Joni Mitchell

"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."

"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 ev’ry day."

"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."

"And the seasons they go round and round, And the painted ponies go up and down, We’re all 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."

"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."

"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."

"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 And put them in a tree museum And they charged all the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em."

"Hey farmer, farmer, Put away that DDT now Give me spots on my apples But leave me the birds and the bees Please!"

"I remember the time you told me, you said "Love is touching souls," Surely you've touched mine, cause Part of you pours out of me In these lines from time to time."

"I wanna be strong, I wanna laugh along, I wanna belong to the living. Alive, alive, I wanna get up and jive, Wanna wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive."

"Secrets and sharing soda, That's how our time began. Love is a story told to a friend It's second hand."

"Some are friendly Some are cutting Some are watching it from the wings Some are standing in the centre giving to get something."

"Laughing and crying, you know it's the same release."

"Friends have told her "Not so proud" Neighbors trying to sleep are yelling "Not so loud" Lovers in anger, "Block of ice" Harder and harder just to be nice."

"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"

"Joni, you have more class than Richard Nixon, Mick Jagger, and Gomer Pyle combined!"

"She is of course well past the stage of having to prove herself artistically. She is in possession of one of the most extraordinary song catalogs of the past half-century. Her chords break harmonic rules, have no technical names and defy Western musical theory. Her voice is an instrument that has grown sublimely heavier and huskier over the decades. . . .Once you get past the security gates, Ms. Mitchell's house feels like a pocket of middle-class comfort in the midst of zillionaire Beverly Hills. In some ways life is still as it was in 1974, when she bought the house: She has no computer, no voice mail, no cellphone and no e-mail. At one point, when we tried to remember one of her lyrics, we scrolled through my iPod. She said it was the first time she had listened to one."

"Joni Mitchell said in an interview, Everything I am,/I'm not."

"That's the music that I play at home all the time, Joni Mitchell. Court and Spark I love because I'd always hoped that she'd work with a band. But the main thing with Joni is that she's able to look at something that's happened to her, draw back and crystallize the whole situation, then write about it. She brings tears to my eyes, what more can I say? It's bloody eerie. I can relate so much to what she says. "Now old friends are acting strange/They shake their heads/They say I've changed"."

"If you're looking to wade into Joni [Mitchell's] musical waters, open D is an essential first step. Often, you see the same Joni songs transcribed in open E, as it's the same tuning one step down, and just requires different capo placement."

"Joni, what fucking chords were you playing on Court and Spark? I could never figure them out."