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Roses Blue - Joni Mitchell

Duende

By Duende
in Gibson Acoustic

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Duende

Duende

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I just posted this in the lounge (in a thread about Canada), but wanted to share it here and find out how many Joni Mitchell fans there are. I am in a Joni Mitchell mood especially, as last night during a gig at a local acoustic music club, this young lady in the open mic section, did a lovely version of her song The Last Time I Saw Richard. Joni Mitchell is such a gifted song writer [thumbup]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6LZrw7GZPE

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Duende

Duende

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Hi won't let me play video on my iPhone. I'll go on laptop later when I climb out of my pit. I love Joni Mitchell. I love playing little green, using dadgad tuning it's a wonderful tune.

 

Ahh Little Green xxx

 

That holds special memories for me as it was the song my wife was singing when I first ever met her at Orpington Folk Club in 1998.

 

Matt

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MissouriPicker

MissouriPicker

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Joni Mitchell. What can we say that hasn't been said countless times.......I have been hynotised by her music since I first heard it back in the late 60's. She literally writes songs that are real poems. The images she draws are true-to-life and easy to see. Her guitar playing (filled with "Joni's chords") is so very-easy-to-listen-to........And Little Green. Awesome, awesome song. What writing!!!!!! One of my top Mitchell songs. When it first appeared (I think the early 70's, some people couldn't understand it, but I did---a story about a little child that seemed somehow attached to Mitchell herself. Turned-out to be a child Mitchell had out of wedlock and she hid it from her family and gave the baby up for adoption. Here are the lyrics---once you read them, the picture is very clear. Again, what a songwriter. Speaks a lifetime of feeling in a handful of lyrics.......MATT, sorry if this changes the direction of your thread away from Roses Blue for a bit, but these lyrics are pure genius........of course, that can be said for much of what Mitchell writes....

 

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

 

CH0RUS:

 

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

 

CHORUS:

 

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

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j45nick

j45nick

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She is the best!!!....for you (and us) ex-patriot Canadians out there......

 

And for us Canadians living in sunny California........

 

 

 

What is the lead instrument being played in the intro here? Never quite figured that out. Is it just one of her open tunings capo'd way up?

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j45nick

j45nick

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Thats a beautiful song.

I'm not familiar with many songs of her but I found an amazing cover of A Song About The Midway

done by Dave van Ronk.

Of the few songs I know of her this one I like the very most.

 

(Forgive me for posting Dave's version)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA0hprSFg1E

Interesting you would pull up the van Ronk version of this. He was an extraordinary fingerpicker with a wonderful sense of timing. Usually played that big old Guild. People were so startled by his gravelly, harsh voice that they often missed out on what a great guitar stylist we was, particularly his ragtime picking.

 

In the late 60's and early 70's, he used to hang around the clubs in the Village scarfing Heinekens and checking out the musical talent. I remember him holding court, sitting on a stool at the bar at Gerde's Folk City when the group I was working with played there in 1971. I used to have to buy him a beer before he would condescend to talk to me. He was intelligent and articulate, if a bit intimidating. He was larger than life in every way, and was a straight-line connection to the old political folksingers like Pete Seeger and Woody.

 

Some of the earliest tunes I learned were his versions of traditional songs. Truly a wide-ranging musical talent.

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E-minor7

E-minor7

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Roberta Joan Mitchell still is the queen of my musical life.

 

MP – thanks for turning the light on Little Green. Love that song also. . . .

 

 

 

Nick - Isn't it the dulcimer – the Appalachian dulcimer. . . .Joniwith.jpg

Lotus - Great Van Ronk version. Heard of, but never listened to him. Where should one start, which albums ?

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j45nick

j45nick

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Isn't it the dulcimer – the Appalachian dulcimer. . .

 

 

You are almost certainly right on that. It's just not an instrument I connect with the musical style. I know you love her to death, but I've always resisted more than a casual affair. She's so intense, honest, and penetrating in her observations of life and love that she scares the heck out of me sometimes.

 

You are correct: she is absolutely brilliant.

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E-minor7

E-minor7

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You are almost certainly right on that. It's just not an instrument I connect with the musical style. I know you love her to death, but I've always resisted more than a casual affair. She's so intense, honest, and penetrating in her observations of life and love that she scares the heck out of me sometimes.

 

You are correct: she is absolutely brilliant.

