"CACTUS TREE" JONI MITCHELL (1968)

I generally gravitate to the music first before the lyrics. But as a writer, I still marvel at well-spun verses and choruses. This month, I’m joining the music Twitter community in #SeptSongLyricChallenge

Day 9

“Cactus Tree” is like a book with five chapters. It paints the portraits of four characters with exceptional musicality. The sailor. The climber. The writer. The woman who’s being pursued by all three men. And then there’s the fifth chapter that introduces many more men still – from the jester to the dreamer. What made Mitchell a great storyteller is that she did far more than just introduce a few characters and a plot. She made us empathize with her characters even with just a single verse dedicated to each. That’s some powerful songwriting.

“She has brought them to her senses. They have laughed inside her laughter. Now she rallies her defenses. For she fears that one will ask her for eternity.”

"CACTUS TREE" JONI MITCHELL (1968)

For the month of January, I’m selecting some of the most memorable and influential songs of the 60’s. While they all hail from the same decade, these are some of my favorite songs of any era. They remind me that the 60’s were so much more than just Woodstock and psychedelic rock. It was a flourishing period for blues, folk, progressive and straight-ahead rock. #31DaysOf60sSongs

In music, there are lyricists. And then there are storytellers. Joni Mitchell always struck me as being one of the latter. Mitchell is heralded as one of the greatest songwriters of our time. But she’s more than that. Her songs are like stories put to melodies. They paint a picture for us, like all the great novels do. Blue is often considered her crowning achievement, and it’s listed on many “great albums of all time” lists. But the lesser known “Song to a Seagull” contains a few gems, including the understated and gorgeous “Cactus Tree”.

“Cactus Tree” is like a book with five chapters. It paints the portraits of four characters with exceptional musicality. The sailor. The climber. The writer. The woman who’s being pursued by all three men. And then there’s the fifth chapter that introduces many more men still – from the jester to the dreamer. What made Mitchell a great storyteller is that she did far more than just introduce a few characters and a plot. She made us empathize with her characters even with just a single verse dedicated to each. That’s some powerful songwriting.

“There's a lady in the city and she thinks she loves them all.”

"CACTUS TREE" JONI MITCHELL (1968)

Known more as one of the great singer-songwriters, I think an underrated side to Joni Mitchell is her role as storyteller. Her songs are like stories put to music, not just lyrics. They involve you. They immerse you. They paint a picture for you, like all the great novels do. “Cactus Tree” paints the portraits of five characters with exceptional musicality and just enough ambiguity to make you wonder if their lives are somehow interconnected.

“There's a man who's been out sailing in a decade full of dreams.”