Joni Mitchell sometimes seems to be reading aloud from her diary; a song begins with a "where" and a "when."
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.
A song will grow out of an observation about the neighbors:
It's coming on Christmas--
They're cutting down trees.
They're putting up reindeer--
And singing songs of joy and peace.
In a diary, you may argue with yourself. This is what Joni Mitchell does in "River." At the start of the song, it's the external world that is unsatisfying. "It don't snow here." Also: "I'm gonna make a lot of money--and I'll quit this crazy scene." "I wish I had a river I could skate away on." But this initial brattiness/petulance gets discarded. It's not California that is disappointing. It's Joni Mitchell herself:
I'm so hard to handle.
I'm selfish and I'm sad--
Now I've gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had.
Oh, I wish I had a river--
I could skate away on.
This is the most rudimentary story. It's hardly a story. But it's the way that she narrates that is interesting. The confession at the end is a climax. It's hard-won.
The song has the simplest metaphor--an idea about a person trying to shed her own skin:
I wish I had a river so long--
I would teach my feet to fly.
I wish I had a river--
I could skate away on.
You can draw a line from this number to Janet Jackson's "Velvet Rope"--which is also about making mistakes and living with the consequences.
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