JONI MITCHELL - CHELSEA MORNING

CHELSEA MORNING

JONI MITCHELL

SONGWRITER: JONI MITCHELL

COUNTRY: CANADA

ALBUM: CLOUDS

LABEL: REPRISE RECORDS

GENRE: FOLK ROCK

YEAR: 1969

 

          Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and painter. Drawing from folk, pop, rock, classical, and jazz, Mitchell's songs often reflect on social and philosophical ideals as well as her feelings about romance, womanhood, disillusionment and joy. She has received many accolades, including nine Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".

               Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. She moved to the United States and began touring in 1965. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were covered by Other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock". Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", rising to number 3 in the 2020 edition. In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music". In 2017, NPR ranked Blue number 1 on a list of Greatest Albums Made By Women. Mitchell's fifth album, For the Roses, was released in 1972. She then switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced melodic ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris" and became her best-selling album.

        "Chelsea Morning" is a song written and composed by Joni Mitchell and recorded for the singer's second album, Clouds, which she released in 1969.

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning

And the first thing that I heard

Was a song outside my window

And the traffic wrote the words

It came ringin' up like Christmas bells

And rappin' up like pipes and drums

 

Oh, won't you stay? We'll put on the day

And we'll wear it till the night comes

 

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning

And the first thing that I saw

Was the sun through yellow curtains

And a rainbow on the wall

Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you

Crimson crystal beads to beckon

 

Oh, won't you stay? We'll put on the day

There's a sun show every second

 

Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today

And the streets are paved with passersby

And pigeons fly and papers lie, waiting to blow away

 

Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning

And the first thing that I knew

There was milk and toast and honey

And a bowl of oranges, too

And the sun poured in like butterscotch

And stuck to all my senses

 

Oh, won't you stay? We'll put on the day

And we'll talk in present tenses

 

When the curtain closes and the rainbow runs away

I will bring you incense owls by night

By candlelight, by jewel-light, if only you will stay

Pretty baby, won't you-

Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning.