Justice versus conscience

You shouldn’t throw the word “genius” around too often, but honest to God, Joni is a musical genius.

I was born in a ‘Magdeline Laundry’ I’m 68 now and have listened to this incredible world class talent since I was 17. To hear our dear Joni sing about this breaks my heart each time. But her voice takes me to places I would have never realized on my own. I’m just not that gifted. Joni Mitchell’s interpretation of Happy Birthday would be worthy of the Smithsonian’s attention!

Just adore Joni. Bit of history here. When THIS performance was filmed the last remaining “laundry” was just about to close here in Waterford Ireland. THAT’S how recent this history is.

Joni Mitchell has been tearing my heart out for over 50 years – and I’m proud of it.

Never can tell differences between her live and studio work.  Thats pure infilterable talent.

99% of the music business is just using beats for an ego trip and then there is something like this – real art – the searing truth. Joni!

I’ve recently realized that it’s a little odd that with this artist, Joni, who has impacted me so deeply and for so many years that I actually stopped collecting and listening to her new work back around Hejira and Wreckless Daughter. I guess I moved on and wanted to stay with Joni’s melodic folk guitar picking and arpeggiated piano accompaniments. Finally, like 40 years later I’m craving to catch up. I want to snatch up every album since I stopped following. I’m devouring all her work and see that it will be a huge fount of listening and thinking music. I suspect that I’m not alone here. In starting to discover her later mature works I’m moved by the depths of her burden as an artist. She kept moving through her insights and dealing with them through her art. I was really bowled over when I heard her slow orchestrated version of A Case of You, on the album Both Sides Now. Listening to the deeply meloncholy strains of her many years later version while thinking of her strumming her lap dulcimer and trilling through A Case of You back in those days long ago is overwhelming and perfect bookends to feel her artistry, her sacrifice for it. Today I feel for Joni’s tired bones so, I pray for her. She is such a gift.

Wow – I hadn’t heard this before, beautiful. A friend shared it on FB while the Pope was visiting Ireland. I have no idea how anyone can still be Catholic knowing the cruelty they inflicted on the women and children here and all over the world.

Joni Mitchell was my Godmother unbeknownst to her after my mother died in 73 then my sister in 74, my brother in 75…I locked myself in my room with Joni’s songs and my brother’s Ovation guitar, practicing to perfection till I could play and sing for acquaintances, friends and my father…Carey (get out your cane), Ladies of the Canyon, Big Yellow Taxi…her music kept me sane, gave me my voice to render beautiful melody and give me profound confidence and joy. I love Joni Mitchell for being my muse and a mother of sorts who brought me through a dark time in my life into the light.

Joni’s idea of tuning to the space is something new to think about, I have played open tunings for decades and have never heard anyone approach it like this

Part One: A light shines about her Tis not the moon or the sun The light of something higher That strikes her beauty To the soul of everyone Her voice tumbles Like mountain water From sensuous and wise lips As she marks her song with rhythm In the swaying of her hips And then the words hit home Like the wisdom Of the goddess’ light And I am lost in my listening As her song takes flight (Copyrighted@Yanto2013)

“Surely, to God some bells should ring.” Joni, you give them back their dignity.

Man, what a song for today’s headlines! A quarter century ago. Joni was unparalleled by any measure. The fact that there were no Joni imitators or even attempts at copycats says a lot about her originality. Musically and vocally gifted. She always acted humble. That must have been torture.

What an amazing artist!!! Joni speaks like the writer and poet she is. She sings and plays like none other. She’s a painter, a master storyteller, a deep deep well of musical and magical beauty.

No matter your taste in music or who you like you simply have to respect her musicianship! As someone at 18 I can see her music is timeless and appeals to people of all age and from all generations

Joni Mitchell, a planetary treasure…. incomparable….

I love Joni’s voice, lyrics and guitar virtuosity.  She’s stunningly beautiful as well.

A great artist……a great song about the outrageous treatment of many young women…..and as always a unique performance.

I can’t listen to this without tearing up. Such a sad, beautiful and powerful song.

I love this woman, as a sister of my deepest soul. How precious it is to know ones such as her who represent the deepest of us …. Because she could, and love her, she did.

I heard this heartbreaking song before I ever knew what the laundries were, and was haunted by it. Now I know. Joni is a genius paying proper honour to those tragic women.

Such a sad story but so elloquentally told. This recording allows us to witness Jonies prowess as a vocalist, and a guitarist. I always wondered how she got the subtle percussves. All superlitives to you Joni + 1, bloody marvelous.

