Joni Mitchell - Song To A Seagull

JONI MITCHELL

SONG TO A SEAGULL (1968)

  1. I Had A King
  2. Michael From Mountains
  3. Night In The City
  4. Marcie
  5. Nathan La Franeer
  6. Sisotowbell Lane
  7. The Dawntreader
  8. The Pirate Of Penance
  9. Song To A Seagull
10. Cactus Tree

JONI MITCHELL

SONG TO A SEAGULL

PART ONE: I CAME TO THE CITY

1. I HAD A KING

I had a king in a tenement castle
Lately he's taken to painting the pastel walls brown
He's taken the curtains down
He's swept with the broom of contempt
And the rooms have an empty ring
He's cleaned with the tears of an actor
Who fears for the laughter's sting

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can, they never can

I had a king dressed in drip-dry and paisley
Lately he's taken to saying I'm crazy and blind
He lives in another time
Ladies in gingham still blush
While he sings them of wars and wine
But I in my leather and lace
I can never become that kind

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can, they never can

I had a king in a salt-rusted carriage
Who carried me off to his country for marriage too soon
Beware of the power of moons
There's no one to blame
No, there's no one to name as a traitor here
The king's on the road
And the queen's in the grove till the end of the year

I can't go back there anymore
You know my keys won't fit the door
You know my thoughts don't fit the man
They never can, they never can.

2. MICHAEL FROM MOUNTAINS

Michael wakes you up with sweets
He takes you up streets and the rain comes down
Sidewalk markets locked up tight
And umbrellas bright on a grey background
There's oil on the puddles in taffeta patterns
That run down the drain
In colored arrangements
That Michael will change with a stick that he found

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well

Michael brings you to a park
He sings and it's dark when the clouds come by
Yellow slickers up on swings
Like puppets on strings hanging in the sky
They'll splash home to suppers in wallpapered kitchens
Their mothers will scold
But Michael will hold you
To keep away cold till the sidewalks are dry

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well

Michael leads you up the stairs
He needs you to care and you know you do
Cats come crying to the key
And dry you will be in a towel or two
There's rain in the window
There's sun in the painting that smiles on the wall
You want to know all
But his mountains have called, so you never do

Michael from mountains
Go where you will go to
Know that I will know you
Someday I may know you very well
Someday I will know you very well.

3. NIGHT IN THE CITY

Light up, light up
Light up your lazy blue eyes
Moon's up, night's up
Taking the town by surprise
Night time, night time
Day left an hour ago
City light time
Must you get ready so slow
There are places to come from and places to go

Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks fine
Night in the city looks fine
Music comes spilling out into the street
Music comes spilling out into the street
Colors go flashing in time

Take off, take off
Take off your stay-at-home shoes
Break off, shake off
Chase off those stay-at-home blues
Stairway, stairway
Down to the crowds in the street
They go their way
Looking for faces to greet
But we run on laughing with no one to meet

Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks pretty to me
Night in the city looks fine
Night in the city looks fine
Music comes spilling out into the street
Music comes spilling out into the street
Colors go waltzing in time.

4. MARCIE

Marcie in a coat of flowers
Steps inside a candy store
Reds are sweet and greens are sour
Still no letter at her door
So she'll wash her flower curtains
Hang them in the wind to dry
Dust her tables with his shirt and
Wave another day goodbye

Marcie's faucet needs a plumber
Marcie's sorrow needs a man
Red is autumn, green is summer
Greens are turning and the sand
All along the ocean beaches
Stares up empty at the sky
Marcie buys a bag of peaches
Stops a postman passing by
And summer goes
Falls to the sidewalk like string and brown paper
Winter blows
Up from the river there's no one to take her
To the sea

Marcie dresses warm, it's snowing
Takes a yellow cab uptown
Red is stop and green's for going
Sees a show and rides back down
Down along the Hudson River
Past the shipyards in the cold
Still no letter's been delivered
Still the winter days unfold
Like magazines
Fading in dusty grey attics and cellars
Make a dream
Dream back to summer
And hear how he tells her
Wait for me

Marcie leaves and doesn't tell us
Where or why she moved away
Red is angry, green is jealous
That was all she had to say
Someone thought they saw her Sunday
Window shopping in the rain
Someone heard she bought a one-way ticket
And went west again.

5. NATHAN LA FRANEER

I hired a coach to take me from confusion to the plane
And though we shared a common space I know I'll never meet again
The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror
I read his name and it was plainly written: Nathan La Franeer
I asked him would he hurry
But we crawled the canyons slowly
Through the buyers and the sellers
Through the burglar bells and the wishing wells
With gangs and girly shows
The ghostly garden grows

The cars and buses bustled through the bedlam of the day
I looked through window-glass at streets
And Nathan grumbled at the grey
I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons
The city grated through chrome-plate
The clock struck slowly half past noon
Through the tunnel tiled and turning
Into daylight once again I am escaping
Once again, goodbye
To symphonies and dirty trees
With parks and plastic clothes
The ghostly garden grows

He asked me for a dollar more
He cursed me to my face
He hated everyone who paid to ride
And share his common space
I picked my bags up from the curb
And stumbled to the door
Another man reached out his hand
Another hand reached out for more
And I filled it full of silver
And I left the fingers counting
And the sky goes on forever
Without meter maids and peace parades

You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows

You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows.

