Blog Entry 10: Song: Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now"

I grew up hearing Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" on the radio but didn't pay much attention to the song until Bend Union High School teacher and OWP Co-Director Amy Sabbadini used it in a teaching demonstration this summer. During the discussion, participating teachers came up with all kinds of interpretations, so here is mine using the first part of the song:


Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
I've looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way
I've looked at clouds from both sides now

From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

I think the song is about understanding life. There are many ways to look at life. The song calls them "both sides," emphasizing that the many ways are contradictory. In memory, I look back on experiences as both positive and negative even when those interpretations contradict one another. 

In the lines above, the persona is looking at clouds. This passage uses a physical object as a starting point for more abstract thinking about life. The clouds are both "ice cream castles" and "block[ing] the sun." They are both beautiful fantasy constructions, tenuous as dreams, and also powerful enough to block light and threaten life.  


When looking back on these memories, the persona recalls only the positive, the castles, but she also claims not to "know clouds at all." I think she does know clouds, but it's difficult to put that knowledge into words because the memories are contradictory, and that's the point. Life experiences are complicated. Because of that complexity, we may feel we don't understand them, but we do. We just need to recognize they are contradictory and our interpretations of them are also contradictory. 

Works CitedMitchell, Joni. "Both Sides Now." JoniMitchell.com. 9 March 1967. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. <http://jonimitchell.com/music/song.cfm?id=83>.
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