[RETURN TO POP & ROCK MUSICIANS-1]

From her new CD Archives, vol 1. Performed at the CFQC AM Radio Station in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1963 – the earliest known recording of Joni Mitchell:

Her first original song:

50+ min. concert:

Playlist of her entire album “Court and Spark”:

Joni with Pat Metheny (guitar), Jaco Pastorius (bass), Michael Brecker (tenor sax), Lyle Mays (keyboards), and Don Alias (drums):

They perform “In France They Kiss On Main Street”:

Here they perform a song she wrote with Charlie Mingus:

IMHO her 2 best albums: “Hejira” and “Blue”

Playlist of the entire album Hejira (featuring Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter & others):

Taken from Joni’s DVD Refuge of the Roads:

Playlist of the entire album Blue:

THE MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES

I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries 

Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly
By her parish priest
We're trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten-daughters
In the steaming stains
Of the Magdalene laundries

Prostitutes and destitutes
And temptresses like me
Fallen women
Sentenced into dreamless drudgery
Why do they call this heartless place
Our Lady of Charity?
Oh charity!

These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then they'd know and they'd drop the stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room
They'd like to drive us down the drain
At the Magdalene laundries

Peg O'Connell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
One day I'm going to die here too
And they'll plant me in the dirt
Like some lame bulb 
That never blooms come any spring
Not any spring
No, not any spring 
Not any spring

by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell performing “Black Crow” in 1998. Featuring Brian Blade on drums, Larry Klein on bass, Mark Isham on trumpet and Greg Leisz on lap steel guitar:

Black Crow

There's a crow flying
Black and ragged
Tree to tree
He's black as the highway that's leading me
Now he's diving down
To pick up on something shiny
I feel like that black crow
Flying
In a blue sky

I took a ferry to the highway
Then I drove to a pontoon plane
I took a plane to a taxi
And a taxi to a train
I've been traveling so long
How'm I ever going to know my home
When I see it again
I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue blue sky

In search of love and music
My whole life has been
Illumination
Corruption
And diving diving diving diving
Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing
Just like that black crow flying
In a blue sky

I looked at the morning
After being up all night
I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light
I looked out the window
And I saw that ragged soul take flight
I saw a back crow flying
In a blue sky
Oh I'm like a black crow flying
In a blue sky

A tribute to Joni by trumpeter & composer Mark Isham:

BANQUET

Come to the dinner gong
The table is laden high
Fat bellies and hungry little ones
Tuck your napkins in
And take your share
Some get the gravy
And some get the gristle
Some get the marrow bone
And some get nothing
Though there's plenty to spare

I took my share down by the sea
Paper plates and javex bottles on the tide
Seagulls come down
And they squawk at me
Down where the water-skiers glide
Some turn to Jesus
And some turn to heroin
Some turn to rambling 'round
Looking for a clean sky
And a drinking stream
Some watch the paint peel off
Some watch their kids grow up
Some watch their stocks and bonds
Waiting for that big deal
American dream

I took my dream down by the sea
Yankee yachts and lobster pots and sunshine
And logs and sails
And Shell Oil pails
Dogs and tugs and summertime
Back in the banquet line
Angry young people crying
Who let the greedy in
And who left the needy out
Who made this salty soup
Tell him we're very hungry now
For a sweeter fare
In the cookie I read
"some get the gravy
And some get the gristle
Some get the marrow bone
And some get nothing
Though there's plenty to spare"

by Joni Mitchell

A song from the album Mingus featuring tunes by Jazz master Charles Mingus and her own words:

From the same album as above, this song features electric bassist Jaco Pastorius:

Here she covers (and adapts) a Dylan song:

Filmed/ directed/ edited by Joni Mitchell | additional video post-production/ editing by sonicboy19:

Two versions of a Gershwin classic:

Cherokee Louise

Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel
In the Broadway Bridge*
We're crawling on our knees
We've got flashlights and batteries
We've got cold cuts from the fridge