She made up a tuning for the day…. Wow. What a way to understand music. Being an expert with open tunings must set you free

“So I sat out in the sun on a rock and I tuned my guitar to the sound of that day (…) I tuned to the crows and the seagulls, the sonic references available” …As you do.

The completeness, the perfection, the beauty that is Joni Mitchell…unsurpassed and unparalleled….the finest singer/songwriter/musician of our time.

I never knew this Joni song, first time hearing, a big surprise as I thought I had every track she ever recorded. It makes me really miss her talent and her courage and her absolute great talent at forming great music even from the darkest shadows…she is clearly one of the greatest song talents in human history. Telling us once more of yet another atrocity by the Roman Catholic Church, yet another in the grim and terrible abuses of women by the church, by men…in the sweetest voice.

Oh man… she’s a Goddess! In my book the best of the very best songwriters of the 20th. AND probably 21 st. century!!

This song grabs me around the heart like a vise. There is so much injustice in this world concealed by hypocrisy.

I’d say Joni is a national treasure but the truth is she is an international treasure. One of, if not the most spectacular, example of artistic genius there has ever been. She is my spirit animal.

Inspiring, soulful, crystal voice. Taught me how to sing as a girl. Still listening to The true Lady in music.

Genius. Thank God we didn’t lose her a few years ago.

can you imagine being in that studio audience? a memory for a lifetime…

“They’d like to drag us down the drains ” . She said it with femininity and grace and powerful words <3

Wonderful songstress and guitarist. God made only one like her.

Joni thanks you for writing this hauntingly beautiful song!

Such a beautiful and heartbreaking song. Hope it can bring some comfort to every tortured forgotten soul.

It seems like there are 19 soul-free miscreants with antifreeze in their hearts… How anyone can listen to this and not be moved to tears is beyond me. Thanks so much Joni – to me you are the greatest multi-dimensional artist in Canadian history. I’m in awe of your genius, your heart-felt stance for what’s right… I share the same sentiments as you. Thanks amigo !

This is my favorite live performance by Joni Mitchell ever.

My favorite song from “Turbulent Indigo”. I love the studio version, I love this live version. Wonderful Joni.

The Magdalene Laundries is one of my favourite Joni Mitchell songs. It must be one of the saddest songs ever but somehow honours the souls of the abused with its stunning beauty. Hearing her describe the circumstances of how she came to write it really drew me in and then; wow! A solo performance which had me mesmerised, as though I had never heard the song before. I’d love to hear the rest of this performance.

Her guitar playing alone just melts my heart.

the soul, the genius, the awesome beauty of Joni Mitchell.

This song – besides that it is amazingly beautiful and Joni is one of the most outstanding musical artists – is encouraging and heartbreaking!

Joni in her prime. She touched many hearts. x

I have no words. Only tears. Something only Joni Mitchell can do to me almost every time.

“Not any spring” just slays me, to tears, every time.

Love the patina on her voice around this time.

I’d only heard this by Christy Moore and assumed it was his. What a genius this woman is.

I was an unmarried girl I’d just turned twenty-seven When they sent me to the sisters For the way men looked at me Branded as a Jezebel I knew I was not bound for Heaven I’d be cast in shame Into the Magdalene laundries Most girls come here pregnant Some by their own fathers Bridget got that belly by her parish priest We’re trying to get things white as snow All of us woe-begotten-daughters In the streaming stains Of the Magdalene laundries Prostitutes and destitutes And temptresses like me Fallen women Sentenced into dreamless drudgery Why do they call this heartless place Our Lady of Charity? Oh charity! These bloodless brides of Jesus If they had just once glimpsed their groom Then they’d know, and they’d drop the stones Concealed behind their rosaries They wilt the grass they walk upon They leech the light out of a room They’d like to drive us down the drain At the Magdalene laundries Peg O’Connell died today She was a cheeky girl A flirt They just stuffed her in a hole! Surely to God you’d think at least some bells should ring! One day I’m going to die here too And they’ll plant me in the dirt Like some lame bulb That never blooms, come any spring Not any spring

She’s so beautiful in every way, and so she is here. A simple storyteller with art beyond my meager words.

Truly incredible! Amazing guitar sound! And her voice!

CHILLS. I saw JM in Wellington NZ on her Wild Things Run Fast tour under a full moon. This song and Amelia were both transcendent.

What an incredible talent. Her unique guitar tunings and cord progressions have always been progressive far beyond her time.

