Both Sides Now

Both Sides Now Some time ago, I saw Joni Mitchell on a local television station here in Toronto. She was being interviewed because she has just been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. I have known the music of Joni Mitchell since she first recorded back in the 60’s. She intrigued me then, and her music intrigues me still. Songs like Both Sides Now, Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock, or A Case of You have chronicled some of the most wonderful and most troubling days of my life. What is it about music that defines life? Why do so many of us walk around with this perpetual soundtrack running through our heads? Why is there always a song that recalls a particular time and place, a snippet of music that celebrates the memory of someone or some event in our lives? Music . . . such a powerful medium. It invokes emotions like no other art form can. It chronicles historical events, politics, spirituality, times of personal joy or sorrow, a love that we shared, a love that we lost, a friend, a familiar face, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a son, a daughter. Music . . . imagine a world without it. Impossible. It knits together our experience in a tight weave that keeps us warm when we feel most cold and alone. When all that surrounds us fails, there is still a song that remains, a hymn of special meaning that plays somewhere in us, like a mantra keeping us alive in hope. Music . . . the reverberation of love. It marks the moment of a first kiss. It eulogises the heartache of letting go. It is the backdrop to our happiest and saddest experiences with another person, and once a particular song takes on such an iconic importance, we never forget. The song and the person remain locked together for the rest of our lives. The song and the person are the same. Music . . . a collection of melodic photographs that refuses to be abandoned in an attic box or forgotten in a cupboard drawer, an album of sound that both excites the heart and calms the soul. So this is my way to thank Joni Mitchell and all songwriters for providing me with a framework for my experience. Your voices and your melodies have left me hushed in my awe of your talent and your importance to the world. Even in this silent moment, still I hear you playing and singing, and suddenly I understand life better because of you. Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now External Link

Copyright © Kennedy James, 2007. All rights reserved. This post is the intellectual property of the author and his heirs and is not to be copied or reproduced in any form without the author's written consent. Please email for further information.