Written by awneitsch on September 14, 2021

BOTH SIDES NOW – JONI MITCHELL – TBC

Mutterings And Murmurs . Social Studies

ROWS AND FLOES 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 THING 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

MOONS AND JUNES AND FERRIS WHEELS

THE DIZZY DANCING WAY YOU FEEL

AS EVERY FAIRY TALE COMES REAL

I’VE LOOKED AT LOVE THAT WAY

BUT NOW IT’S JUST ANOTHER SHOW

YOU LEAVE EM LAUGHING WHEN YOU GO

AND IF YOU CARE, DON’T LET THEM KNOW

DON’T GIVE YOURSELF AWAY

I’VE LOOKED AT LOVE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW

FROM GIVE AND TAKE, AND STILL SOMEHOW

IT’S LOVE’S ILLUSIONS I RECALL

I REALLY DON’T KNOW LOVE AT ALL

TEARS AND FEARS AND FEELING PROUD

TO SAY “I LOVE YOU” RIGHT OUT LOUD

DREAMS AND SCHEMES AND CIRCUS CROWDS

I’VE LOOKED AT LIFE THAT WAY

BUT NOW OLD FRIENDS ARE ACTING STRANGE

THEY SHAKE THEIR HEADS, THEY SAY I’VE CHANGED

WELL SOMETHING’S LOST, BUT SOMETHING’S GAINED

IN LIVING EVERY DAY

I’VE LOOKED AT LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW

FROM WIN AND LOSE AND STILL SOMEHOW

IT’S LIFE’S ILLUSIONS I RECALL

I REALLY DON’T KNOW LIFE AT ALL

I’VE LOOKED AT LIFE FROM BOTH SIDES NOW

FROM UP AND DOWN, AND STILL SOMEHOW

IT’S LIFE’S ILLUSIONS I RECALL

I REALLY DON’T KNOW LIFE AT ALL

JONI MITCHELL WROTE THIS SONG IN 1967 DURING A TIME OF GREAT POLITICAL UPHEAVAL AND SOCIAL CHANGE. IT WAS RELEVANT TO THE TIMES AND MANY OTHER ARTISTS RECORDED IT FOR IT’S MEANING AND SIGNIFICANCE.

May 6: The protests at Columbia exemplified the wave of student activism that swept the globe in 1968, including mass demonstrations in Poland, West Germany, Mexico City, Paris, Italy and elsewhere. On May 6, known as “Bloody Monday,” students and police clashed in Paris’ Latin Quarter, resulting in hundreds of injuries. As the protests continued, millions of French workers began striking in sympathy with the students, eventually leading President Charles de Gaulle to dissolve the National Assembly, call for immediate elections and threaten military intervention.

January 23: Some 15 years after the Korean War, the still-tenuous relations between North Korea and the United States gave way to crisis after North Korea captured the Navy intelligence vessel USS Pueblo and its crew. U.S. authorities claimed the ship had been in international waters in the Tsushima Strait, but North Korea disagreed, and held the 83 crew members in a POW camp before the two countries could negotiate their release.

THERE IS MORE THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THE LATER 60’S THAT CREATED CHANGE FOR BETTER AND WORSE. HIPPIES AND TWIGGY, LSD, THE COLD WAR, THE SIX DAY WAR, THE ERITREAN WAR, THE NAXALITE-MAOIST INSURGENCY, THE NORTH YEMEN CIVIL WAR, THE GUATEMALAN CIVIL WAR, THE SINO-INDIAN WAR, THE CAMBODIAN CIVIL WAR, THE DHOFAR REBELLION. RACISM AND INJUSTICE WAS RAMPANT. IF THERE WAS A CASE FOR A RESET IT WAS MADE IN THE SIXTIES. DROPPING OUT AND INTO IMMORALITY BRANDED AS FREEDOM BECAME NORMALIZED. ‘MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR’ WAS A MARXIST SLOGAN. MUSIC WAS STILL BUBBLEGUMMY BUT THE TURN WAS COMING. BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, THE BEATLES, JEFFERSON AIRPLANE, BOB DYLAN AND MANY MORE WERE GOING PSYCHADELIC. SOCIAL JUSTICE WAS GETTING A SOUNDTRACK. MUSIC BECAME A DRUG CHASED WITH A DRUG. THE MONTEREY POP FEST WAS A PRECURSOR TO A FREE LOVE, DRUG AND RAPE FEST ORGY CALLED WOODSTOCK WHICH TOOK PLACE IN 1969. IT WAS SUCH A HOWLINGLY SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLE OF DEBAUCHERY DISGUISED AS FREEDOM THAT IT WAS REPEATED IN 1994 AND1999 AND PROMOTED AS “TWO MORE DAYS OF PEACE AND LOVE”.

“ON JULY 22, 1999, WHAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SORT OF 30TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE TO THE ORIGINAL WOODSTOCK’69, DIGRESSED INTO A CHAOTIC HELLHOLE THAT HARBORED VIOLENCE, CRIME AND NIGHTMARE-LIKE MAYHEM” – ANUPAMA KHEDKAR JULY 29,2015.

MOST PEOPLE LIVED THOUGH THESE EVENTS AND TIMES. MANY DIED OF NOT NATURAL CAUSES. OF NATURAL SELECTION PERHAPS.

MUSIC OFTEN HAS THE POWER TO MOVE PEOPLE TO ACTS OF COURAGE, LOVE, REVOLUTION OR VIOLENCE. WHY DO YOU THINK MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT AND RELATED GATHERINGS WERE SUPPRESSED OR BANNED OUTRIGHT DURING THIS GLOBALIST POWER GRAB GENOCIDE? YOUR ATTENTION MUST BE FOCUSED ON THE FEAR AND THE MANIPULATION TO GUIDE YOU TO THE WORSHIP OF THE NEW IDOL, THE NEW RELIGION, THE DEATH CULT.

SOME IF NOT ALL OF THE LYRICS HAVE MEANING IN THIS CURRENT WAR. THE IMAGES OF CLOUDS AND OLD FRIENDS ACTING STRANGE POP AND CLANG LOUDLY – LIKE POTS AND DRUMS AT A MARCH. ‘BOTH SIDES NOW’ IS A SONG OF REFLECTION, DISCOVERY, DISILLUSION AND DISCOVERY. IT COULD BE A SONG OF SURRENDER. IT COULD BE A SIREN’S CALL TO ACTION.

THERE WE WERE.

HERE WE ARE.

HERE WE GO.