This is from her “Turbulent Indigo” album. Her self portrait is on the CD cover. What a lovely talent!

I remember watching this live and being blow away when she said she tuned to the nature around her.

I have loved Joni Mitchell for many years. Today, I heard this song for the first time and it left me in tears. She is a voice for the forgotten and the oppressed.

We’ve lived through this one, Joni and I. Glad she could say it out loud.

Melancholy tunes or not, I love you Joni Mitchell. You’re one of the few bright lights in this world. KG

A true genius – up there with the best there has ever been. Mention Mozart, mention Malher, you should also mention Mitchell.

If I had been one of those guys listening a few feet from her, THAT day would be a very precious day of my life.

My absolute favorite song of Joni’s !! It’s as good as anything she’s ever done. This video is fantastic and sounds just like the song on the album. The lyrics alone are poetry. Her playing is phenomenal and her voice so deep and rich. This song stands alone as a screenplay and I can’t believe someone has not taken it and made a movie of it. It’s just sitting there waiting to made into a film.

Joni is my all time favorite artist. Love you

Heartbreaking and yet so beautiful- absolutely adore Joni.

What am I doing, buying new music? I need to buy Joni’s music!!!

I do believe that one day when Joni is gone, a big piece of my heart will die too. After listening, deeply, to her music for 45 years, I pray to God that she lives forever. We all need her.

This is a great example of what Peggy Seeger ment by songs that make history come alive.

Her voice is amazing!!! I didn’t realise how it had changed in her later career…so smoky, smooth and powerful. x

In an era of greatness, Joni Mitchell is the cream of a generation

so good yet so depressing we will never witness this level of talent in the coming years ….

She’s so good, i don’t have words to express it. I’m tearing up.

My life had included Joni Mitchell’s musical talent throughout all my years. Her incredible femininity and grace makes her one of a very few Women who command attention and deserve it. She just keeps getting better. A truly wonderful Musical Icon.

Thank you Joni, what a beautiful tribute to the victims and survivors. The way women were treated for having a child out of wedlock and of course the men don’t have to pay for their sins. In the 60s my mother was raped at 16 by her brothers friend. My mother was pregnant as a result of that rape and by her parents she was made to marry her rapist. She was knocked out during childbirth and when she woke she was told that both her babies died, their lungs collapsed. She has always wondered if they were alive somewhere because the woman next to her was having twins too but hers survived she was a married woman. I’ve been wanting mom to do one of those dna test to find relatives and maybe it’s true her babies were stitched at birth. Oh and she wasn’t aloud to see them either, she said thire hearts were beating and they were active throughout her pregnancy. If it’s true I believe my grandmother will go to her grave with that secret plus my step grandfather was sexually abusing my mother too so I think they may have thought the babies were his. Mom thought her may have been giving her this medication back then that induced labor or miscarriage.

What a voice what a guitarplaying – easy going – deep feeling

I feel so sorry for (particularly women) singer-songwriters. No-one can get near to this woman’s talent.

This is my most favourite Song and Video on all of YouTube. “Perfect”…and Joni…well what can one say – Beautiful Genius. Bewitching and Spellbinding – as is the song.

What a great story told in response to a seemingly simple question… Joni’s brilliance will live on, being discovered and rediscovered over and over… genius

I Love You Joni Mitchell! You are my Queen for life. Your lessons, inspiration are unsurpassed! I Love you!

Not sure how I missed this song since “meeting” her in the 60s but what an incredible performance of an ugly scenario.

My first time hearing this one, not sure how it was missed for so many years. All I can say is I absolutely love Joni and always will……….. much more than incredible 🙂

She opened door that flooded the world with calm beauty.

Thank you SO much for posting this! A million documentaries cannot replace this glimpse of Joni Mitchell at her most eloquent.

Her answer to this question is insane…rapid thoughts & references spoken by a flat-out intellectual historian ( on this matter) turned by her mind & musical ability into ART in this song

Part Two: Her strings sing like angels Though she says they’re tuned To gulls and crows As they spin me out To where I do not know A light shines about her Not a candle or the stars A light of something higher That strikes her beauty To the soul and the heart(Copyrighted @Yanto2013)

Always powerful insightful songs! Joni such a legend!

Love her guitar style. Interesting strumming pattern on this song.

I loved Joni from the first album (Song to a Seagull) and forever ever, but my 3 favorite albums are Court and Spark, Hissing of Summer Lawns, and Hejira. The imagery she creates with her lyrics is astounding. When someone calls her a genius, they’re NOT just throwing the word around. She has been inspired by a higher power. I will be 67 next year and have spent my life listening to her and enjoying her music and lyrics.

