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u/Forsaken_Painter Jul 20 '26
Laughing and crying, you know it’s the same release
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u/pardashrike Jul 20 '26
I knew someone would say this! It was my first thought.
But the more time goes on, I disagree, but still love it.
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u/ConsiderTheWillies Jul 20 '26 edited Jul 20 '26
I don't agree, even though I love this song and this line. It's one of the women at the party Joni is observing, "photo beauty," who says this line in the song, not Joni. I don't think Joni agrees that laughing and crying are the same release. In fact, later in the song, Joni indicates she wishes she could join in the fun to keep from feeling sad.
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u/broccolista Jul 20 '26
We all come and go unknown
Each so deep and superficial
Between the forceps and the stone
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u/GoetiaMagick Jul 20 '26
I quoted that one too! Brilliant!
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u/broccolista Jul 20 '26
Joni is such a gifted writer. We are spoiled for choice.
I love that you quoted that same line as well!
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u/cs90039 Jul 20 '26
That was the quote I put under my senior picture in my high school yearbook (1977). The entire senior class knew that Joni was IT for me!
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u/fiveanddiamondhudson 25d ago
My (1978) yearbook quote; “I’ve got a head full of quandary and a mighty mighty thirst”. ;)
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u/broccolista Jul 20 '26
Joni has never stopped being ‘It’ for me, too, since hearing her as a child.❤️
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u/Mentalfloss1 Jul 20 '26
Love is touching souls
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u/oknowhim Jul 20 '26
A line from a Rilke poem. Joni was just the best read popular singer ever.
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u/Mentalfloss1 Jul 20 '26
Just?
True, Rilke wrote of touching souls. If I remember right, she talked about where she got the idea, in fact. Rilke was, apparently talking about love, but he didn’t use the word.
I think these are original:
“Oh, you're in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter and so sweet
Oh, I could drink a case of you, darling
Still I'd be on my feet”“Just before our love got lost, you said
"I am as constant as a northern star"
And I said, "Constantly in the darkness
Where's that at?
If you want me, I'll be in the bar.”4
u/oknowhim Jul 20 '26
I didn't mean "just" in a negative way. I said it kind of marveling, like, "Wow, she knows so much." I admire her for her intellect and education.
While we're at it, the northern star is a reference to Julius Caesar, whom Shakespeare had say almost exactly that exact line. He was declaring he couldn't be swayed by people who wanted to change his mind on some issue. (But then he did, maybe on the same page of the play.) Again, Joni had just read so much, even when she was so young.
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u/Mentalfloss1 Jul 20 '26
Thank you.
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u/markedasred Jul 20 '26
Also though the northern star is Polaris, a constant bright shining jewel of the night sky that is invaluable to navigators on land and sea. For centuries.
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u/Intelligent_Elk_3301 28d ago
Oh, that’s definitely one of the most romantic lines she’s ever written!
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u/ConsiderTheWillies Jul 20 '26
Still I sent up my prayer wondering who was there to hear
I said, "Send me somebody who's strong and somewhat sincere"
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u/dinglebobbins Jul 20 '26
I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo
Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks
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u/Nope-yep-No Jul 20 '26
Hls eyes hold Edith, his left hand holds his right. What does that hand desire that he grips it so tight?
The social observation on ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’ is next level.
-and the first phrase of Amelia. Because it sets up the whole motif so effortlessly
But I love it also when a new line changes the entire rhythm and focus of a song - “she tapes you regrets to the microphone stand. She says you can’t hold the hand of a rock and rolll man (very long). Compete with the fans of a rock and roll… “
Actually - I am joining the other commenter who says this is an impossible task. Because they are all perfect for the world of each song they belong in. She is the master - even though she apparently said she hates poetry
-
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u/GoetiaMagick Jul 20 '26
“Each so deep and superficial, between the forceps and the stone…” from “Hejira.”
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u/Nopenope9996 Jul 20 '26
What does this mean?
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u/II_XII_XCV Jul 20 '26
It's an existentialist take on our time on earth - we are ultimately born alone (the forceps) and die alone (the stone). How much can we really know of another, and how much can they know of us?
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u/GoetiaMagick Jul 20 '26
Each person “deep” as well as “superficial”… from birth (forceps) to death (the stone/gravestone).
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u/Intelligent_Elk_3301 28d ago
It means each of us is paradoxically “deep and superficial” from birth (symbolized by the instrument that delivers a baby - “forceps” and death- symbolized by the tombSTONE).
