A long awaited new album from one of my true favourites, released yesterday.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SHINE BY JONI MITCHELL
Oh let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on Wall Street and Vegas
Place your bets
Shine on the fishermen
With nothing in their nets
Shine on rising oceans and evaporating seas
Shine on our Frankenstein technologies
Shine on science
With its tunnel vision
Shine on fertile farmland
Buried under subdivisions
Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on the dazzling darkness
That restores us in deep sleep
Shine on what we throw away
And what we keep
Shine on Reverend Pearson
Who threw away
The vain old God
kept Dickens and Rembrandt and Beethoven
And fresh plowed sod
Shine on good earth, good air, good water
And a safe place
For kids to play
Shine on bombs exploding
Half a mile away
Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on world-wide traffic jams
Honking day and night
Shine on another asshole
Passing on the right!
Shine on the red light runners
Busy talking on their cell phones
Shine on the Catholic Church
And the prisons that it owns
Shine on all the Churches
They all love less and less
Shine on a hopeful girl
In a dreamy dress
Let your little light shine
Let your little light shine
Shine on good humor
Shine on good will
Shine on lousy leadership
Licensed to kill
Shine on dying soldiers
In patriotic pain
Shine on mass destruction
In some God’s name!
Shine on the pioneers
Those seekers of mental health
Craving simplicity
They traveled inward
Past themselves…
May all their little lights shine
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------YAY JONI!!!
"Shine on another asshole,
ReplyDeletePassing on the right"
I picked this part because it made me giggle at the fact that this would make almost every driver in this part of the world an asshole. (Except for the real assholes who pass on the left but that would be the right way). Ahh the traffic running on the left...
I like the lyrics a lot, makes me want to hear the tune to it and her voice.
Gx
My favourite album is still Blue, the songs on that album are so brilliant and so haunting. Must admit I haven't kept up with her recent stuff at all. I'm waiting for the new Annie Lennox album, out on Friday. Annie's really giving some of the African politicians a pasting for their head-in-the-sand attitudes to HIV.
ReplyDeleteGaye:
ReplyDeleteShe's still commenting on the sad and sorry state of the world. I've always loved "Yellow Taxi" as well.
xx
WWW
Nick:
ReplyDeleteMine too. "A case of you" is still one of the best obsessive love songs I've ever heard, Diana Krall also does a great version of it. Annie is also one of my favourites, can hardly wait to get her new album too!!!
Hi WWW
ReplyDeleteThe world suddenly seems like a decent place again. Now all we need is for the present generation of young women musicians to rediscover that staggering musical and literary intelligence is not necessarily a barrier to success.
xxx
Pants
Hello Pants:
ReplyDeleteThe lights are beginning to go on everywhere and I agree, so many women performers are afraid to show any depth and bubble-gum their way to "success". But I am cheered by the many out there who are not afraid.