This entry was posted on March 8, 2013 at 11:22 am and is filed under Music. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
One of my favorite early Joni songs. Thanks. I first heard it by Tom Rush and Claire Hammill and loved it, but it took years until I finally found the Joni original. Pre-internet times…
Birgit,
It is also one of my favorites. Like you, it was Tom Rush I first heard sing it, and it is still one of my favorites of his. I haven’t heard Claire Hammill ( I don’t even know her). Looks like I’ll do a bit of hunting.
Wow! What a great clip. And what a great reminder of what a beauty Joni was when young — personifying that blonde innocent look that was so popular (see also Michelle Phillips) — and we now know it was JUST a look and not really the case ;-). This song was one of those that I also had to search for and search for pre internet before I finally found a copy. The other “rare” song that took me forever to find was Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain.” There’s something about those elusive-to-find songs that made them even more special.
im6,
She probably was an innocent at one time but it did become just a look! She even had a voice which you sometimes had to strain to hear when she talked, also part of the persona I suspect.
I don’t remember when I found this song for the first time. Joni has been a long time favorite of mine and hers album Clouds was one of the albums I brought to Ghana. I think the climate wore it out!
Don’t know, Kat. I’m not sure Joni was ever really innocent. Married young. Abandoned daughter. Lady of the canyon. I suspect there was a lot of wool pulled over these eyes — HAPPILY pulled, I suppose, since it really is such a nice fantasy!
I wrote this poem inspired by some little thing you said about traveling some years ago. About being in airports, deserted in the middle of the night.
I actually wrote two, this one and one about the silence of the night
The Highway’s Song
In the wee hours on a stormy night
The highway called again
I like home and the simple things
But the highway is my friend
Geese were crying from the waters edge
As the wind blew cool and wet
A lonely dog barked at the sky
My heart and soul were set
I took my tote from the closet top
And flung it on the empty bed
Then fit my world in a Stromberg bag
While the highway’s song ran through my head
I left the keys on the counter top
With a good-bye note for all
As I filled the door the geese took flight
And we answered the highways call
Stromberg, Kraus & Co. made Steamer Trunks and Leather Suitcases. They were arguably the best and were used by world travelers in the 19th and early 20th century. The big case Jimmy Stewart receives as a present from Mr Gower in “It’s A Wonderful Life” before his father dies was a Stromberg.
Beto,
I have a suitcase much like the Stromberg. It has decals on it from the trips it took. The closers have leather on each of them with buckles. It is one of my prize possessions.
Well….you are forever coming up with these fantastic quotes to expound from and your adventures are admirable. I don’t know how it works but sometime something you say triggers the creative spark and I write a poem that is stream of consciousness.
When you were pining for returning to Ghana a couple years ago i wrote The Highway’s Song and these two…
The Silence of the Night
I paint the silence of the night
With brush strokes broad and free
On canvas weaved of solitude
In colors others may not see
The sleeping world is mine alone
To fashion as I’m wont to try
But comes the creeping steady dawn
In ribbons on a waking sky
Then as the slumb’ring land bestirs
I set my paint brush out of sight
And wait until it sleeps again
To paint the silence of the night
On The Road
On the road. Like a Dharma Bum
My bible penned by Kerouac
What I have in sovereign verve
Makes up for any thing I lack
Your pillowed beds and comforters
Will make you soft and wake too late
Arise and ride the Dharma’s wheel
It travels on. It cannot wait
And though I bed in humble kind
Or lader with the kit and freight
The world is mine and all it holds
I travel on. I cannot wait
Beto,
I am happy that I spark your poetic side as your poems are lovely and beautiful with their amazing imagery. I read the first stanza over and over I was so taken with the picture in my head of the silence of the night painted with a solitude of my own, a private solitude.
When I am up so very late at night and mine are the only lights, I always feel as if I own the night.
March 8, 2013 at 11:22 am
https://www.box.com/s/88rg09mqn7a5el3pvu6z
March 8, 2013 at 11:41 am
[…] via (title unknown) – http://keepthecoffeecoming.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/urge-for-going-joni-mitchell/ […]
March 8, 2013 at 12:32 pm
One of my favorite early Joni songs. Thanks. I first heard it by Tom Rush and Claire Hammill and loved it, but it took years until I finally found the Joni original. Pre-internet times…
March 8, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Birgit,
It is also one of my favorites. Like you, it was Tom Rush I first heard sing it, and it is still one of my favorites of his. I haven’t heard Claire Hammill ( I don’t even know her). Looks like I’ll do a bit of hunting.
March 8, 2013 at 3:21 pm
Lovely. A favorite. She gets the urge for going..
March 8, 2013 at 4:05 pm
Lori,
It is a beautiful song and perfect for this time of year.
March 8, 2013 at 3:27 pm
Haven’t heard this in years. It has some of the same elements as The Midway–chords, rhythm.
