled
And you even forget to ask
"Hey, Where's Barangrill?"
--
Lesson In Survival
Lesson in Survival
Spinning out on turns
That gets you tough
Guru books-the Bible
Only a reminder
That you're just not good enough
You need to believe in something
Once I could in our love
Black road
Double yellow line
Friends and kin
Campers in the kitchen
That's fine sometimes
But I know my needs
My sweet tumbleweed
I need more quiet times
By a river flowing
You and me
Deep kisses
And the sun going down
Maybe it's paranoia
Maybe it's sensitivity
Your friends protect you
Scrutinize me
I get so damn timid
Not at all the spirit
That's inside of me
Oh baby I can't seem to make it
With you socially
There's this reef around me
I'm looking way out at the ocean
Love to see that green water in motion
I'm going to get a boat
And we can row it
If you ever get the notion
To be needed by me
Fresh salmon frying
And the tide rolling in
I went to see a friend tonight
Was very late when I walked in
My talking as it rambled
Revealed suspicious reasoning
The visit seemed to darken him
I came in as bright
As a neon light
And I burned out
Right there before him
I told him these things
I'm telling you now
Watched them buckle up
In his brow
When you dig down deep
You lose good sleep
And it makes you
Heavy company
I will always love you
Hands alike
Magnet and iron
The souls
--
Let The Wind Carry Me
Papa's faith is people
Mama she believes in cleaning
Papa's faith is in people
Mama she's always cleaning
Papa brought home the sugar
Mama taught me the deeper meaning
She don't like my kick pleat skirt
She don't like my eyelids painted green
She don't like me staying up late
In my high-heeled shoes
Living for that rock 'n' roll dancing scene
Papa says "Leave the girl alone, mother
She's looking like a movie queen"
Mama thinks she spoilt me
Papa knows somehow he set me free
Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten
She blames herself
But papa he blesses me
It's a rough road to travel
Mama let go now
It's always called for me
Sometimes I get that feeling
And I want to settle
And raise a child up with somebody
I get that strong longing
And I want to settle
And raise a child up with somebody
But it passes like the summer
I'm a wild seed again
Let the wind carry me
--
For The Roses
I heard it in the wind last night
It sounded like applause
Did you get a round resounding for you
Way up here
It seems like many dim years ago
Since I heard that face to face
Or seen you face to face
Though tonight I can feel you here
I get these notes
On butterflies and lilac sprays
From girls who just have to tell me
They saw you somewhere
In some office sits a poet
And he trembles as he sings
And he asks some guy
To circulate his soul around
On your mark red ribbon runner
The caressing rev of motors
Finely tuned like fancy women
In thirties evening gowns
Up the charts
Off to the airport
Your name's in the news
Everything's first class
The lights go down
And it's just you up there
Getting them to feel like that
Remember the days when you used to sit
And make up your tunes for love
And pour your simple sorrow
To the soundhole and your knee
And now you're seen
On giant screens
And at parties for the press
And for people who have slices of you
From the company
They toss