Joni Mitchell - Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free) Lyrics

Sublime.

the Magdalena laundry story very sad- oppression in any form size or color is a b**ch

Great feel, poignant words, and your artistry. Who could ask for more?

weeping

Enter the multitudes in Exxon Blue and radiation rose. Who you going to get to do the dirty work when all the slaves are free? Her words make my head explode - Sublime

Difícilmente pueda haber canción más triste y más dulce a la vez.

Once again so Under rated amazing

I love this Joni Mitchell song and have always been drawn to it: "Passion Play (When All The Slaves Are Free"), from her 1991 "Night Ride Home" album. The melody is haunting, and the lyrics pull me in each time. I think a wonderful thing about art--any type of art--is that it can be interpreted differently by every person and yet still be the correct truth for that person. For me, perhaps this song is a retelling of Mary Magdalene and Jesus? "Oh climb down climb down he says to me from the middle of unrest. They think his light is squandered. But he sees a stray in the wilderness and I see how far I've wandered." Joni brings the story to the current day with her references to "Exxon blue" (gas station uniforms?). This is then injected with, perhaps, with the Magdalene Laundries (where pregnant-out-of-wedlock Catholic girls in Ireland were sent for penance to work for free ("the slaves"?), while the Sisters adopted out the babies and collected the money for the washing: "like a washing on a line." (Note the slight change in the words of each chorus, as the song proceeds.) I love this song. It all meshes and continues to evolve for me 28 years later.

totally beautiful,what else could be said!

Who are 'they' - who is she singing to?

Came here from Motorpsycho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efuWu7LQOiA

This song is Art

on this night of the pipe bombs

Night Ride Home is one of her best albums, as good or better than her early 1970s classics

Commenting as Syl K

Stunning.

I always wanted to put on my Joni Mitchell drag and sit down for coffee with my favorite Joni Mitchell.

lol,,wow.when you consider the amount of shit human beings produce ,then this,,lol,,,,genius ,they walk among us

love Joni

Lyon: easy to answer ! It s a organ which connect to the world, to people , to situations, much more than the pussy (nice as well) !

Ki Wi : she does ! But wakes up even with the question : Who I'm ? That gap is called creativity !
And here she has lot !  Taking risks leaving paths fans thought she has to follow ......

Pure genius.

So deep it makes me cry--God bless her and all of us

Lindo demais!

Never ceases to amaze me how she puts every thought of any empath to poetry and perfectly supporting musical composition. Whenever I need to remind myself of why I think and live, I turn to Joni.

Who ya gonna get to do the dirty work, when all the slaves are free?

so chilling

I believe this song has a very dark hidden meaning. But like everything she does, it comes out beautiful

Una de las mejores canciones de Joni en mi parecer,
Excelente del punto de vista musical  todo el período con Larry Klein como arreglador y productor.

What we have here, people, is a wordsmith of the first water. Joni has been called the most influential female songwriter of the 20th century ... and the song represented here is plenty of evidence to that effect.

Thank you, Joni!

Troubleshooter125 exactly and
Lets take gender out of the assessment yrs sincerely - a male

My head explodes with every song I listen to that she wrote. Sublime. "Who you gonna get?"

great song but way too much nostril in the video!

Lyonia Nostril? Hell, I see penis!

How can a song make you sad and joyful at the same time.......? Only Joni

Joni is a master of this.

Annie Lennox has some songs that also sound happy but whose lyrics are profoundly sad, e.g. "Little Bird".

Joni is simply the best. A beautiful composer, a beautiful voice, a beautiful conscious a beautiful person.

Joni is the best 20th Centry composer, hands down, cross-category. Dont give me that classical or,operatic shit either.

...it's Jesus

Pier Jackson No, this is Joni Mitchell.

probably her most spiritual song. music and words fit wonderfully together.

+Glenn Gould :) Spiritual indeed, like your second attampt at G. Variations, Glenn.
Her remake of Yeates (Slouching Toward Bethlehem) from the same allbum is aptly profound too.

+Caffeine Cantata  yeah..they are very much a like.

Agree Glenn

... And beautiful vidéo , seriously ...

Another beautiful song from this very great singer ...

Joni as groundbreaking as always, and 24 years ago....

texture video ;)

Great mu friend Cutler
kiss - Niels

ciao niels!

How cool!

I wonder if Joni ever wakes up in the morning and says, "I'm Joni F-ing Mitchell!!"  

She wakes up in the afternoon.

why not?

Probably not, but she has every right.

Joni....how different my life would have been if you hadn't been there.  You provided the soundtrack to my youth, my love life...I love you forever.

Lilly Lovejoy thx lilly you said our saying thx

Love the chord progressions in this song, absolutely beautiful to my senses:)

Insight...delivered with an angel's voice....
"I am up a sycamore
Looking through the leaves
A sinner of some position".....JM

Thanks for posting this. Joni is no longer in the spotlight, but here genius lives on. None of today's stars can touch her talent.

Sweatblood08 Well, but isn’t this why we have our own spotlights? After all, things go and grow and those stationary spotlights are always so, so off. But mine never is. Never, not once. And I never check in with and especially never rely on - that spotlight.

Queen of lyrics and vocalists of this century