THE FIDDLE AND THE DRUM Joni Mitchell

And so once again My dear Johnny my dear friend And so once again you are fightin' us all And when I ask you why You raise your sticks and cry, and I fall Oh, my friend How did you come To trade

PAPRIKA PLAINS Joni Mitchell

It fell from midnight skies It drummed on the galvanized In the washroom, women tracked the rain Up to the make-up mirror Liquid soap and grass And Jungle Gardenia crash On Pine-Sol and beer ..

THE HISSING OF SUMMER LAWNS Joni Mitchell

He bought her a diamond for her throat He put her in a ranch house on a hill She could see the valley barbecues From her window sill See the blue pools in the squinting sun Hear the hissing of summer

THIS FLIGHT TONIGHT Joni Mitchell

Look out the left the captain said The lights down there, that's where we'll land I saw a falling star burn up Above the Las Vegas sands It wasn't the one that you gave to me That night down south

THE PRIEST Joni Mitchell

The priest sat in the airport bar He was wearing his father's tie And his eyes looked into my eyes so far Whenever the words ran dry Behind the lash and the circles blue He looked as only a priest

THE DAWNTREADER Joni Mitchell

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

THE GALLERY Joni Mitchell

When I first saw your gallery I liked the ones of ladies Then you began to hang up me You studied to portray me In ice and greens And old blue jeans And naked in the roses Then you got into funny

THE WOLF THAT LIVES IN LINDSEY Joni Mitchell

Of the darkness in men's minds What can you say That wasn't marked by history Or the T.V. news today He gets away with murder The blizzards come and go The stab and glare and buckshot Of the heavy

SEX KILLS Joni Mitchell

I pulled up behind a Cadillac; We were waiting for the light; And I took a look at his license plate- It said, "Just Ice." Is justice just ice? Governed by greed and lust?

THE CIRCLE GAME Joni Mitchell

Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like, when you're older, must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and

The Circle Game (LP Version) Joni Mitchell

Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like, when you're older, must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and

Circle Game Joni Mitchell

over ten clear frozen streams Words like, when you're older, must appease him And promises of someday make his dreams And the seasons they go round and round And the painted ponies go up and down We're

SNAKES AND LADDERS Joni Mitchell

He In a shopping mall Finally met the perfect girl She is all that matters The only one in all the world Like a Barbie doll Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders She Just to have

NATHAN LA FRANEER Joni Mitchell

I hired a coach to take me from confusion to the plane And though we shared a common space I know I'll never meet again The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror I read his name

THE THREE GREAT STIMULANTS Joni Mitchell

Artifice, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets and the drone of planes at night has never frightened me I keep the hours and the company

The Three Great Stimulants (Album Version) Joni Mitchell

, brutality and innocence Artifice and innocence No tanks have ever rumbled through these streets and the drone of planes at night has never frightened me I keep the hours and the company that I please

BANQUET Joni Mitchell

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

Snakes And Ladders (Album Version) Joni Mitchell

He In a shopping mall Finally met the perfect girl She is all that matters The only one in all the world Like a Barbie doll Oh love is snakes and ladders Snakes and ladders She Just to have and hold Is

TAMING THE TIGER Joni Mitchell

I stepped outside to breathe the air And stare up at the stars Big dipper hanging there Over the rented car Over the rented car I'm a runaway from the record biz From the hoods in the hood and

CHELSEA MORNING Joni Mitchell

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes

Urge For Going Joni Mitchell

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down When the sun turns traitor cold and shivering trees are standing in a naked row I get the urge

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter Joni Mitchell

Our serpents love the whisky bars They love the romance of the crime But didn't I see a neon sign Fester on your hotel blind And a country road come off the wall And swoop down at the crowd at the bar

COYOTE Joni Mitchell

There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit

THE JUNGLE LINE Joni Mitchell

Rousseau walks on trumpet paths Safaris to the heart of all that jazz Through I bars and girders-through wires and pipes The mathematic circuits of the modern nights Through huts, through Harlem,

FOR THE ROSES Joni Mitchell

to the airport- Your name's in the news Everything's first class- The lights go down- And it's just you up there Getting them to feel like that Remember the days when you used to sit And make

For the Roses (LP Version) Joni Mitchell

to the airport- Your names in the news Everythings first class- The lights go down- And its just you up there Getting them to feel like that Remember the days when you used to sit And make up your

FURRY SINGS THE BLUES Joni Mitchell

Old Beale Street is coming down Sweeties' Snack Bar, boarded up now And Egles The Tailor and the Shine Boy's gone Faded out with ragtime blues Handy's cast in bronze And he's standing in a little

FICTION Joni Mitchell

of the image and the image makers Fiction of the magazines Fiction of the movies Fiction of the "Buy me," "Watch me," "Listen to me" I can't decide I'm so confused Which way to go?

