Note that she's playing "Jingle bells" on the piano in minor and diminished keys at the beginning and end of the song. Lyrics I think mean that everyone else is celebrating but she is sad and can't feel joy because of the relationship ending that she thinks is her fault, she describes self-sabotaging the relationship with someone she loved; so she wishes she could just escape - escape the celebrations? escape herself? - by skating away on a long long river, like flying away. She's in a warm place, probably LA, where she can make a lot of money; but she feels like an outsider and wishes she was in the snowy cold place of her childhood, where rivers ice up and you can skate on them in December. Such an evocative song.
This is one of my favorite Joni Mitchell songs. Apparently it is about her breakup with Graham Nash of Crosby, Stills and Nash. It's from her album, Blue. Rolling Stone magazine considers Blue one of the top 5 albums of all time. Also on Blue is my very favorite song, another sad one called "A Case if You". I highly recommend it . Another lovely song is "Both Sides Now" with a very deep message. She wrote it in her early 20's. You may want to compare her version in her 20's and then another in her 50's. Both are amazing. I just found you and enjoy your channel.
Hi Pope! A sad but beautiful song on Joni's album "Blue", my favorite. She's singing about skating away on a frozen river. She's a poet, a songwriter, a singer, a multi-instrumentalist, and an artist (she painted her early album covers).
No, you're not. You're not thinking about it too deep, but it's just that she's talking about it being wintertime, but that it doesn't really snow there, but she's saying that she wishes it did because, yeah, if there was a river, then it would be frozen, then she could skate down the river, and if it was long enough She could teach her feet to fly, meaning. She just wants to. Get away from the sadness of a relationship that she ruined. And now she's feeling bad about it, and it's getting towards that time of year, where the days are short and family and she's alone.
She’s wanting to escape herself because she can’t stop fucking up her relationships. “He tried hard to love me. He put me at ease, and he loved me so naughty made me weak in the knees (but) I’m selfish and I’m sad. Now I’ve lost the best baby I ever had.”
She's from the plains of Canada where you're as likely to skate on a river as swim in one. And she's writing the song in LA which had no frozen rivers at all for her to skate away on.
It's the emotions music like this evokes that move our hearts. Christmas, like childhood, can be bittersweet. Who hasn't hurt someone they love? Or been hurt? She had a good thing going and messed it up. She wishes she could stop feeling bad about herself and so miserable while others seem so happy, but she can't. She has to deal. So she writes this song to get it out. Take a word of advice here: Never fall in love with a musician.
I feel the song is about a person who can't understand joy because of the decisions she may have made. She sees people celebrating Christmas as a common seasonal thing she cannot relate to because she may have hurt someone badly and her only wintry solace is to skate away with a sad guilt.
In Canada the rivers freeze in the winter and we skate on them when they do. It's fun. They set places to eat and drink and you can skate for miles and miles.
Hello New Subscriber BC of precious Joni🎉 My best friend of 30 years fav Joni song RIP our Susi Please react to :THE GALLERY” BBC Live 1969? Version🫶🏼 Thanks! You’re very sweet also ! Moni RN📿
I love Joni and this song is so beautiful. It is Winter (it's coming on Christmas) and Joni is Canadian so rivers would be frozen more than likely but also ice skating feels like flying, so smooth and so fast. At any rate, the song is about how she ruined a love relationship that was the best she had ever had and she just wants to go far, far away from the feelings of loneliness and pain. Joni's life has been plagued with love that didn't work out, it seems that she always has to move on. I don't think she is good at that kind of commitment and on top of that, the life of a touring musician is really not one that lends itself to a settled down relationship with a husband and children. The more of her music you listen to, you will learn of her sadness. Joni is also a painter. She once said something to the effect of I sing for my sorrow and I paint for my joy. Her paintings are as expressive as her songs.
Hey Pope. Joan Baez - Diamonds and Rust. She wrote this song about her relationship with Bob Dylan, but never admitted it for a very, very long time. She is an angel with such a pure voice and a wonderful guitar player.
a break-up from someone she thought she'd marry. Being Canadian and an ice skater, and based on a winter theme, "skating away" fits in nicely with the overall theme! 🙂
A lot of people feel blue or melancholy during the Holidays (fdue to a breakup or whatever reason), and Joni captures that feeling so well here. Not everone is happy during the Holidays.
