Joni Mitchell Takes Us Back to the Garden
Fifty-three years ago, three days of peace and music took place at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. This was Woodstock. 1969, the artists of the decade were all there. Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young. But one pivotal voice was missing throughout the fanfare. Joni Mitchell could not attend due to scheduling conflicts (a manager had told her that it would have been more advantageous for her to appear on The Dick Cavett Show). However, she wrote the anthem of the festival based on current boyfriend Graham Nash's stories and watching reports on television.
She composed the piece alone in a hotel room: "The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock". David Crosby claimed that Mitchell's piece captured the feeling of the festival better than anyone (Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released their own version of the tune on their album "Déjà Vu" prior to Mitchell's own release).
Appearing on Mitchell's third album "Ladies of the Canyon", "Woodstock" also served as the B-side for that album's single "Big Yellow Taxi". The song has been described as a symbolic representation of the counterculture of the 1960s, referencing the horrific "mutual assured destruction" of the Cold War.
The difference between Mitchell's original and the CSNY cover is the celebratory sound of the group's version, as "everywhere was a song and a celebration" and it sounds as such. Mitchell's, however, is more eerie, possibly contrasting the loneliness of not being at the iconic festival versus those who were actually there, performing.
Mitchell's "Woodstock" still perfectly encapsulates an event, a feeling and a time period that is unmatched. Fifty three years later we are still stardust, we are still golden and we are still trying to get ourselves back to the garden.
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