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30 Of The Prettiest Joni Mitchell Lyrics That Will Melt Your Heart

Read these epic lines from Joni Mitchell's most iconic songs. 
Lauren Jarvis-Gibson
June 23, 2016
“Blue
Songs are like tattoos
You know I've been to sea before
Crown and anchor me
Or let me sail away
Hey Blue”
— Joni Mitchell, Blue
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics, Love
“It's coming on Christmas
They're cutting down trees
They're putting up reindeer
And singing songs of joy and peace
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
But it don't snow here
It stays pretty green
I'm going to make a lot of money
Then I'm going to quit this crazy scene
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on.”
— Joni Mitchell, River
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Love, River
“The wind is in from Africa, last night I couldn't sleep. Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey, but it's really not my home. My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet, and I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologne.”
— Joni Mitchell, Carey
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Behind our eyes. Calendars of our lives. Circled with compromise. Sweet bird of time and change. You must be laughing, up on your feathers laughing. Golden in time. Cities under the sand. Power ideals and beauty fading in everyone's hand. Give me some time, I feel like I'm losing mine out here on this horizon line with the earth spinning and the sky forever rushing. No one knows they can never get that close. Guesses at most.”
— Joni Mitchell, Sweet Bird
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Just a little green, like the colour when the spring is born. There'll be crocuses to bring to school tomorrow, just a little green. Like the nights when the Northern lights perform. There'll be icicles and birthday clothes, and sometimes there'll be sorrow.”
— Joni Mitchell, Little Green
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“We are stardust, we are golden and we've got to get ourselves back to the garden.”
— Joni Mitchell, Woodstock
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Just before our love got lost you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said, constantly in the darkness,
Where's that at?
If you want me I'll be in the bar.”
— Joni Mitchell, Case Of You
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Oh you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh I could drink a case of you darling
And I would still be on my feet
Oh I would still be on my feet”
— Joni Mitchell, Case Of You
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“And the seasons they go 'round and 'round
And the painted ponies go up and down
We're captive on the carousel of time
We can't return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game.”
— Joni Mitchell, The Circle Game
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“There's a man who's been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green
He 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.”
— Joni Mitchell, Cactus Tree
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“You've got to shake your fists at lightning now, you've got to roar like forest fire
You've got to spread your light like blazes all across the sky
They're going to aim the hoses on you, show 'em you won't expire
Not till you burn up every passion, not even when you die
Come on now, you've got to try, if you're feeling contempt, well then you tell it
If you're tired of the silent night, Jesus, well then you yell it
Condemned to wires and hammers, strike every chord that you feel
That broken trees and elephant ivories conceal”
— Joni Mitchell, Judgement Of The Moon And Stars
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“There'll be icicles and birthday clothes
And sometimes there'll be sorrow.”
— Joni Mitchell, Little Green
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Help me, I think I’m falling, In love with you, Are you going to let me go there by myself, That’s such a lonely thing to do, Both of us flirting around, Flirting and flirting, Hurting too, We love our lovin', But not like we love our freedom.”
— Joni Mitchell, Help Me
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Oh won’t you stay, We’ll put on the day, And we’ll talk in present tenses.”
— Joni Mitchell, Chelsea Morning
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone? They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.”
— Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Bows 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.”
— Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley
Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind
He lives in another time
Ladies in gingham still blush
While he sings them of wars and wine
But I in my leather and lace
I can never become that kind.”
— Joni Mitchell, I Had A King
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“Light up light up, light up your lazy blue eyes
Moon's up nights up taking the town by surprise
Night time night time day left an hour ago
City light time must you get ready so slow
There are places to come from and places to go
Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks fine
Music comes spilling out into the street
Colors go flashing in time.”
— Joni Mitchell, Night In The City
Tagged: 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 with the seagulls fly out of reach out of cry.”
— Joni Mitchell, Song To A Seagull
Tagged: Joni Mitchell, Lyrics
“If you're driving into town with a dark cloud above you
Dial in the number who's bound to love you
Oh honey you turn me on, I'm a radio
I'm a country station, I'm a little bit corny
I'm a wide open flower, waiting for you
I'm a broadcasting tower waving for you.”
— Joni Mitchell, You Turn Me on, I'm A Radio
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“No regrets Coyote
We just come from such different sets of circumstance
I'm up all night in the studios
And you're up early on your ranch
You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail
While the sun is ascending
And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel
There's no comprehending
Just how close to the bone & the skin & 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 and run driver
No no
Racing away.”
— Joni Mitchell, Coyote
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Sitting in a park in Paris, France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of land to see
But I wouldn't stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here.
Oh, but California
California, I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a sunset pig
California, I'm coming home.”
— Joni Mitchell, California
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“I took a house by the water
Took a man on a mountainside
Pretty house by the water
Lovely lover by the waterside
Last time I saw that man
Hung down his head and cried”
— Joni Mitchell, A Bird That Whistles
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Don't know why
There's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my man and I ain't together
Keeps rainin' all of the time
Life is bare
Gloom and misery everywhere
Stormy weather
Just can't get my poor self together
I'm weary all the time
All the time”
— Joni Mitchell, Stormy Weather
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Sometimes I'm happy
Sometimes I'm blue
My disposition depends on you
I never mind the rain from the skies
As long as I have the sun in your eyes
Sometimes I love you
Sometimes I hate you
When I hate you
It's because I love you
That's how I am
So what can I do
I'm happy when I'm with you.”
— Joni Mitchell, Sometimes I'm Happy
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be?
Oh i hate you some, I hate you some
I love you some
I love you when I forget about me
I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, want to get up and jive
wreck my stockings in some juke box dive
Do you want- do you want- do you want
to dance with me baby
do you want to take a chance
on maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby
well come on”
— Joni Mitchell, All I Want
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Moons and Junes and ferris wheels, the dizzy dancing way that 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 laughing when you go
and if you care, don't let them know, don't give yourself away.”
— Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“It came to pass
Like lightening striking from above
Electric flash
Like lightening striking from above
Struck by precious love
Precious, precious love
So hopeless and so inspired
Why do you dream flat tires?
When you dream flat tires
You dream flat tires”
— Joni Mitchell, You Dream Flat Tires
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Tomorrow is Sunday
Now there's only one day left to go
Till you walk by
Below my window
The weekends drive me mad
Holidays are oh too sad
'Cause you don't go
Below my window

No one knows I'm here
One day I just disappeared
And I took these two grey rooms up here
With a view
When you walk by
Below my window”
— Joni Mitchell, Two Grey Rooms
Tagged: Joni Mitchell
“Back in 1957
We had to dance a foot apart
And they hawk-eyed us from the sidelines
Holding their rulers without a heart
And so with just a touch of our fingers
I could make our circuitry explode
All we ever wanted
Was just to come in from the cold”
— Joni Mitchell, Come In From The Cold
Tagged: Joni Mitchell