I Listened to Only Joni Mitchell for a Week—Here Are the Songs That Put Modern Songwriting to Shame

After a week of listening to her entire catalog, I think it’s safe to say that no one does it like Joni Mitchell. Here are four songs of Mitchell’s that blow all other songwriters out of the water, in my opinion.

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“Big Yellow Taxi”

Even if you don’t know Joni Mitchell, “Big Yellow Taxi” is one of those tracks that everyone seems to have an appreciation for, and for good reason.

“I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii,” Mitchell explained of the song in an interview. “I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”

“Conversation”

In “Conversation”, Mitchell sings about a sort of love triangle, in which she brings conversational comfort to a man who is already taken. The storytelling details in this song are just absolutely unmatched, especially in the chorus. That’s what really drew me into this one.

And I only say, “Hello”
And turn away before his lady knows
How much I want to see him
She removes him like a ring, to wash her hands
She only brings him out to show her friends
I want to free him.

“Free Man In Paris”

In this track off of Mitchell’s album Court and Spark, Mitchell sings of escaping a big career and being free of responsibilities. Apparently, she actually wrote this one about her music agent, David Geffen.

Even Bob Dylan was pretty fond of this song, and felt he could relate, as he explained in the liner notes of her Starbucks compilation album.

“I always liked this song because I’d been to Paris and understood what being a free man there was all about,” he said. “Paris was, after all, where freedom and the guillotine lived side by side. I’m not so sure that the meaning I heard in the song was what Joni intended, but I couldn’t stop listening to it.”

“A Case Of You”

This track, from Mitchell’s acclaimed Blue album, has been covered by over two hundred other singers, and it’s easy to see why. Mitchell shows other songwriters how to seamlessly deliver a hook in this song, where she compares her lover to a case of wine.

Oh, you’re in my blood like holy wine
Oh, you taste so bitter and so sweet
I could drink a case of you
I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I’d be on my feet
I would still be on my feet.

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