Last year about this time
We used to climb up in the branches
Just to sway there in some breeze
Now the cops on the street
They want Cherokee Louise

People like to talk
Tongues are waggin' over fences
Waggin' over phones
All their doors are locked
God she can't even come to our house
But I know where she'll go

To the place where you can stand
And press your hands like it was bubblebath
In dust piled high as me
Down under the street
My friend
Poor Cherokee Louise

Ever since we turned thirteen
It's like a minefield
Walking to the door
Going out you get the third degree
And comin' in you get the third world war

Tuesday after school
We put our pennies on the rails
And when the train went by
We were jumpin' round like fools
Goin' "Look no heads or tails"
Goin' "Look my lucky prize"

She runs home to her foster dad
He opens up a zipper
And he yanks her to her knees
Oh please be here please
My friend
Poor Cherokee Louise

Cherokee Louise is hiding in this tunnel
In the Broadway bridge
We're crawling on our knees
We've got Archie and Silver Screen
I know where she is

The place where you can stand
And press your hand like it was bubblebath
In dust piled high as me
Down under the street
My friend
Poor Cherokee Louise
Oh Cherokee Louise

3 songs from her 1st beautiful orchestral CD Both Sides Now (released 2000) with Wayne Shorter, saxophone;  Chuck Berghofer, bass; Peter Erskine, drums; Mark Isham, trumpet; Herbie Hancock, piano.  Arranged for orchestra and conducted by Vince Mendoza:

Full-length documentary/concert film recorded in 1998 at Warner’s Lot in Los Angeles. Musicians = Brian Blade, drums; Mark Isham, trumpet; Greg Leisz, pedal steel; Larry Klein, bass:

A tribute to Joni by Brian Blade, jazz drummer:

Recorded with an orchestra, 20-voice choir, and key musicians such as Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Joni’s Travelogue presents stirring reinterpretations of some of Mitchell’s most significant songs:

Images in video below: Paintings by John William Waterhouse RA (6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917), an English painter known for his affinity with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; its style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend. “Avarice (Avaritia) 1558,” from the series “The Seven Deadly Sins,” by Pieter van der Heyden, after drawings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Unknown artists: the Dawn Treader ship (see C.S Lewis’ Narnia); the sunken galleon; and photographs of Joni Mitchell. Performers in video below: Vocals – Joni Mitchell; Orchestrator/Conductor – Vince Mendoza; Double Bass [Acoustic Bass] – Chuck Berghofer; Drums – Brian Blade; Flugelhorn – Kenny Wheeler; Leader of the Orchestra – Gavyn Wright; Organ [B-3] – Billy Preston; Percussion – Paulinho Da Costa; Piano – Herbie Hancock; Producers – Joni Mitchell, Larry Klein; Saxophone [Soprano] – Wayne Shorter; Saxophone [Tenor] – Plas Johnson

THE DAWNTREADER

Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions 
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor 
Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where 
Never mind their questions there's no answer for 
The roll of the harbour wake 
The songs that the rigging makes 
The taste of the spray he takes 
And he learns to give 
He aches and he learns to live 
He stakes all his silver 
On a promise to be free 
Mermaids live in colonies 
All his seadreams come to me 
City satins left at home 
I will not need them 
I believe him when he tells of loving me 
Something truthful in the sea your lies will find you 
Leave behind your streets he said and come to me 
Come down from the neon nights 
Come down from the tourist sights 
Run down till the rain delights you 
You do not hide 
Sunlight will renew your pride 
Skin white by skin golden 
Like a promise to be free 
Dolphins playing in the sea 
All his seadreams come to me 
Seabird I have seen you fly above the pilings 
I am smiling at your circles in the air 
I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping 
Fold your fleet wings 
I have brought some dreams to share 
A dream that you love someone 
A dream that the wars are done 
A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea 
They'll say that you're crazy 
And a dream of a baby 
Like a promise to be free 
Children laughing out to sea 
All his seadreams come to me 
All his seadreams come to me

by Joni Mitchell

Playlist of nearly 200 songs: