I missed out on something beautiful at the turn of the last century. In 2000, when Joni Mitchell triumphantly reimagined her pensive classic “Both Sides Now,” I never heard it because it was hidden where even the FBI couldn’t find it, among sturdy chestnuts on her contractual obligation album of sensible jazz standards.
However, despite nearly two decades of tardiness, I am now compelled to declare that this particular revisitation of the song exudes bittersweet genius and deserves celebratory recollection on its own. With fluid, cinematic orchestration underscoring Ms. Mitchell’s reality-check vocals— she brings to mind nothing so much as a grand actress announcing grave news— this chamber symphony is what we all should have been listening to back then when the tech boom was still rising steadily heavenward, yet the collapsing twin towers of 9/11 and the dreaded “Patriot Act” loss of personal freedoms were less than a year away. With these orchestrations as our karaoke track, we should have been blithely singing, “…it’s freedom’s illusions I recall, I really never knew peace at all…” over our Cherry Canoes and Amstel Lights.
But now, even if we have come late to this particular vespers, we should hold it close, as time is short.
Joni’s original iteration of her secular hymn, the one that launched a thousand covers, may be found here.
