Joni Mitchell

[fox69]

"Ladies Of The Canyon"

"Ladies Of The Canyon"



Trinna wears her wampum beads
She fills her drawing book with lines
Sweing lace on widows weeds
And filagree on leaf and vine
Vine and leave are filagree
And her coats a second hand one
Trimmed in antique luxury
She is a lady of the canyon

Annie sits you down to eat
She always makes you welcome in
Cats and babies round her feet
And all are fat and none are thin
None are thin and all are fat
She may bake some brownies today
Saying, you are welcome back
She is another canyon lady

Estrella circus girl
Comes wrapped in songs and gypsy shalws
Songs like tiny hammers hurled
At bevelled mirrors in empty halls
Empty halles and bevelled mirrors
Sailing seas and climbing banyans
Come out for a visit here
To be a lady of the canyon

Trinna takes her pains and her threads
And she weaves a pattern all her own
Annie bakes her cakes and her breads
And she gathers flowers for her home
For her home she gathers flowers
And Estrella, dear companion
Colors up the sunshine hours
Pouring music down the canyon
Coloring the sunshine hours
They are the ladies of the canyon

 

[fox69]

"Lakota"

"Lakota"


I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Looking at money man--
Diggin' the deadly quotas--
Out of balance--
Out of hand
We want the land!
Lay down the reeking ore!
Don't you hear the shrieking in the trees?
Everywhere you touch the earth--she's sore
Every time you skin her all things weep
Your money mocks us--
Restitution--what good can it do?--
Kennelled in metered boxes
Red dogs in debt to you

I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Fighting among ourselves
All we can say with one whole heart
Is we won't sell--
No we'll never sell
We want the land!
The lonely coyote calls
In the woodlands--footprints of the deer
In the barrooms--poor drunk bastard falls
In the courtrooms--deaf ears--sixty years
You think we're sleeping--but
Quietly like rattlesnakes and stars
We have seen the trampled rainbows
In the smoke of cars

I am Lakota
Brave
Sun pity me
I am Lakota
Broken
Moon pity me
I am Lakota
Grave
Shadows stretching
Lakota
Oh pity me
I am Lakota
Weak
Grass pity me
I am Lakota
Faithful
Rocks pity me
I am Lakota
Meek
Standing water
Lakota
Oh pity me

I am Lakota!
Lakota!
Standing on sacred land
We never sold these Black Hills
To the missile-heads--
To the power plants
We want the land!
The bullet and the fence--broke Lakota
The black coats and the booze--broke Lakota
Courts that circumvent--choke Lakota
Nothing left to lose
Tell me grandfather
You spoke the fur and feather tongues--
Do you hear the whimpering waters
When the tractors come?

[Repeat Chorus]

Sun pity me
Mother earth
Mother
Moon pity me
Father sky
Father
Shadows
Stretching on the forest floor
Mother earth
Oh pity me
Father sky
Father
Grass pity me
Mother earth
Mother
Rocks pity me
Father sky
Father
Water
Standing in a wakan manner
Mother earth
Oh pity me

 

[fox69]

"Last Chance Lost"

"Last Chance Lost"



Last chance lost--
In the tyranny of a long good-bye
Last chance lost--
We talk of us with deadly earnest eyes
Last chance lost--
We talk of love in terms of sacrifice and compromise
Last chance--
Last chance lost

Last chance lost--
The hero cannot make the change
Last chance lost--
The shrew will not be tamed
Last chance lost--
They bicker on the rifle range
Blame takes aim
Last chance--
Last chance lost

 

[fox69]

"Lead Balloon"

"Lead Balloon"



"Kiss my ass!" I said
and I threw my drink
Tequila trickling
Down his business suit
Must be the Irish blood
Fight before you think
Turn it now
You can't cowtow
You can't undo it
It's his town
And that went down
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
He said "Sic her, Rover"
That went over
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon

An angry man is just an angry man
But an angry woman
Bitch!
I had to ask him for a helping hand
It came with the heart
Of a Bonaparte
Of a frozen fish
It's his town
And that went down
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
He said "Sic her, Rover"
That went over
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon

Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon, lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon

It's his town
and that went down
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead balloon
He said "Sic her, Rover"
That went over
Like a lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead lead lead lead balloon
Lead balloon

 

[fox69]

"Lesson In Survival"

"Lesson In Survival"



Lesson in Survival
Spinning out on turns
That gets you tough
Guru books-the Bible
Only a reminder
That you're just not good enough
You need to believe in something
Once I could in our love
Black road
Double yellow line
Friends and kin
Campers in the kitchen
That's fine sometimes
But I know my needs
My sweet tumbleweed
I need more quiet times
By a river flowing
You and me
Deep kisses
And the sun going down

Maybe it's paranoia
Maybe it's sensitivity
Your friends protect you
Scrutinize me
I get so damn timid
Not at all the spirit
That's inside of me
Oh baby I can't seem to make it
With you socially
There's this reef around me
I'm looking way out at the ocean
Love to see that green water in motion
I'm going to get a boat
And we can row it
If you ever get the notion
To be needed by me
Fresh salmon frying
And the tide rolling in

