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Joni Mitchell is often credited as one of the most influential songwriters of all time, with artists ranging from Prince to Taylor Swift to Björk all citing her as one of their biggest inspirations. Within her songwriting, she seems to write about things that are incredibly specific to her life, yet she still finds a way to weave the thread of universal truth through all of her lyrics. The raw honesty and vulnerability that she conveys through her storytelling resonates with people, and also why so many people look up to her as a songwriter.
The song that I feel acts like a thesis of her discography is a track titled "Both Sides Now." Though she later named an entire album of hers after this song with her album Both Sides Now, released in 2000, it initially appears in her discography multiple decades prior as the closing track to her second studio album released in 1969 entitled Clouds.
The song feels as though it is written by an elder at the end of their life, reminiscing and passing on their wisdom to a loved one. It contains lyrics like “I’ve looked at life from both sides now/ from give and take/ and still somehow/ it's life’s illusions I recall/ I really don’t know life at all,” and “well somethings lost but somethings gained/in living every day.” It, however, was not written by a wise elder but by a young Joni Mitchell, around the age of 21.
It is almost ironic how she was able to write a song that so perfectly captures the trials and tribulations of love, life, and heartbreak so early on in her career. It almost served as a premonition or a prequel to what was to come with her later works like her most popular album, Blue, which has themes reminiscent of those in Both Sides Now, that would skyrocket her career and cement her as one of the most significant artists of her time. Her ability to understand the duality of life and verbalize it so vividly in this song is why I see it as the overall culmination and summary of all that she stands for as an artist,
This is why I believe she decided to go back many years later and create an entire album based on this song, and we still see her performing it decades later, as she did at the Grammys this past year. When she performs it now, she sings it in a less youthful, sing-song way than she did in her youth, showing how the song has matured and aged with her over time. But in the end, the message remains the same, and it is clear to see that no matter her age. When it comes to love and loss, Joni Mitchell has always been wise beyond her years.
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