Fiction (Album Version) Joni Mitchell

papers Fiction of the image and the image makers Fiction of the magazines Fiction of the movies Fiction of the Buy me, Watch me, Listen to me I can't decide I'm so confused Which way to go I'm being useful

COURT AND SPARK Joni Mitchell

Love came to my door With a sleeping roll And a madman's soul He thought for sure I'd seen him Dancing up a river in the dark Looking for a woman To court and spark He was playing on the sidewalk

SLOUCHING TOWARD BETHLEHEM Joni Mitchell

Turning and turning Within the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart The center cannot hold And a blood dimmed tide Is loosed upon the world Nothing is sacred

Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joni Mitchell

Turning and turning Within the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart The center cannot hold And a blood dimmed tide Is loosed upon the world Nothing is sacred

ELECTRICITY Joni Mitchell

The Minus is loveless He talks to the land And the leaves fall And the pond over-ices She don't know the system, Plus She don't understand She's got all the wrong fuses and splices She's not going

MY OLD MAN Joni Mitchell

My old man He's a singer in the park He's a walker in the rain He's a dancer in the dark We don't need no piece of paper From the city hall Keeping us tied and true My old man Keeping away my

REFUGE OF THE ROADS Joni Mitchell

Would always be denied "Heart and humor and humility" He said "Will lighten up your heavy load" I left him for the refuge of the roads I fell in with some drifters Cast upon a beachtown Winn

MOON AT THE WINDOW Joni Mitchell

It takes cheerful resignation Heart and humility That's all it takes A cheerful person told me Nobody's harder on me than me How could they be And, nobody's harder on you than you Betsy's blue

SONG FOR SHARON Joni Mitchell

Mama and Betsy say-"Find yourself a charity." Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology."

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Album Version) Joni Mitchell

Turning and turning Within the widening grey The falcon cannot hear the falconer Things fall apart The centre cannot hold And a blood dimmed tide Is loosed upon the world Nothing is sacred The ceremony

OTIS AND MARLENA Joni Mitchell

Marlena under Foster Grants She's undercover from the dawns advance That girl is travel-drained And the neon mercury vapor stained Miami sky It's red as meat It's a cheap pink rose Otis in the

SONG TO A SEAGULL Joni Mitchell

Fly silly seabird No dreams can possess you No voices can blame you For sun on your wings My gentle relations Have names they must call me For loving the freedom Of all flying things My dreams

THE ARRANGEMENT Joni Mitchell

You could have been more Than a name on the door On the thirty-third floor in the air More than a credit card Swimming pool in the backyard While you still have the time You could get away and

THE PIRATE OF PENANCE Joni Mitchell

in a harbor town I know he told her love was treasure And they would reap the fullest bounty He only comes to port for pleasure So when the winds of morning Blew the curtains in she woke and found

IMPOSSIBLE DREAMER Joni Mitchell

The street was loud From an angry crowd and I thought of you, I thought of you Dreamer Land of the free No hungry bellies Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue

Impossible Dreamer (Album Version) Joni Mitchell

The street was loud From an angry crowd and I thought of you, I thought of you Dreamer Land of the free No hungry bellies Impossible Impossible dreamer In the darkest part of the night Blue shadows conjure

NO APOLOGIES Joni Mitchell

The general offered No apologies He said "The soldiers erred in judgement They should have hired a hooker" No apologies to the outraged Japanese No "Sorry little girl" The pigs just took her

BARANGRILL Joni Mitchell

Three waitresses all wearing Black diamond earrings Talking about zombies And Singapore slings No trouble in their faces Not one anxious voice None of the crazy you get From too much choice The

THE SAME SITUATION Joni Mitchell

Again and again the same situation For so many years Tethered to a ringing telephone In a room full ot mirrors A pretty girl in your bathroom Checking out her sex appeal I asked myself when you

BLONDE IN THE BLEACHERS Joni Mitchell

The blonde in the bleachers She flips her hair for you Above the loudspeakers You start to fall She follows you home But you miss living alone You can still hear sweet mysteries Calling you The

I Wish I Were In Love Again Joni Mitchell

The sleepless nights The daily fights The quick toboggan when you reach the heights I miss the kisses and I miss the bites I wish I were in love again The broken dates The endless waits The

CACTUS TREE Joni Mitchell

has called her from the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to starboard In the breaking and the breathing Of the water weeds While she was busy being free There's a