Woodstock

For some reason, I have had a scrap of Joni Mitchell lyrics in my head for the last few days (“I looked at life from both sides now”), so I dug into it on YouTube this morning. Both Sides is a powerful song, especially for somebody my age. And even though Judy Collins made it famous, Mitchell’s version of the song is so, so much better.

Anyway, in reading about Joni Mitchell, I discovered that she had written Woodstock, the so-called counterculture anthem that was made famous first by Ian Matthews, then, of course, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Being the wannabe hippie that I am, I know the CSNY version very well, but I had never heard Mitchell’s original version. It is extraordinary, and her phrasing defies description. Listen to her breathing, and how she breaks lines of the poetry. If anybody were to ask, “What is music?”, this would be one of my examples. The interplay of melody, poetry, phrasing, even how she sings the word “smog.” This is exceptional. And it’s live.

I think I was born too late.

Woodstock, by Joni Mitchell

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

We are stardust

We are golden

And we’ve got to get ourselves

Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you

I have come here to lose the smog

And I feel to be a cog in something turning

Well maybe it is just the time of year

Or maybe it’s the time of man

I don’t know who l 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

We are stardust

Billion year old carbon

We are golden

Caught in the devil’s bargain

And we’ve got to get ourselves

Back to the garden