FEATURE SONG – FREE MAN IN PARIS by JONI MITCHELL

I’ve never been the world’s biggest Joni Mitchell, but this is one of a handful of her songs that I really like. Having said that, it never occurred to me until just yesterday to Google the meaning of it. By that I mean find out who the song is about. I can’t believe I haven’t done that before, especially since, in my forthcoming sequel to Papa Do Run, I devote a whole chapter to songs about “real” people. Duh-uh! Anyway, I’ve made up for lost time. I now know whom this song is about. You may have known the person behind the lyrics for donkey’s years, but I’m a bit of a late bloomer sometimes, so go easy on me SVP, as we say in Canada (short for s’il vous plait). Here, from Wikipedia:

"Free Man In Paris" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. It appeared on her 1974 album Court and Spark, as well as her live album Shadows and Light. It is one of her more popular songs...(and) is about music agent/promoter David Geffen, a close friend in the early 1970s and a trip they made to Paris with Robbie and Dominique Robertson.

Now, I think that’s pretty cool. I don’t usually go in for much celebraity gossip, but I do like to know about song enigmas, etc. However, this next part of the Wiki entry leaves me stymied. Read on:

In 2007 the song was covered by Sufjan Stevens for a tribute to Joni Mitchell compilation. Similar to his cover of The Beatles "What Goes On", Stevens kept only the lyrics and let the words inspire him to write a new arrangement and melody for the song Stevens has stated that with his cover he "decided to conjure up a party song, with strings and trumpets and trombones and vibraphones marching in a parade down the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe, all lit up with fireworks."

I don’t get it. To be totally honest here, this just ticks me off. You take a nice song like Free Man in Paris, with not only wonderful lyrics, but a great melody, and when you decide to cover it, you change half of it??!! Why would you do that? Why?? If mean, why not just write a whole new song, your own song, about a parade in the Champs Elysees? Maybe because I’m not a musician you can say that I just don’t understand. No argument from me. In my defense, I have to say that when I like a song, I really like it and don’t like to see it messed with. Okay, I know you all are familiar with this one, but here’s a nice video of it so we can all sing along, picture David Geffen with a phone receiver on each ear, and enjoy Joni’s brilliant lyrics AND melody.







Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Video by YT member hanbanxxx

JONI MITCHELL AND ALL THAT JAZZ

A couple of days ago I received a link to a YouTube video from Christine (of the quietpaths blog). It was wonderful old b/w footage from 1966 of Joni Mitchell singing “The Circle Game.” Christine also asked if I’d do a post about it, and , never being one to say “no” to more oldies trivia, I went right to work. Christine also put a post on her blog today, with some thoughts on Joni, and a really nice video of “Coyote” which I’ll put a link for below.

My first exposure to Joni Mitchell songs came through covers by Judy Collins (“Both Sides Now”) and Buffy Sainte-Marie (“The Circle Game”) in the folk-rock years of the late 60s. As the 70s began, she released her fist big single, “Big Yellow Taxi.” That was the start of a string of somewhat quirky but basically folksy hits, like “Carey” “You Turn Me On I’m A Radio” “Raised on Robbery” “Help Me” and “Free Man in Paris.” I’m a huge fan of those songs! Then in the latter half of the 70s, Joni began incorporating more jazz into her work, and that’s when I started to drift away. The reason is I’ve never been big on jazz. I used to apologize for that fact, like it was a character flaw or something, but now I only say that something either grabs you or it doesn’t. And jazz just doesn’t grab me. However, now that I have access to YouTube, I may just go browse some of Joni’s jazzy pieces. Who knows, I may surprise myself and find something I can’t live without. (Just as an aside, I’d like to point out that sometimes YouTubers are asked to remove music videos for copyright reasons. While I can understand the reason for that, the flip side for me is that I have "previewed" music on YouTube, and afterwards gone out and bought the CD.)

Before we move on to the Joni facts, let me first say this about music (or any) trivia – it’s in the mind of the beholder, so to speak. Diehard fans of the artists mentioned herein may have known this stuff for decades. Just so you know, I’m not offering any of this up as new startling research on my part. They’re just a quartet of interesting trivia about Joni Mitchell that I didn’t happen to know before. Okay, onward

• Joni Mitchell was “discovered” by David Crosby while she was singing in a club in Florida, and he helped launch her career.
• Joni Mitchell used to live with Graham Nash, and his song “Our House” on the CSNY Déjà Vu album is about the house they lived in.
• Joni wrote “The Circle Game” in response to Neil Young’s big hit about youth and growing up, “Sugar Mountain”
• Sugar Mountain was an actual teen club, hangout, whatever, where admittance was limited to those under 20, or…it’s a total metaphor. Claims vary.

Well, I hope this little sampling of trivia fits the bill. And you'll enjoy reading Christine’s thoughts and remembrances about music she loved. It always adds something to experience it through someone else’s eyes – uh, that should be ears I guess. Check out the March 05/08 post at http://www.quietpaths.com/

The Circle Game http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XOV34vsjfg

Granted it's a tiny bit of a distraction to have the people talking intermittently while she's singing, but you can't have too much trivia I always say.

About the photo: One of everybody's fave Joni songs is "Both Sides Now," so I thought I'd post a picture I took of clouds in Alberta.