A lyrical cutting: Joni Mitchell Speaks to America

We've done a number of cuttings this month and they've been well received. A reader named Stacy Johnson e-mailed asking us why we haven't yet focused on "the poetry of song lyrics."
She suggested we do a cutting from Joni Mitchell's lyrics.

When a professor started pushing Bob Dylan's Chronology as the "best book in the last fifty years" we thought about Stacy and realized that other songwriters do need to be highlighted.
We'll try to do at least one a month. And we're looking at a body of work so don't expect the latest fad to pop in here. But suggestions are welcome and read.

Joni Mitchell has two new collections out and we'll link to Amazon for anyone interested in them
Beginning of Survival and Dreamland which are both strong but we favor Beginning of Survival.

There's a section of Joni Mitchell's "Judgement of the Moon and Stars (Ludwig's Tune)" that we would have liked to work in ("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") but we decided to assemble the cutting with "you" standing for America. Hence the title, "Joni Mitchell Speaks to America." We'll also note that we had help from C.I. of The Common Ills and that we saw a problem quickly with the old format of putting the title of a book or poem in parenthesis after a section since many of Joni Mitchell's song titles contain parenthesis already. As a result we indicate the song title via a character in brackets and provide a legend at the end.

We could have easily done a cutting to represent romantic love or any number of topics because Mitchell's songs have dealt with many topics. But due to the reaction to the Dylan Thomas cutting, we decided to use a cutting again to comment on modern day issues.

Joni Mitchell Speaks to America

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 [*]


I fall apart
Everytime I think of you
Swallowed by the dark
There is no center to my life now
No grace in my heart [**]

I'm drinking sweet champagne
Got the headphones up high
Can't numb you out
Can't drum you out of my mind [***]

And so once again
Oh America my friend
And so once again
You are fighting us all
And when we ask you why
You raise your sticks and cry and we fall
Oh, my friend
How did you come
To trade the fiddle for the drum [#]

Lord, there's danger in this land
You get witch-hunts and wars
When church and state hold hands
Fuck it! [##]

While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
They're gonna slam free choice behind us [#*]

Who let the greedy in
And who let the needy out
Who made this salty soup
Tell him we're hungry now
For a sweeter soup [#**]

Now you tell me
Who're you gonna get to do the dirty work
When all the slaves are free?
(Who're you gonna get) [*#]

After the rush when you come back down
You're always disappointed
Nothing seems to keep you high
Drive your bargains
Push your papers
Win your medals
Fuck your strangers
Don't it leave you on the empty state [*##]

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" [*+]

I guess I seem ungrateful
With my teeth sunk in the hand
That brings me things
I really can't give up just yet [#+]

Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
Oh I wish I had a river so long
I would teach my feet to fly
Oh I wish I had a river
I could skate away on [*^]

I met a young soldier
He said his name was Killer Kyle
He was shakin' all over
Like a night-frightened child [*@]

"All the guilty people," he said
They've all seen the stain --
On their daily bread
On their Christian names [*%]

It's dog eat dog -- I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And the white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love [%%]

Must I forgive you
Each time
And say you don't know what you're doing
There are no victimless crimes
I know of [#%]

Was it the sins of my youth?
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and everythign I fear come true? [%=]

Oh I'm tangled in your lies
Your scam
Your spider web
Spit spun between the trees [==]

"They want you -- they need you
They train you to kill --
To be a pin on some map --
Some vicarious thrill --
The old hate the young
That's the whole heartless thing
The old pick the wars
We die in 'em
To the beat of -- the beat of black wings" [*@]

There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more [=*]

You say we have turned
Like the enemies you've earned
But we can remember
All the good things you are
And so we ask you please
Can we help you find the peace and the star
Oh my friend
We have all came
To fear the beating of your drum [#]

And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
. . .
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden [@@@]

I'm traveling in some vehicle
I'm sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
That shell shock love away [*#^%]

Legend:
* "California"
** "Man from Mars"
*** "This Flight Tonight"
# "The Fiddle and the Drum"
## "Tax Free"
#* "The Three Great Stimulants"
#** "Banquet"
*# "Passion Play (When All the Slaves Are Free)"
*## "Woman of Heart and Mind"
*+ "A Case of You"
#+ "For the Roses"
*^ "River"
*@ "The Beat of Black Wings"
*% "Court and Spark"
%% "Dog Eat Dog"
#% "Nothing Can Be Done"
%= "The Sire of Sorrow (Job's Song of Sorrow)"
== "The Windfall (Everything for Nothing)"
=* "Cactus Tree"
@@@ "Woodstock"
*#^% "Hejira"