I went to see a friend tonight
'Was very late when I walked in
My talking as it rambled
Revealed suspicious reasoning
The visit seemed to darken him
I came in as bright
As a neon light
And I burned out
Right there before him
I told him these things
I'm telling you now
Watched them buckle up
In his brow
When you dig down deep
You lose good sleep
And it makes you
Heavy company
I will always love you
Hands alike
Magnet and iron
The souls

 

[fox69]

"Let The Wind Carry Me"

"Let The Wind Carry Me"



Papa's faith is people
Mama she believes in cleaning
Papa's faith is in people
Mama she's always cleaning
Papa brought home the sugar
Mama taught me the deeper meaning
She don't like my kick pleat skirt
She don't like my eyelids painted green
She don't like me staying up late
In my high-heeled shoes
Living for that Rock'n'Roll dancing scene
Papa says "Leave the girl alone, Mother
She's looking like a Movie Queen"

Mama thinks she spoilt me
Papa knows somehow he set me free
Mama thinks she spoilt me rotten
She blames herself
But papa he blesses me
It's a rough road to travel
Mama let go now
It's always called for me
Sometimes I get that feeling
And I want to settle
And raise a child up with somebody
I get that strong longing
And I want to settle
And raise a child up with somebody
But it passes like the summer
I'm a wild seed again
Let the wind carry me

 

[fox69]

"Little Green"

"Little Green"



Born with the moon in Cancer
Choose her a name she'll answer too
Call her green and the winters can not fade her
Call her green for the children who have made her
Little, green, be a gypsy dancer

He went to California
Hearing that everything's warmer there
So you write him a letter, say, "her eyes are blue"
He sends you a poem and she's lost to you
Little, green, he's a non-comformer

Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the night's when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow

Child with a child pretending
Weary of lies you're sending home
So you sign all the papers in the family name
You're sad and you're sorry but you're not ashamed
Little green, have a happy ending

Just a little green
Like the color when the spring is born
There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow
Just a little green
Like the night's when the Northern lights perform
There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow

 

[fox69]

"Love (Corinthians II:13)"

"Love (Corinthians II:13)"



Although I speak in tongues
Of men and angels
I'm just sounding brass
And tinkling cymbals without love

Love suffers long
Love is kind!
Enduring all things
Love has no evil in mind

If I had the gift of prophecy
And all the knowledge
And the faith to move the mountains
Even if I understood all of the mysteries
If I didn't have love
I'd be nothing

Love never looks for love
Love's not puffed up
Or envious
Or touchy
Because it rejoices in the truth
Not in iniquity
Love sees like a child sees

As a child I spoke as a child
I thought and I understood as a child
But when I became a woman
I put away childish things
And began to see through a glass darkly

Where as a child I saw it face to face
Now I only know it in part
Fractions in me
Of faith and hope and love
And of these great three
Love's the greatest beauty
Love
Love
Love

 

[fox69]

"Love Or Money"

"Love Or Money"



The firmament of Tinsel Town
Is strung with tungsten stars
Lot's of forty watt successes
He says where's my own shining hour
He's the well kept secret of the underground
He's in debt to the company store
Because his only channelled aspiration
Was getting back that girl he had before
He's got stacks and stacks of words that rhyme
Describing what it is to lose
He's got some just for laughs
He's got some for love
That mainline to his blues
Some to shed a little light on you and on me
Some to shed a little light on the human story

The wars of pride and property
The rebel Irish and the promised land Jew
Fighting behind his eyes and over seas
Wounded in action and no ceasefire in view
Brave reporters bring the battles home
But tonight inside that box
Just more bang bang ketchup color to him
Just more Twentieth Century Fox
All because that ghostly girl comes haunting
Just out of reach-outside his bed
And she kicks the covers off his sleep
For the clumsy things he said
She commands his head-She tries his sanity
She demands his head-Tonight unknowingly

Vaguely she floats and lacelike
Blown in like a curtain on the night wind
She's nebulous and naked
He wonders where she's been
He grabs at the air because there's nothing there
Her evasiveness stings him
With long legs-long lonely legs
Bruised from banging into things
One day he was standing just outside her door
He was carrying an armload of bright balloons
She just laughed
She said she heard him knocking
And she teased him for the moon
"Is one the moon, dear clown,
Tied to a string for me?"
He tried but he could not get it down
For truth or for mystery
He tried but he could not get it down
For love or money

 

[fox69]

"Love Puts On A New Face"

"Love Puts On A New Face"



He said "You think you're a lady
But I know you're a woman
We are as young as the night"
I said "No telephones ringing
No company coming
Just the lap of the lake and the firelight"
And the lonely loon and the crescent moon
What a pocket of heavenly grace
But in France they say
Everyday
Love puts on a new face
Love has many faces

About a month or so later he said
"Why can't you be happy
You make me feel helpless when you get this way"
I said "I'm up to my neck in alligators
Jaws gnashing at me
Each one trying to pull a piece away"
Darling, you can't slay these beasts of prey
Some bad dreams even love can't erase
But in France they say
Everyday
Love puts on a new face
Love has many faces

He said "I wish you were with me here
The leaves are electric
They burn on the river bank
Countless heatless flames"
I said "Send me some pictures then
And I'll paint pyrotechnic
Explosions of your autumn till we meet again
I miss your touch and your lips so much
I long for our next embrace"
But in France they say
Everyday
Love puts on a new face
Love puts on a new face
Love has many faces
Many many faces