The Joni Mitchell Lyric About a Whirlwind Foreign Romance

Material just has a way of finding some songwriters. That can be the case even when they’re trying to get away from difficult experiences that provided their share of songwriting fodder in the first place.

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Joni Mitchell knew this phenomenon well, as a whirlwind romance with an American in a tiny fishing village near Crete fueled the song “Carey,” which is found on her masterpiece 1971 album Blue. The song is part travelogue, part tribute to a rascally rogue, and part homesick lament. But it’s 100 percent brilliant, thanks to Mitchell’s skills in weaving all these elements together.

Mitchell on the Move

Blue found Joni Mitchell exploring romantic relationships old and new. Her breakup with Graham Nash fueled a few of the songs. The blossoming of a new love with James Taylor inspired a few more.

Sandwiched in between those two experiences, Mitchell and a friend went on a trip to Greece to get away from it all. Because she looked out of place with her hippie-ish looks on the mainland, the people derisively called out the name “Matala” to her, suggesting that she go to that remote village off Crete where she’d fit in better. Mitchell did just that, which is where she met an American expat named Cary Raditz.

Raditz was working in a cafe in Matala when one day, according to an interview Mitchell did for Marc Myers’ book Anatomy of a Song, he came flying out the door with arms and legs burned by a kitchen explosion. Intrigued, Mitchell met him shortly thereafter, and they soon became inseparable.

Raditz helped keep Mitchell’s hippie fans away from her during their time together, but he also tended to be somewhat brusque in his dealings with Mitchell herself. Mitchell wrote the song “Carey” (she misspelled his first name) as a birthday present to him (the phrase mean old Daddy referencing his occasional harshness), eventually recording it for Blue. Their relationship ended when Mitchell went back to the States to resume her career.

Revisiting the Lyrics to “Carey”

When interviewed by Myers to get his side of the story, Raditz claimed he was in love with Mitchell, even as he recognized their relationship would probably be short-lived. By the breezy tone of “Carey,” it feels like Mitchell sensed his growing attachment and was trying to let him know she wasn’t quite on the same page.

Consider that Mitchell spends much of the time in the song with one foot out the door, looking forward to return to the comforts of home: And I miss my clean white linen / And my fancy French cologne. Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, Carey, Mitchell sings of the idyllic Matala sights and sounds. But it’s really not my home.

She references some of the specifics of her time spent there, such as the habit of smashing wine glasses on the floors of cafes, or the beach tar on my feet. Raditz, who apparently was the theatrical sort, walked around with a cane in hand, which Mitchell also mentions in the chorus. Beyond that, she hints her own inner torment is driving her escapades: Let’s have another round for the bright red devil / That keeps me in this tourist town.

In the final verse, Mitchell is already planning her exit, mentioning Amsterdam or Rome, with their luxury and amenities starkly contrasting the spartan lifestyle of Matala, as her potential next ports of call. She tries to soften the blow of her leaving in the meantime: But let’s not talk of fare-thee-wells now / The night is a starry dome / And they’re playin’ that scratchy rock and roll beneath the Matala moon.

Blue is known for the intensity of the emotion found within many of the songs. “Carey” acts as a kind of lighthearted, frolicking intermission in the middle of all that. Which is fitting, because the fling that inspired the song seemed to serve the same purpose in Joni Mitchell’s life.

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Photo by Chris Walter/WireImage