Mitchell, Joni - Cactus Tree Lyrics

Dear johnny your play list here whith as long as live and whith as all as the live i wish i could stop the time force it to stend still only cose of you my dear bethhoven listen to you and want to wake up from his grave and stend beside next to you dear.

For me, age eighteen through twenty-nine, in a gorgeous nutshell...

Such genius. And this album was not highly regarded in its time. Evidently because of experimental recording tequniques which caused some unwanted noise which had to be filtered giving the album a flatter sound.


But. it sounds pretty good to me. I will say the highs are missing from her voice which actually had a brighter timbre at the time. But in a way she just sounds like she did when she was older like around the "Hejira" album when her voice sounded more mature--less childlike.


If you listen to other albums around this period her voice is much more youthful sounding.

Judy Collins also does Ms. Mitchell’s Song, “ Cactus Tree” with great skill.

There's a man who's been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green
He has called her from the harbor
He has kissed her with his freedom
He has heard her off to starboard
In the breaking and the breathing
Of the water weeds
While she was busy being free

There's a man who's climbed a mountain
And he's calling out her name
And he hopes her heart can hear three thousand miles
He calls again
He can think her there beside him
He can miss her just the same
He has missed her in the forest
While he showed her all the flowers
And the branches sang the chorus
As he climbed the scaley towers
Of a forest tree
While she was somewhere being free

There's a man who's sent a letter
And he's waiting for reply
He has asked her of her travels
Since the day they said goodbye
He writes "Wish you were beside me
We can make it if we try"
He has seen her at the office
With her name on all his papers
Through the sharing of the profits
He will find it hard to shake her
From his memory
And she's so busy being free

There's a lady in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
There's the one who's thinking of her
There's the one who sometimes calls
There's the one who writes her letters
With his facts and figures scrawl
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
And she's so busy being free

There's a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
While she's so busy being free

Gabriela Mora , “ Beads from California “ Pills from Ca, LSD?

Does anyone know who does the background singing on this song

It's Joni

A whimsical individual born in Pisces just navigating this earthly plain being "Free"

Probably her best song from definitely her best album

Love you Joni.

A walk on the moon movie brought me here.

You have opened a Pandora's Box of songs of one of the most poetically prolific female composer/guitarist/pianists (from Canada) ever to walk this planet. Her fellow songwriting contemporaries were astounded by how much of herself she revealed, which is what makes the listener relate. She made the top 100 guitarists of all time because of her innovative use of several different tunings, so the sound is purely hers, and sounds like no one else, right down to the way she strums and picks. Influencing every singer/songwriter after her male and female, down to Taylor Swift (try as she may). And she consider's herself an artist/painter first! She does all of her own album covers and sells paintings in fine art galleries. What a Woman/Siren/Poetess! She's in her 70s now and was found unconscious in her home a couple of years ago. She's on the mend, but frail. When she goes, it's going to leave a HUGE hole in music. Keep listening! You caught her while she's still with us! Start with Blue and work your way backwards. After Blue her albums become more produced (her voice also deepens but is still beautiful), and then, later she makes a turn into jazz. If you don't care for jazz, the first nine albums, or so, are golden...along with Dog Eat Dog and Wild Things Run Fast, afterwards. Happy listening!

Me too. I still think of Viggo Mortensen when I hear it.

@Cynthia Navarro Don't forget Turbulent Indigo - a return to "earlier" Joni attitude!

I think I just found my favourite Joni Mitchell song

The strongest thing I did for Joni as a producer on Song to a Seagull, from 1968, was keep everybody else off of that record. She was a folkie who had learned to play what they call an indicated arrangement, where you are like a band in the way you approach a chord and string the melody along. She was so new and fresh with how she approached it. It's the reason I fell in love with her music. She was a fantastic rhythm player and growing so fast. She had mastered the idea that she could tune the guitar any way she wanted, to get other inversions of the chords. I was doing that too, but she went further. I understood her joy in using bigger tools later – jazz bands, orchestra. But the stuff she did that was basically her, like 1971's Blue, was her strongest stuff. Match her and Bob Dylan up as poets, and they are in the same ballpark. But she was a much more sophisticated musician. By David Crosby

Key Tracks: "I Had a King," "Nathan La Franeer," "Night in the City," "Coyote," "A Case of You"

No dude Joni blows Dylan out of the water in every sense.

@Ronald Flores it says, David Crosby

@Job Dylan well the times they are a-changing dude I love them both'

@Rae Dawn Ugh...ur right....I had a lot of cough syrup that day, sorry.

Probably the best song I’ve ever heard. UGH FEELS MAN

Been listening to this whenever I need a reminder of why I left my ex. I need to be free again, no matter how long it takes.

I didnt get the nerve for 18 years then I turn around get knocked up and do it again like a fool been 23 years this time, yet she regrets her actions she sings about in this soung. I dunno which is worse

The woman in this song isn't the good guy you degenerate lol

I love this woman

Depicts the essence of Joni - needing to be "free" (as we all do in varying degrees). Beautiful haunting melody - one of my favourites. Bravo Joni!

One of the most beautiful songs of all time.

It has everything... it's like a screen play~~ a film.... the characterization !!! "they will lose her if they follow..."
literature in lyrics. music too, glorious melody, refrains. echos...the guitar is the emotional component...just amazing.....

beautiful song a masterpiece

I Love this......Sad,but Beautiful Song

Definitely my favorite track on this album

My favorite Joni album, too.

I am quite fond of many songs here, as on any Joni album