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What Is Joni Mitchell ‘Both Sides Now’ Lyrics Meaning?

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Joni Mitchell – Both Sides Now Lyrics Meaning

Canada based singer Joni Mitchell is undoubtedly one of the outstanding female songwriters of the 20th century. She has jotted down several intimate poems including this one. When Mitchell put down this poem, she had only begun to get popular after working as an unidentified musician for quite some periods in her life. My first experience with this song was when I was hardly turning on to understand that I am a grown-up and the innocent childlike world that I had lived earlier was withering. Let’s learn the meaning behind the lyrics of the song ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell about adulthood and maturity.

Introduction: Both Sides Now Lyrics

As kids or youngsters, we believe that we understand every single element about ourselves. The hidden meaning inside the lyrics of the song ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell is that we think we possess an unconditional influence on ourselves. As we progress into adulthood and be grown-ups, we discover that there are so many things that we have no idea of and that people nearby us are just like us who don’t truly recognize what’s driving on everything. It’s just that people are simply putting things up together as they move forward.

Both Sides Now Lyrics Meaning

Let’s learn the meaning behind the lyrics of the song ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell section-wise in detail to mature up into adulthood.

[Verse 1]

From the very first line of the song, the lyrical ability of Joni Mitchell brightens up. You can appoint the clouds to be ‘feather-like’, ‘flock of sheep’, and all to put an elegant picture of the clouds in your mind. Every meaning of clouds from the song ‘Both Sides Now’ on your end ignoring Joni Mitchell herself sounds weak pertaining to the first line of the song. The part “castle in the air” is a representation to interpret a sluggish fantasy. It is a proposal that a person never intends to understand.

In this possibility, it’s a material with ingenious picturing, i.e. looming clouds in the sky might as well seem to be a palace built off of sweet ice-cream. However, ice-cream, similar to the mansions in the atmosphere, manages to thaw in the sharp daylight. An explanation from the “above” viewpoint of the fogs – overseeing us to the “other” perspective in the second verse of this song is exactly how the singer looks at the clouds.

[Verse 2]

The continuance of the first verse is transferring to the ‘other’ viewpoint without any fictitious images and illusions. Only reasonable truths are presented for the deeper meaning of this verse. Here, the gloaming, unfavorable impression, end to certainty, established by the identical fogs that prematurely formulated the ice-cream mansions in the atmosphere. The introductory line that came along with attaining “back to earth”. It demonstrates that all we listened to until this time was an analogy for what the writer is thinking about.

This track consists of three portions with an identical pattern. In this poem, the clouds are the core of the first verse of the song which shapes the illustration between the innocent, sharp attitude of a kid pertained to the grown-up’s contemplation once on the different viewpoint of the cloud. The cloud is an analogy for ‘love’ (second verse) and ‘life’ in the final refrain as well. In all circumstances, it is an extremely retrospective belief for a person in his mid-twenties.

[Refrain 1, 2, 3, & 4]

The singer has now discerned clouds from both junctures of belief from the sentimental childlike aspect and from the rational, scarcely pessimistic one. Although she has experienced them both, it’s the delusion she recollects when she glares behind. This implies that despite the destruction she’s noticed them perpetrate, she nonetheless acknowledges in their sensational romantic significance. The clouds always play, rearrange and shift silhouette, enabling us to see numerous portrayals, that fade just in a minute. This confrontation between both perspectives of the illusion steers the singer to assume she honestly doesn’t recognize them at all.

[Verse 3, 4]

The terms Moon, June, and Spoon are utilized as a representation of clichéd lyrical rhymes. Here, Mitchell takes advantage of the notion to exhibit meaning in the lyrics of ‘Both Sides Now’ with the susceptible clichéd manner affection appears to unravel and evolve. By the time she put down the lyrics for ‘Both Sides Now’, Joni Mitchell has been ahead of mothering and providing for adoption her newborn girl. It was a selfish awakening and a cold transfer to “the next story of love”.

Nevertheless, way ahead in her livelihood, she is suspicious about her connection with her lovers. The allusion to artist-fan perceived connection is an analogy for individual affairs. Every spouse is similar to a “one night stand”, you simply shift to the following gig which is more entertaining than what you just experienced. Now, because of the hurt that has come from being vulnerable in love, she feels hardened. She says that if you feel anything keep it inside, don’t let anyone find out or you’ll experience the same hurt again.

[Verse 5, 6]

Despite the reluctance brought down with “tears and fears”, here Joni Mitchell expresses the opposite meaning in the lyrics of ‘Both Sides Now’ with pride. Then the singer is open and actually vivacious about devotion. She understands that it fulfills to give rise to the “up” standpoint of “life”, the topic clarified in the third and last paragraphs. Joni Mitchell could have easily jotted down the lyrics for the song ‘Both Sides Now’ with meaning and hints about her offspring who she walked out from and provided for adoption.

Mitchell’s colleagues that provided to this entirely exhilarating existence she abode haven’t clung on to her as she has improved. These modifications she undergoes could be the clams expressed in the second portion of every verse, coming to be jaded by surviving damage done.

Conclusion: Both Sides Now Meaning Joni Mitchell

Due to an outbreak of Polio as a kid, Mitchell had a fixed extent of activity in her left hand, compelling her to improvise tunings she could take advantage of. It is a reality that paid for her unusual technique in her singing and fiddling her guitar. What do you think is the meaning behind the lyrics of the song ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell? Let us know in the comments section below.

Read the meaning behind the lyrics of the song ‘Both Sides Now’ by Joni Mitchell on Genius in detail.

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Laviasco is an entertainment website run by a single person, the Admin himself, Mr. Suraj Marahatta, from research to blogging to website maintenance. Here, I have been providing the meaning of the lyrics of the songs little by little since 2019. My goal is to provide authentic sources for the facts and stay up-to-date.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Fibitz

    Did you write this with a thesaurus? When you were high? What in the world…..

    1. Sally Quinn

      Certainly you can be introspective without being high.

  2. Diego Cimino

    Sally Quinn me encanto, me gustaría poder conocerte, esta mal?

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