Both sides now

Written by Joni sung by Judy, this half forgotten gem still has magical powers 🙂

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 every 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

Oh 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

Originally posted by @mchill
Written by Joni sung by Judy, this half forgotten gem still has magical powers 🙂

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 clo ...[text shortened]... m up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I like Judy Collins and I adore Joni Mitchell (her BD is four days before mine), but I hate, hate, hate this song. Suitable for a teenager, maybe.

Originally posted by @suzianne
I like Judy Collins and I adore Joni Mitchell (her BD is four days before mine), but I hate, hate, hate this song. Suitable for a teenager, maybe.

This song, read as a poem, leaves me somewhat sad. It’s a feeling of loss, of dis-illusionment. The speaker seems to be saying that they can look at life from either side, from the side having cherished illusions or from the side having lost them, but really, is saying that having lost them, she knows they can never be fully present, as they once were, perhaps as a young teenager. That’s a thoughtful reaction on your part, S*.

I am suddenly mindful of this and had to go find it:

“Bookends"

Time it was
And what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence
A time of confidences

Long ago it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you.

I am thinking that the teenager in me has been, and is finally, stepping aside to spend a little time in contemplation of my mortality.

That’s my reaction. I want to say thanks...sort of.

*Maybe not your intent, but what I got.

Originally posted by @mchill
Written by Joni sung by Judy, this half forgotten gem still has magical powers 🙂

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 clo ...[text shortened]... m up and down and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

Originally posted by @suzianne
I like Judy Collins and I adore Joni Mitchell (her BD is four days before mine), but I hate, hate, hate this song. Suitable for a teenager, maybe.

What about 'Free man in Paris?"

I was a free man in Paris, I was unfettered and alive, nobody calling me up for favors, no one's future to decide. I'd go back there tomorrow but for this work I've taken on, stoking the star maker machinery behind the popular song.

If that doesn't wet your whistle I don't know what would🙂

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

I wondered what this post was doing in Debates. It’s too, well, too thoughtful for its own good.

Originally posted by @js357
I wondered what this post was doing in Debates. It’s too, well, too thoughtful for its own good.

Thoughts like this...

"So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way"

lead to standing in the unemployment line in your jammies or cowering in a safe space. Blech.

How about this song, Court and Spark:


Joni Mitchell
Love came to my door
With a sleeping roll
And a madman's soul
He thought for sure I'd seen him
Dancing up a river in the dark
Looking for a woman
To court and spark

He was playing on the sidewalk
For passing change
When something strange happened
Glory train passed through him
So he buried the coins he made
In People's Park
And went looking for a woman
To court and spark

It seemed like he read my mind
He saw me mistrusting him
And still acting kind
He saw how I worried, sometimes
I worry sometimes

"All the guilty people, " he said
They've all seen the stain
On their daily bread
On their christian names
I cleared myself
I sacrificed my blues
And you could complete me
I'd complete you

His eyes were the color of the sand
And the sea
And the more he talked to me, you know
The more he reached me
But I couldn't let go of L.A.
City of the fallen angels
Songwriters: Joni Mitchell

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

There, there.

I can direct you to a state run heroin house in San Fran.

Soon everything will be OK again.

Do try to avoid all of the poop along the way.

Originally posted by @whodey
There, there.

I can direct you to a state run heroin house in San Fran.

Soon everything will be OK again.

Do try to avoid all of the poop along the way.

I wondered how long it would take Whodey politicize music. Not long I guess.

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

I'm not sure; the opening stanza:

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

Kinda describes a childlike way of observing normal, unremarkable objects and seeing in them fantastic things .............................................. kinda like the Nunes memo.

"...kinda like the Nunes memo."

LOL. That cracked me up.

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
"...kinda like the Nunes memo."

LOL. That cracked me up.

Keeping oneself well entertained is a perfectly acceptable use of one’s time.

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

Agree in part and disagree in part, with a decided weight toward disagree.

First, the title is rendered: Both Sides, Now (at least, according to Joni's website) which adds another layer to it, a way of saying she's seeing both sides from the standpoint of the present time.
The "both" sides is where the main crux is, in that she is considering how she used to see things up against how she came to see thing, and that from the position of her current understanding.
As a child, clouds are wondrous, awe-inspiring encouraging the verdant minds of youth to imagine all of the dreamy things they could be just floating in that blue right above our heads--- nearly reachable, but clearly on stage for us to enjoy.
Adults see them differently, inured by the worry we're apparently assigned to take on and instead of being portals to possibility--- optimistic possibility--- we begin to see they are simply in the way of better things.
And then she walks us through a few of life's main post markers: career, friendship, love, etc., remembering the freshness and the overwhelming joy of those opportunities contrasted against the mundane they begin to represent.
Against it all, it is the illusion of the happiness that each were anticipated to bring:
clouds which fail to become ice cream castles;
burgeoning youth which fails to maintain the buzz of life's new discoveries and freedoms;
heart-felt expressions/confessions which become a song list taped to the hip of the resonance chamber or taped ignobly to the ground in front of the stool;
intimate relations which drag a cat-of-nine tail of misery right behind them;
the forging of a new identity which leaves life-long friends wondering what happened to the one they knew.

I find the words of 24 year old Joni incredibly poignant... even if she did plagiarize the main line from "Henderson the Rain King."

Originally posted by @sleepyguy
Shorter version... "Boo hoo, my self delusions didn't pan out. I'm challenged by reality and sad about it."

Very leftist.

Watch what you claim is leftist, you're sounding like whodey.

I'm as idealistic as they come, and I hate this song.