"Both Sides Now": Joni Mitchell Classic

Even if you don’t know or barely know singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, now 81 and the subject of at least two documentaries ( the acclaimed 2003 Joni Mitchell: A Woman of Heart and Mind and the recent Joni Mitchell, Lady Blue) odds are you do know her song “Both Sides, Now.” Well over 500 cover versions exist, according to Secondhandsongs.com. It landed on Mitchell’s second album, after first being recorded by Judy Collins.

The main lyrics:

Rows and floes of angel hairAnd ice cream castles in the airAnd feather canyons everywhereLooked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sunThey rain and they snow on everyoneSo many things I would have doneBut clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides nowFrom up and down and still somehowIt’s cloud illusions I recallI really don’t know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheelsThe dizzy dancing way that you feelAs every fairy tale comes realI’ve looked at love that way

But now it’s just another showAnd you leave ’em laughing when you goAnd if you care, don’t let them knowDon’t give yourself away

I’ve looked at love from both sides nowFrom give and take and still somehowIt’s love’s illusions that I recallI really don’t know loveI really don’t know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proudTo say, “I love you, ” right out loudDreams and schemes and circus crowdsI’ve looked at life that way

Oh, but now old friends, they’re acting strangeAnd they shake their heads and they tell me that I’ve changedWell, something’s lost, but something’s gainedIn living every day

I’ve looked at life from both sides nowFrom win and lose and still somehowIt’s life’s illusions I recallI really don’t know life at all…

Many have been interested in what these interesting words actually mean. Below are selected quotes from just a few who’ve addressed this:

Hal Horowitz, AmericanSongwriter.com: “The three verses reflect the protagonist-vocalist—clearly, Mitchell—looking at clouds, love, and finally life from both sides: ‘up and down’ (clouds), ‘give and take’ (love), and finally ‘win and lose’ (life). She closes each section by admitting she really doesn’t know clouds, love, or life at all…”

Rolling Stone: “…a meditation on personal ambition and the distance between illusion and reality, with a melody as thoughtful and heartbreaking as its lyric.”

Lucy Harbron, FarOutMagazine.co.uk: “In a world that demands we learn from our mistakes and experiences, ‘Both Sides Now’ is a hymn for those who simply don’t know and a reminder that maybe that’s okay.”

Joni live in 1970:

Joni in 2022, the first time the public heard her sing “Both Sides, Now”(or at all) since working on her recovery from a brain aneurysm and other health issues. Needless to say, this blew her fans at the Newport Folk Festival away.