PART TWO: OUT OF THE CITY AND DOWN TO THE SEASIDE

6. SISOTOWBELL LANE

Sisotowbell Lane
Noah is fixing the pump in the rain
He brings us no shame
We always knew that he always knew
Up over the hill
Jovial neighbors come down when they will
With stories to tell
Sometimes they do
Yes, sometimes we do
We have a rocking chair
Each of us rocks his share
Eating muffin buns and berries
By the steamy kitchen window
Sometimes we do
Our tongues turn blue

Sisotowbell Lane
Anywhere else now would seem very strange
The seasons are changing
Everyday in everyway
Sometimes it is spring
Sometimes it is not anything
A poet can sing
Sometimes we try
Yes, we always try
We have a rocking chair
Somedays we rock and stare
At the woodlands and the grasslands
And the badlands 'cross the river
Sometimes we do
We like the view

Sisotowbell Lane
Go to the city, you'll come back again
To wade through the grain
You always do
Yes, we always do
Come back to the stars
Sweet well water and pickling jars
We'll lend you the car
We always do
Yes, sometimes we do
We have a rocking chair
Someone is always there
Rocking rhythms while they're waiting
With the candle in the window
Sometimes we do
We wait for you.

7. THE DAWNTREADER

Peridots and periwinkle blue medallions
Gilded galleons spilled across the ocean floor
Treasure somewhere in the sea and he will find where
Never mind their questions, there's no answer for
The roll of the harbor wake
The songs that the rigging makes
The taste of the spray he takes
And he learns to give
He aches and he learns to live
He stakes all his silver
On a promise to be free
Mermaids live in colonies
All his seadreams come to me

City satins left at home I will not need them
I believe him when he tells of loving me
Something truthful in the sea, your lies will find you
"Leave behind your streets," he said, "and come to me"
Come down from the neon nights
Come down from the tourist sights
Run down till the rain delights you
You do not hide
Sunlight will renew your pride
Skin white by skin golden
Like a promise to be free
Dolphins playing in the sea
All his seadreams come to me

Seabird, I have seen you fly above the pilings
I am smiling at your circles in the air
I will come and sit by you while he lies sleeping
Fold your fleet wings I have brought some dreams to share
A dream that you love someone
A dream that the wars are done
A dream that you tell no one but the grey sea
They'll say that you're crazy
And a dream of a baby
Like a promise to be free
Children laughing out to sea
All his seadreams come to me.

  8. THE PIRATE OF PENANCE

      PENANCE CRANE

The pirate anchored on a Wednesday
And why he came to port I wonder
To see a lady, so my friends say
She dances for the sailors
In a smoky cabaret bar underground
Down in a cellar in a harbor town
I know he told her love was treasure
And they would reap the fullest bounty
He only comes to port for pleasure
So when the winds of morning
Blew the curtains in she woke and found he'd gone
I saw his sails unfurling Thursday dawn
The pirate, he will sink you with a kiss
He'll steal your heart and sail away

      THE DANCER

Saturday early we met in the cove near the forest

      PENANCE CRANE

He'll leave you drowning in the flotsam
Of a broken promise in the bay

      THE DANCER

Dancing we wakened the dawn and the birds into chorus

      PENANCE CRANE

He came again to see her
Yes, I think they told me it was Saturday

      THE DANCER

Ask Penance Crane she was out in her garden she saw us

      PENANCE CRANE

I was at sea then
I didn't see them
I don't believe what you are saying
It isn't true I hardly knew him
Is this some game that you are playing
Go ask the dancer she's the one who saw him last
The one who drew him here
He hasn't come to me since spring last year
There was a time when he would
Bring me silks and sandalwood and Persian lace

      THE DANCER

Then came another "goodbye" and another "Please don't go"

      PENANCE CRANE

And he would hold me close
And tell my sailing stories by the fireplace

      THE DANCER

All night I dance and all day I keep watch with my sorrow

      PENANCE CRANE

I was at sea I tell you I was
Nowhere near the mentioned murder place

      THE DANCER

Searching for sails that don't come
And I guess, but I don't know

      PENANCE CRANE

Go ask the dancer
She knows the answer

      THE DANCER

I don't know

      PENANCE CRANE

She knows the answer

      THE DANCER

I don't know

      PENANCE CRANE

She knows the answer

      THE DANCER

I don't know.

9. SONG TO A SEAGULL

Fly silly seabird
No dreams can possess you
No voices can blame you
For sun on your wings
My gentle relations
Have names they must call me
For loving the freedom
Of all flying things
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach, out of cry

I came to the city
And lived like old Crusoe
On an island of noise
In a cobblestone sea
And the beaches were concrete
And the stars paid a light bill
And the blossoms hung false
On their store window trees
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach, out of cry

Out of the city
And down to the seaside
To sun on my shoulders
And wind in my hair
But sandcastles crumble
And hunger is human
And humans are hungry
For worlds they can't share
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach, out of cry

I call to the seagull
Who dives to the waters
And catches his silver-fine
Dinner alone
Crying: "Where are the footprints
That danced on these beaches
And the hands that cast wishes
That sunk like a stone"
My dreams with the seagulls fly
Out of reach, out of cry.

10. CACTUS TREE

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 scaly 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
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
Like a cactus tree
Being free.

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