by Kevin Burton
Turning on the radio is like opening a musical fire hydrant. The product comes at you fast and furious.
When I was young I lacked the discernment to understand that some of the musical water being spewed out by that hydrant was more nourishing than some of the other.
One of the few pop songs that one of my teachers commended as worth considering more deeply was “Both Sides Now.” The great folk singer Judy Collins took the song to number 8 in the fall of 1968. But it was written by the great Joni Mitchell, who got her inspiration during an airplane trip.
“I was reading Saul Bellow’s Henderson the Rain King on a plane and early in the book Henderson the Rain King is also up in a plane,” Mitchell recalled to an interviewer. “He’s on his way to Africa and he looks down and sees these clouds. I put down the book, looked out the window and saw clouds too, and I immediately started writing the song. I had no idea that the song would become as popular as it did.”
From Mitchell’s plane ride we go to her first verse:
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
“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 in the chorus, with the keyword changed on each of the three repetitions,” wrote Hal Horowitz in American Songwriter.
When “Both Sides, Now” was written, Mitchell had plenty of time left to understand clouds, love, and life.,” Horowitz wrote. “But aging changes how those lyrics echo to become less about lessons one will learn in time and more reflective of the losses in life as they realize their formative years are in the rearview mirror.”
There is a youthful veil we look through, as long as it lasts, before the harsh light of reality forces us to see things more realistically. That is what this song is about. Beyond that, it’s an acknowledgement that our so-called knowledge is little more than illusions so that, “I really don’t know clouds at all.”
That latter is usually a realization painfully learned over time. That Mitchell could write such a song at 23 makes it one of the greatest songwriting achievements of the rock and roll era. But Mitchell had been few a few trials by then.
“Joni Mitchell had been through a very difficult time when she wrote this song’s lyric,” according to SongFacts. “In 1965, she gave birth to a baby girl, but struggled as a single mom (the father was an old boyfriend who left soon after Mitchell got pregnant). She married a musician named Chuck Mitchell that year, but soon after the marriage, gave up the child for adoption. Soon, her marriage was on the rocks, and in 1967 they split up.”
“Both Sides Now” showed Mitchell at the peak of her songwriting powers. But seeing her perform the song as a senior citizen, as Horowitz did, takes it to another level.
“Even those few who may not have heard the song before in one of its more than 1500 cover versions (as per Mitchell’s website) couldn’t help but dab their eyes as Mitchell, 78, transformed the tune written in her youth into a time capsule of a life unlike any other artist of her generation.” Horowitz wrote. (Mitchell is 80 now.)
“The effect of seeing and hearing the ailing yet stately 78-year-old Mitchell singing “I really don’t know life at all” is one of the most moving, captivating, and emotionally riveting experiences available through the magic of technology. That any song written 55 years ago can resonate today with as much and arguably greater intensity, warmth, and power proves just how remarkable the track is.”
When I hear the harpsicord that kicks off the Collins version it gives me chills. Mitchell and her song have both aged well.
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