The “Beautiful Song” James Taylor Wishes Joni Mitchell Wrote About Him

Joni Mitchell has a plethora of songs written about the men in her life. Many (if not most) songs are about love, but Mitchell’s love songs stand out from the rest. Few songwriters have the ability to be as particular and candid as Mitchell is routinely. Take “All I Want” as an example of that skill. Mitchell bares her heart in this track, singing about a passionate romance. While many fans have speculated that this song is about James Taylor, he has denied that rumor. Yet, that doesn’t mean Taylor doesn’t wish it were written about him.

Joni Mitchell’s “All I Want”—and Its Connection to James Taylor

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be?

Oh, I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh, I love you when I forget about me
I wanna be strong, I wanna laugh along
I wanna belong to the living

“All I Want” flexes Mitchell’s impeccable guitar skills. She builds out the backing track to this song with only a guitar in tow. The sparse instrumentation puts the story in the lyrics at center stage.

Mitchell sings of an on-again-off-again relationship that has no shortage of passion. While a lot of the accompanying album, Blue, is rife with odes to heartbreak, “All I Want” offers a welcomed change of pace. That change of pace mirrors one in her personal life: moving on from Graham Nash to James Taylor.

Taylor “Wished” Mitchell’s Track Was About Him

Many fans have come to see this song as a documentation of the early days of Mitchell and Taylor’s relationship. There is a blushing energy to this song that screams new love. While the theory seems airtight, Taylor once explained that Mitchell had already written the song when they met. However, he did help out in the recording process.

Moreover, Taylor wishes he could claim the sentiment in this song. He once called it “beautiful” and admitted he wished Mitchell had been thinking about him while in the writer’s room.

“I don’t think that song was written about me,” Taylor once said. “Joni already had that song when we met. I did back her up on guitar when she recorded it. I thought it was a beautiful song…I wished it was about me!”

Regardless of the inspiration, “All I Want” is a jewel in Mitchell’s discography. Revisit this track, below.

Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
Do you want, do you want, do you wanna dance with me, baby?
Do you wanna take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me, baby?
Well, come on

All I really, really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really, really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you

(Photo by Ross Marino/Getty Images)