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Joni Mitchell
Links JoniMitchell.com About Joni Mitchell on Wikipedia Songwriters Hall of Fame BBC Feature The Voice of a Woman's Heart, Joni Mitchell "Besame Mucho" is the title of a song written by the Mexican songwriter, Consuelo Velázquez. She was only sixteen when she wrote these memorable words, "Besame,Besame mucho. Como si fuere esta noche la ultimate vez." Although the album Clouds with the song "Both Sides Now" was released around 1968, it's possible that Joni Mitchell was round about the same age as Consuelo Velázquez when she wrote: "I've seen clouds from both sides now, from up and down and still somehow, it's cloud illusions that I recall, I really don't know clouds at all." Whereas young men generally don't seem to understand very much about anything before things actually happen to them, feminine literature and music abound with youthful prescience: an authentic grasp of human emotions well beyond their years without the need for direct experience. Who knows how old Emily Jane Brontë was when she wrote these words in Wuthering Heights?
Wuthering Heights was published when she was 29, a year before she died. Going by biographical evidence Emily Brontë lived a rather sheltered life, more in the company of her sisters than anyone else, but somehow she knew about the power of feelings. There is a certain suspense in Joni Mitchell's songs – a tension of memory that reaches straight into the hearts of those who have struggled, almost unbearably, with the contours of their own conscience. Her America is the land of hopes and dreams seen as a great big maze where everyone is looking for directions. In her stories, desire does not interlope with fulfilment but with disappointment. Hope brimming as fresh as breakfast and daisies greets us in the song "Morning Morgan Town", then in the same album Lady of the Canyon, a few tracks later, in "Rainy Night House", there is a brooding portrait of someone trying to escape his own destiny. Her lyrics are written in a narrative form in a literary equivalent to the technique known in painting as chiaroscuro – the art of making light and shade. Interestingly, Joni Mitchell is also an accomplished painter and illustrator. In her songs the words draw pictures as they guide you into the mind's uncharted dimensions. She always knew very well what her main business was about. Here is a song about making music: Real Good 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 fortune 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. from the album 'Lady of the Canyon'
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