Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now (1969)

The song heard below was written by Joni Mitchell in March of 1967 while on an airplane. She had been reading the book Henderson the Rain King by Saul Bellow, in which the main character was riding in a plane and observing the clouds below him. Mitchell, being on a plane herself at that moment, began to gaze out the window, admiring the clouds, and then began to write this song. As she told Rolling Stone magazine in 1967, “I dreamed down at the clouds, and thought that when I was a kid I had dreamed up at them, and having dreamed at the clouds from both sides as no generation of men has done, one should be able to accept his death very easily.”

A little while after her fruitful plane ride, Mitchell gave the song to Judy Collins to record and release on her October 1967 album Wildflowers. Collins’ version would go on to be released the following year as a single and became an enormous hit, earning the singer a Grammy for Best Folk Performance.

The version heard below is the first version to have been released by Joni Mitchell herself. Mitchell first decided to record and release the song for her second album released in May of 1969, titled Clouds. The singer-songwriter came back to the song again in 2000, when she re-recorded and re-released it for her album Both Sides Now. Both versions of her song received critical acclaim; the song is now regarded as one of her best; and Rolling Stone voted it #171 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.



Joni Mitchell - Both Sides, Now (1969)

Loading the ABLYAM player...(Might not work on mobile devices)

Lyrics:

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 laughin’ 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

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