Mitchell, Joni - The Only Joy In Town Lyrics

My favorite song from Night Ride Home. Joni sounds great and so does the band. Thanks for post.

This song shows the huge freedom an artist has when it comes to creating a canvas. And so the painter sets out to paint a fantasy of joy very persojnal to her. "I'm going to paint a picture...." Imagine this scenario, she's telling us. Now her Botticelli black boy says, "You are the air my flowers breathe." He calls and the ladies turn around On the first day of Spring I'm looking at the only joy around." The emphasis turns to "I." That's the painter, there to court and spark him.... The emphasis is on joy: In the third verse they're dancing and singing: "In my youth I would have followed him All through this terra-cotta town On the first day of Spring We'd dance and sing And be the only joy around...." In the fourth verse, "all the streets are empty...." It's just a fantasy. Her imagination is channelling her Beethoven, it could be argued. This isn't the only song Joni's written about paintings.... Consider Shadows and Light: "Every picture has its shadows, and it has some source of light...." That song is about blindness and sight....

an artist in every way

she is so sultry and verbal wow what a woman, and such a arthur of imagery, and she's really good at it, i'm still in love with her after 40 years, i'm now 55 and she is a major crush ,,after shadow and light i was in love with this woman's point of view of this world we share, love you joni, quit smoking love

At night these streets are empty
Where does everybody go?
Where are the brash and tender rooms
In Roman candle glow
Where are Fellini's circus'
La Dolce Vita clowns
On the first day of Spring
I'm looking
At the only joy around