Ice skating, she's from a land of snow in a land of green, presumably California making her music in the industry. She wants to go home though, gonna make her money and leave this crazy town. Tons of people break up during the Holidays. Everyone is celebrating Christmas but she doesn't feel it this year. she just wants to Fly/skate away from it all, chastising herself for screwing up her relationship...so selfish and lost the best baby she ever had.
I think there's a good explanation of the lyrics below by aery, but I know what she's talking about in a bigger sense. You just want to get away from everything and go to a better place. Assuming there's different meanings to it outside of man-woman relationships.
Honey, I think you really get this song. Whatever you're going through, it's clear that this song hits that nerve. Much love to you. And good luck with all of it.
Joni is an amazing artist. She writes the lyrics, piano and guitar music. She also plays it all perfectly. Her voice is another muscical instrument. Unique and beautiful ❤
She is regretting letting her emotions and career get the better of her and it destroys a relationship. She’s in LA and she’s a Canadian,it’s near the holidays and she’s melancholy musing over the loss. ☮️ That’s my take 🌸
The song is about facing the holidays alone....after you broke someone's heart. And you just want to fly away and escape. Everyone is getting ready for celebration....and you just want to escape. It's a beautiful and emotional picture she paints...
She gave up her daughter for adoption so its not hard to think she is also referring to her. Many years later Joni's daughter decided to find out her her mother was. Imagine learning your birth mother is Joni ?!? Joni agreed to reunite with her daughter, who also had a daughter, and thus Joni now had an instant family, closing the circle of longing she has been singing about her entire career.
People skate on frozen rivers (in areas where they freeze)--it's a winter activity. She's talking about how much she just wants to escape (skating away on the frozen river) because she just broke up with her man.
Where are the artists like her today? A simple piano, or a simple acoustic guitar, a song with magical lyrics, and a lovely and wonderful spirit in Joni. Where is the good in music today? Where is the music that you ponder when you are alone that brings peace, love, and harmony to your life and makes you feel good inside?
This is my most favorite Christmas song followed by Hard Candy Christmas by Dolly Parton.. Anyway, Joni Mitchell has a masterful way with words. Many, many people (including Prince) were inspired by her works. She had a brain aneurysm in 2015 and had to relearn how to play guitar again, along with many other things, that I hope she has since recovered. She’s finally getting the attention and respect she deserves. This can be a Christmas song for people who are alone on Christmas. The river is iced cuz she’s from Canada which is a place where rivers can freeze. Everything she does is good, haha. Just see what gets recommended the most I guess.
Is it about being alone at Christmas???? I love that she's open enough to admit she's sad and selfish ~ and take responsibility for the relationship ending.
I think you might enjoy her song "Coyote", supposedly about her relationship with playwright/actor Sam Shepherd. Yet another of her relationships that didn't go smoothly.
Hey Pope...just watched the A&E documentary by Questlove on James Brown. I think you'd enjoy it. I saw him in concert in his later years. I was a fan of his as a little kid in the 60's. ❤😊
"I would teach my feet to "FLY".' (Not "run" - that lyric is wrong.) Joni's "selfish and sad ...." behaviour made her lover cry, made her lover say goodbye. But it's Christmas and everyone is celebrating, but all Joni wants is a river to skate/fly away on - to leave the world and her sadness behind.
The song was written in the aftermath of breaking up with Graham Nash and Joni had taken up with James Taylor and the two of them flew to Paris in December.
Graham Nash and Joni Mitchell both cheated on their relationship. It's well documented. Being on the road in the 1970's when free love was fashion eventually ended up in heartache for many and reality for some, inspired many songs by singer Songwriters. Me, i'm celibate. I don't want to hurt another person with love like I've been hurt. After 58 years, I'd rather be alone. I'm happy here.
Joni started as a folk singer, to become a jazz/pop singer. She is a multi-instrumentalist musician, a poet/lyricist, producer, a painter, a jazz experimental artist with her album Mingus, before coming back to a more accessible form, and of course being my preferred female artist of all time. She just won a Grammy at 80 years old 3 weeks ago.
Beautiful haunting song of regret that she can create like no other.Many people have covered this including Linda Ronstadt but this original is still the standard of why she is so revered
