Thursday, April 10, 2008

Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock", the R.T. version.

This is sort of a a speciel edition of my Songs of Richard Thompson series, featuring his haunting version of Joni Mitchell's "Woodstock". According to his website he did another song for the show, but had to replace someone else and also do this song at short notice. He wasn't quite sure about the chords, and only remembered the lyrics thanks to the teleprompter. But the result is unbelievable excellent. Maybe it's his folk background- he really manages to make the Woodstock-thing seem like a myth from ancient times. Which is quite fitting considering that it sort of HAS become one of the myths that rock n roll culture is build upon.

This is the version of Woodstock I try to emulate when I play it on the piano. I might post my humble attempts at some point in the future, I dunno.




WOODSTOCK

I came upon a child of god
He was walking along the road
And I asked him, where are you going
And this he told me
Im going on down to yasgurs farm
Im going to join in a rock n roll band
Im going to camp out on the land
Im going to try an get my soul free
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Then can I walk beside you
I have come here to lose the smog
And I feel to be a cog in something turning
Well maybe it is just the time of year
Or maybe its the time of man
I dont know who l am
But you know life is for learning
We are stardust
We are golden
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

By the time we got to woodstock
We were half a million strong
And everywhere there was song and celebration
And I dreamed I saw the bombers
Riding shotgun in the sky
And they were turning into butterflies
Above our nation
We are stardust
Billion year old carbon
We are golden
Caught in the devils bargain
And weve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

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