Joni Mitchell: River

Bit O' Covers

By Swapmeet Louie ⋅ December 9, 2008 ⋅ Post a comment

Filed Under Allison Crowe, Covers, Heart, Joni Mitchell, Robert Downey Jr, Sarah McLachlan, Sixpence None The Richer, Swapmeet Louie

Joni Mitchell’s “River” has become, in many ways, a Christmas standard. To be honest, I’ve never quite understood this because the song is really quite depressing… and who wants to be depressed during the Christmas season?

I guess the fact that the song opens with “Jingle Bells” makes the connection to Christmas that much more concrete. But really, the song is depressing. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on” doesn’t exactly evoke the happy-happy-joy-joy feeling we get from “Fa la la la la la la la la!!!!”

Despite this, however, “River” is here to stay during this time of year, and countless artists have embraced the song. I frankly do not know how many times the song has been covered, but it has GOT to be more than fifty times, EASY.

Make that fifty-one, because Ol’ Swap here covered it, too.

Anyhow, I love this song.

“River” is off of Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue. The album hit #15 on the Billboard charts and, according to a 1979 Rolling Stone interview, it was probably her most personal. Joni states here that, “The Blue album, there’s hardly a dishonest note in the vocals. At that period of my life, I had no personal defenses. I felt like a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes. I felt like I had absolutely no secrets from the world and I couldn’t pretend in my life to be strong. Or to be happy. But the advantage of it in the music was that there were no defenses there either.”

The song is a reflection on a failed relationship… it’s Christmas time, and well, I guess the protagonist really likes to get sad during this time of year. The “river” represents a way out… a way out of all the emotion that this person just can’t escape from if they remain where they are.

My guess is that this person was the reason for the breakup, as Joni sings:

I’m so hard to handle
I’m selfish and I’m sad
Now I’ve gone and lost the best baby
That I ever had

The lines “I made my baby cry” or “I made my baby say goodbye” finish off each chorus as well, which is another indication that they forced the separation.

In my opinion, the worst breakups are the ones where you know it was your fault. There’s no one to blame but yourself, and you can drive yourself CRAZY trying to fix what simply cannot be fixed. You can do what you can to convince the other person that you’ve changed, that you’ll do everything “right,” but in the end, they still don’t want you back.

The only way to really start over is to leave completely and find another place to set down in.

This feeling of regret floods this song, and even though Mitchell never really describes the river aside from calling it “wide,” one can’t help but imagine a porcelain river winding through an untouched snow covered path, going anywhere but here.

The song was never released as a single, yet it has become one of her most popular songs. And every Christmas I can’t help myself… I wanna hear the song.

So today I’ve dug out as many versions of the song that I have. There are some gems here, especially Robert Downey, Jr.’s version. Who knew he could sing so well? Sixpence None The Richer’s version was one that I had absosmurfly no idea I had. Ah, the mysteries of life…

For your enjoyment (hopefully), I’ve also posted my own version of “River” as well. I based it on Indigo Girls’ performance, as that one hit me the hardest. I hope you dig it!!! If you don’t, please don’t give me crap about it… I’m fragile.

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