June 05, 2004

Urge for Going

Nothing beats a good, poetic lyric. I love Joni Mitchell's Urge for Going, when I heard Tom Rush sing it. Today, I heard her version, which I hadn't heard in a long time, from Hits. That voice, that guitar, those words -- that's why it's hard to listen to newer singer/songwriters, to Mitchell's own new stuff. Locked in nostalgia? Not really. I am just a sucker for that confessional voice -- in poetry and folk songs.

I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down When the sun turns traitor cold and all the trees are shivering in a naked row

I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in

[Urge for Going - Joni Mitchell]

I've long longed for Tom Rush's Circle Game -- he was one of the first to sing Joni's songs in the 1960s. He recorded Tin Angel, Circle Game. Mitchell didn't even record Circle Game until 1970's, Ladies of the Canyon.

Posted by heartandmind at June 5, 2004 07:54 PM