March 8, 2013 at 4:06 pm
Bill.
I know exactly what you mean.
Having listened to The Midway more times than I count I have it emblazoned upon my memory.
March 8, 2013 at 3:37 pm
I like this Youtube version:
March 8, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Lori,
Thanks for posting this. That’s such a young Joni, and she is home singing (sort of-in Canada anyway).
March 8, 2013 at 4:12 pm
Wow! What a great clip. And what a great reminder of what a beauty Joni was when young — personifying that blonde innocent look that was so popular (see also Michelle Phillips) — and we now know it was JUST a look and not really the case ;-). This song was one of those that I also had to search for and search for pre internet before I finally found a copy. The other “rare” song that took me forever to find was Neil Young’s “Sugar Mountain.” There’s something about those elusive-to-find songs that made them even more special.
March 8, 2013 at 4:17 pm
im6,
She probably was an innocent at one time but it did become just a look! She even had a voice which you sometimes had to strain to hear when she talked, also part of the persona I suspect.
I don’t remember when I found this song for the first time. Joni has been a long time favorite of mine and hers album Clouds was one of the albums I brought to Ghana. I think the climate wore it out!
March 8, 2013 at 4:21 pm
Don’t know, Kat. I’m not sure Joni was ever really innocent. Married young. Abandoned daughter. Lady of the canyon. I suspect there was a lot of wool pulled over these eyes — HAPPILY pulled, I suppose, since it really is such a nice fantasy!
March 8, 2013 at 6:45 pm
im6,
A perfect fantasy!
March 8, 2013 at 10:16 pm
I wrote this poem inspired by some little thing you said about traveling some years ago. About being in airports, deserted in the middle of the night.
I actually wrote two, this one and one about the silence of the night
The Highway’s Song
In the wee hours on a stormy night
The highway called again
I like home and the simple things
But the highway is my friend
Geese were crying from the waters edge
As the wind blew cool and wet
A lonely dog barked at the sky
My heart and soul were set
I took my tote from the closet top
And flung it on the empty bed
Then fit my world in a Stromberg bag
While the highway’s song ran through my head
I left the keys on the counter top
With a good-bye note for all
As I filled the door the geese took flight
And we answered the highways call
March 9, 2013 at 6:48 am
Awesome poem that are natural lyrics.
March 9, 2013 at 8:46 am
Beto, Wonderful! Begs for a melody and guitar accompaniment.
Just curious, what is a “Stromberg bag”?
March 9, 2013 at 9:22 am
Stromberg, Kraus & Co. made Steamer Trunks and Leather Suitcases. They were arguably the best and were used by world travelers in the 19th and early 20th century. The big case Jimmy Stewart receives as a present from Mr Gower in “It’s A Wonderful Life” before his father dies was a Stromberg.
March 9, 2013 at 10:36 am
Beto,
I have a suitcase much like the Stromberg. It has decals on it from the trips it took. The closers have leather on each of them with buckles. It is one of my prize possessions.
March 9, 2013 at 10:35 am
Beto,
You always seem to find the exact words to describe my feelings and my yearnings. I am that person or wish I were.
Thank you!
March 9, 2013 at 1:50 pm
Well….you are forever coming up with these fantastic quotes to expound from and your adventures are admirable. I don’t know how it works but sometime something you say triggers the creative spark and I write a poem that is stream of consciousness.
When you were pining for returning to Ghana a couple years ago i wrote The Highway’s Song and these two…
The Silence of the Night
I paint the silence of the night
With brush strokes broad and free
On canvas weaved of solitude
In colors others may not see
The sleeping world is mine alone
To fashion as I’m wont to try
But comes the creeping steady dawn
In ribbons on a waking sky
Then as the slumb’ring land bestirs
I set my paint brush out of sight
And wait until it sleeps again
To paint the silence of the night
On The Road
On the road. Like a Dharma Bum
My bible penned by Kerouac
What I have in sovereign verve
Makes up for any thing I lack
Your pillowed beds and comforters
Will make you soft and wake too late
Arise and ride the Dharma’s wheel
It travels on. It cannot wait
And though I bed in humble kind
Or lader with the kit and freight
The world is mine and all it holds
I travel on. I cannot wait
March 9, 2013 at 6:25 pm
Beto,
I am happy that I spark your poetic side as your poems are lovely and beautiful with their amazing imagery. I read the first stanza over and over I was so taken with the picture in my head of the silence of the night painted with a solitude of my own, a private solitude.
When I am up so very late at night and mine are the only lights, I always feel as if I own the night.
March 9, 2013 at 9:49 am
Cute but no Kiki of Montparnasse….ok there is a Man Ray exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery.
March 9, 2013 at 10:37 am
My Dear Hedley,
Who or what isn’t? Neither seems to fit.