 

 

Of course this is general, but when it comes to artists like Mitchell, I can imagine how strong, demanding even overloaded she sometimes might come across heard through American/English/Canadian ears.

 

I believe listening to songs on your second language sets in some indefinable filter, which creates a certain distance and mystique – a touch of the unknown.

We don't hear quite the same – no one does anyway. . . .

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j45nick

j45nick

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Of course this is general, but when it comes to artists like Mitchell, I can imagine how strong, demanding even overloaded she sometimes might come across heard through American/English/Canadian ears.

 

I believe listening to songs on your second language sets in some indefinable filter, which creates a certain distance and mystique – a touch of the unknown.

We don't hear quite the same – no one does anyway. . . .

So.... what is your first language?

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E-minor7

E-minor7

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So.... what is your first language?

You know I'm hiding somewhere overseas speaking an awkward if not downright ODD tongue. It doesn't matter – I'm trying to learn some English, how to spell and get things a bit under control. Reading/writing posts here is a great helper.What I'm saying is that you over there hear expressions and little nuances in lyrics that go straight over my head. I may understand

I'm a joker

I'm a smoker

but what the hell is a midnite toker ?

 

Back to Gibsons -

 

 

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BluesKing777

BluesKing777

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For heavens sake no.

This happy tune turns into a black hole for me every time I reach that line !

 

 

 

I would like to know as well.

 

If it what I think it is, I have never, ever, never, ever, ever seen a guitarist wait until midnight.

 

Also, I read a great book by Dave Van Ronk and Elijah Wald - Dave's Bio:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mayor-Macdougal-Street-NEW-Dave-Van-Ronk-/130572835977?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item1e66bf5c89

 

BluesKing777.

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j45nick

j45nick

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For heavens sake no.

This happy tune turns into a black hole for me every time I reach that line !

 

 

Sorry, it must be a generational thing. A "midnight toker" is one who is, essentially, a closeted pot smoker. That is, one who might during the day never admit they smoked, and might even be vocally opposed to it, but under the cover of darkness, indulges. The term has a bit of a sniff of hypocrisy about it.

 

There are plenty of examples of similar terms and concepts in the US--and in other countries, I suspect. For example, I was born in Mississippi, a state with a large percentage of nominally "Tee-Totaling"--ie, non-drinking--Southern Baptists. Bars in Mississippi in the "old" days--maybe 40 years ago--often had a booth at the back, near the exit, that frequently had high sides so that you couldn't sdee who was seated there. It was called the "Baptist Booth". I'm sure you can figure out that is was for drinkers that didn't want to be seen drinking in public. "Midnight drinkers" as opposed to "midnight tokers".

 

As an aside, I got kicked out of my university after my first year for spending too much time drinking and playing music, and not enough time in class. I spent a penitent year in a small Baptist College in Mississippi to atone for my sins. That was the first place I encountered the beginnings of the underground youth drug culture outside the usual West Coast suspects such as San Francisco. It was a place full of people who got high on Saturday night, and were in church on Sunday morning.

 

Thus endeth today's history lesson in American folk culture of the 1960's.

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E-minor7

E-minor7

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Sorry, it must be a generational thing. A "midnight toker" is one who is, essentially, a closeted pot smoker.

That's exactly what I mean. All those small consenting points behind lyrical phrases and expressions can be difficult to see for non-Americans/Englishmen/Canadians. And even they/you among each other might have problems reading the same stuff out of words and terms.

 

So mister Miller inhales as both a smoker and a toker – it can't be too healthy in the long run. Luckily he's still around and f.x. found his way to the 1997 McCartney album Flaming Pie (Paul a smoking toker himself).

 

Anyway - fine little stories there. Enlightened I will go on playing my music in the sun.

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AnneS

AnneS

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Roberta Joan Mitchell still is the queen of my musical life.

 

 

Roberta Joan Anderson got "Mitchell" from Mr. Chuck Mitchell, who I saw everytime he came to my small Wis campus in the late 70s. Best coffeehouse guy ever.

I always choked up when he did the "The Dutchman" (made more famous later by both Steve Goodman and Jerry Jeff Walker, I b'lieve) and always got chills when he served up "Circle Game,"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUkKMGsDZ0w&feature=related

 

Not the best take here, but I still remember how he sang this sweet song, how lovely it was to sing along, and how perfect it was, every time...

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