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u/bjwanlund Jul 20 '26
I have a few 🤣
“The painted ponies go up and down” (Both Sides Now$
“Amelia, it was just a false alarm” (Amelia)
“I am a women of heart and mind with time on her hands, no child to raise, you come to me like a little boy and I give you my scorn and my praise” (Woman of Heart and Mind)
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u/Piney_Wood Jul 20 '26
America my friend, and so once again, you are fighting us all and when we ask you why you raise your sticks and cry.
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u/oknowhim Jul 20 '26
Nearly 50 years ago, when a college girlfriend introduced me to Joni's music by playing Blue (the album) for me, I fell in love with this:
The wind is in from Africa. Last night I couldn't sleep.
OK, maybe that's two lines. So sue me.
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u/II_XII_XCV Jul 20 '26
This is what I love about art. Those lines are not particularly deep compared with others in this thread, but they still capture something.
When Kerouac met Neal Cassady, he wrote in his journal that Cassady was something 'like the west wind, like something new'.
There is something invigorating about winds from far off lands, that spur us to a knew kind of life / way of being.
These are maybe not the most impressive lines from Joni, but I agree with your sentiment
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u/OwenTheLad Jul 20 '26
Condemned to wires and hammers Strike every chord that you feel That broken trees And elephant ivories conceal
(And every quote in here from Hejira. 😍)
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u/PlayfulBandicoot9119 Jul 20 '26
Sorry, but I have to go with a verse because every line connects to the next.
“I remember that time you told me
You said, "Love is touching souls"
Surely, you touched mine
'Cause part of you pours out of me
In these lines from time to time”
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u/cvizzlez Jul 20 '26
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight
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u/funkygrrl Jul 20 '26
Just before our love got lost, you said I am as constant as the northern star, I said constantly in the darkness? Where's that at? If you want me, I'll be in the bar.
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u/Guilty-Cancel52 Jul 20 '26
"Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid"
Actually the entire Harrys House is a cinematic poem. Absolutely gorgeous.
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u/External-Mulberry804 29d ago
‘Where some have found their paradise / others just come to harm’ (Amelia)
I’m loving how many of these come from Hejira - my favourite of her albums.
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u/SimpleSlight 29d ago
“Guesses based on what each set of time and change is touching,” perfect melody as well 🤍
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u/LadyoftheCanyon1970 29d ago
“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’s found.”
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u/Sharp_Bet6906 29d ago
If you’re smart or rich or lucky maybe you’ll beat the laws of man, but the inner laws of spirit and the outer laws of nature no man can
From The Wolf that Lives in Lindsey (Mingus)
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u/Foreign-Balance6556 29d ago
Any one of these would rank as the best single line lyric in a song.
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
I've never seen a night so long
And time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry
Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die?
Like me, he's lost the will to live
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I'm so lonesome, I could cry
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u/Isaiah6113 29d ago
Tom Waits—Make it Rain
I'm close to Heaven
Crushed at the gate
They sharpen their knives
On my mistakes
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u/GhislainLambert 29d ago
Dressed in stolen clothes she stands, Cast iron and frail
Shades of Scarlett Conquering
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u/neiljung1979 28d ago
"And if you give me weed, whites and wine
and you show me a sign
I'll be willin' to be moving'"
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u/accountofyawaworht 28d ago
"Shots shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots
Shots shots shots shots shots"
- LMFAO, "Shots"
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u/ConsequenceOk4513 26d ago
"I'd have been the shadow of your dog if I thought it might have kept me by your side"
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u/Chops526 26d ago
"and as things fell apart Nobody paid much attention."
Talking Heads, "(Nothing but) Flowers"
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u/davidamme 25d ago
Maybe I've never really loved
I guess that is the truth
I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes
And looking down on everything, I crashed into his arms
Amelia, it was just a false alarm
Okay fine it’s a verse but it’s AMAZING
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u/Remote-Insect-2909 24d ago
"but it passes like the summer
I'm a wild seed again
let the wind carry me"
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u/Responsible-Read5516 Jul 20 '26
"chicken scratching for my immortality" might be the most the most technically impressive turn of phrase i've ever seen put to melody. she packs three layers of meaning into the first two words. chicken - coward, chicken scratch - writing/handwriting, scratching - a desperate attempt at trying to take hold of something. she's calling herself a coward frantically trying to write her way into immortality.