In order to prolong my Schitt’s Creek binge (only two more episodes 🙁 ), I’ve been throwing other shows into the mix. I binged on The Queen’s Gambit (which I’m now reading)–who knew a show about a female chess prodigy could be so exciting?! And then I binged (again) on Good Girls Revolt, a story about women working for a 1970s magazine who can only be researchers and not reporters. (If you think it isn’t pertinent today, watch it, and then tell me how you feel.) Anyway, the music throughout Good Girls Revolt reminded me of just how good music was in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Not only did we have great musical standards (Frank Sinatra was still singing), great jazz, folk music, but we had rock music, the new wave of rock music led by Black Sabbath, one of my past Music Monday offerings “Helplessly Hoping” by Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Santana. In one of the last episodes, Joni Mitchell sings “Both Sides Now.
I believe that unlike most singer/songwriters Joni Mitchell is a singing poet. Her voice has always been one-of-a-kind. While I may have first heard Judy Collins sing “Both Sides Now” and thought it lovely, it wasn’t until I heard Joni Mitchell that I truly understood the song.
The amazing thing is that we also have Joni Mitchell covering her own song some thirty years later, giving another totally different take. Life is so different from 30 to 60.
Did you see “Love Actually?” If so, perhaps you remember that wrenching scene in which Emma Thompson’s character realizes that her husband has given her a Joni Mitchell cd instead of the beautiful necklace she knows he purchased and realized that he has given it to the woman with whom he is having an emotional affair. All the while the 2000 version of “Both Sides Now” plays in the background, Joni Mitchell’s deeper, more plaintive voice conjures memories.
Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels
The dizzy dancing way you feel
As every fairy tale comes real
I’ve looked at love that way
Songwriters: Joni Mitchell
From 1969:
From 2000:
I’ve loved Joni Mitchell’s music since the very beginning, and agree that her lyrics are a pure form of poetry. I agree on the 60s and 70s too – I was so lucky to be growing up and getting into music at that time.
Just reading “Reckless Daughter” and am at the part about how she came to write this song and met Collins..