For The Roses

Album: For The Roses (1972)
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  • I heard it in the wind last night
    It sounded like applause
    Did you get a round resounding for you
    Way up here
    Seems like many dim years ago
    Since I heard that face to face
    So seen you face to face
    Though tonight I can feel you here
    I get these notes
    On butterflies and lilac sprays
    From girls who just have to tell me
    They saw you somewhere

    In some office sits a poet
    And he trembles as he sings
    And he asks some guy
    To circulate his soul around
    On your mark red ribbon runner
    The caressing rev of motors
    Finely tuned like fancy women
    In Thirties evening gowns
    Up the charts
    Off to the airport
    Your name's in the news
    Everything's first class
    The lights go down
    And it's just you up there
    Getting them to feel like that

    Remember the days when you used to sit
    And make up your tunes for love
    And pour your simple sorrow
    To the sound hole and your knee
    And now you're seen
    On giant screens
    And at parties for the press
    And for people who have slices of you
    From the company
    They toss around your latest golden egg
    Speculation-well, who's to know
    If the next one in the nest
    Will glitter for them so

    I guess I seem ungrateful
    With my teeth sunk in the hand
    That brings me things
    I really can't give up just yet
    Now I sit up here
    The critic!
    And they introduce some band
    But they seem so much confetti
    Looking at them on my TV set
    Oh the power and the glory
    Just when you're getting a taste for worship
    They start bringing out the hammers
    And the boards
    And the nails

    I heard it in the wind last night
    It sounded like applause
    Chilly now
    End of summer
    No more shiny hot nights
    It was just the arbutus rustling
    And the bumping of the logs
    And the moon swept down black water
    Like an empty spotlight Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
    Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
    Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 1

  • Martha from Knoxville, TnI have grown up believing this album was a cathartic therapy of sorts for Joni's break up with James Taylor. I love this album.
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