I’m not sure I’ve ever heard Joni in such stunning, special voice as in this performance.

Inspiration sits on her shoulder, rightous anger lives in her heart.she sings songs about our lives forcing us to remember that once we to were brave.

this is something so good about Joni..this song..shedding light on this atrocious story..Joni, i take my humble hat off to you

As an Irish girl, I love this

I Cry every time i hear this song. It’s a tragically beautiful song

So much love for this lady x

trembling with total catharsis. The keening at the end — the sorrows of those women — no words.

I mean, this is TOTALY amazing!!…brilliant!!…what a wonderful song!!…

Joni, Queen of my heart, Empress of Music.

One of my favourite singers. I bought a lot of her records. Thanks Joni.

wow! tuning to the sonic references available that day… such and extraordinary artist <3

Good lord…might be the most keen intellect to come out of a singer-songwriter, and it’s certainly reflected in her art and storytelling.

Heard this song for the first time today. I’m speechless. She is really something.

Really like that open chord she keeps hitting. Almost like a bell chiming. Beautiful!

This is a masterful performer of guitar and lyrics and voice , deserve every prize there is , she is a treasure for us .

Inspiring, soulful, crystal voice. Taught me how to sing as a girl. Still listening to The true Lady in music.

I relate to that person who clapped so enthusiastically at the end. I mean it’s so melancholy and genius.

Wow. Joni lays it all out. She feels it. The soul of the 60’s.

No wonder so many men fell at her feet. She has it all: beautiful, talented, super intelligent, humble and wonderfully gracious.

The shame of been catholic is something that I never thought I’d feel, how this was aloud to happen I’ll never know! I heard this by accident looking at the information on the laundry’s I feel pregnant at 18 unmarried no partner alone, if I lived in Ireland in the times of the laundries I know I’d of been here an this song brings tears to my eyes each time I hear it

The Master at Work, the Great Joni Mitchell. Love you Joni, you were a peer and inspiration to me in the 70’s when I started out 🙂 xxxx

I love her music so much, message, voice, harmonics all of it!

The movie The Magdeline Sisters will rip your heart out!

Wow, an amazing song by Joni that I had never heard before!!

Joni is the epitome of artistic genius. Songwriter, poet, painter, photographer extraordinaire

I always thought this song was about her personal experience when she was pregnant with her daughter she gave up for adoption when she was in her 20’s. I’m glad it wasn’t , those poor girls.

being a hacker musician, and deeply aware of my own limitations, I am always awed by the ability of true artists like Joni Mitchell to transform inspiration into something so beautiful. She is a true treasure.

An extra-special talent here! Very uplifting.

Beauty, brains and talent and heart. A very complex person.

perfection as always. I’ve loved you Joni .

“i tuned my guitar to the sound of that day” what the heck i love that

Incredibly articulate background to the lyrics; fine song ,too…

Best total package; Writing, musicianship, voice, heart, authenticity, balls (owns rights to all her own music, from back in the day in a man’s world).Even the cover art on her albums, she painted.

Joni is a global Inspiration … God Bless her! and she’s a Canuck too!

The guitar is such an amazing, versatile instrument. Clearly there are an infinite number of ways in can be played, even though 99% of us all do it more or less the same way…..

Bob Dylan got his Nobel it’s time for Joni’s.

Growing up in the 70’s, I discovered her. For years I wouldn’t listen to her because her music affected me in such a way it made me cry. I’m in my 50’s now and damn if she doesn’t still make me cry. Guess I’ll never get over her. Cheers.

Such a beautiful performance.

After watching Joni’s reaction to winning the Les Paul award this year, I think she may have dementia 🙁 This is really heartbreaking to see, but hey, look at what she achieved while she was able to … She spent so much of her time being so creative while most of us spend it being entertained by the ones creating!

Wow! What a performance! Genius!!

When her time of rest has completed, she’ll be welcomed into the spirits’ fold. What a wonderful and talented woman she is. A rare heart.

That’s her own class: picks a paper once in her life, and bam! turns it in a song

II am overwhelmed by Joni’s artistry: painter, poet, innovative guitarist/pianist, singer extraordinaire. Her musical catalog is as valid as any classical composer. If this were the only song she ever wrote, it would be enough to cast her as the ultimate singer/songwriter.

Thank you Joni – now there’s tears in my eyes.

This is the first time i heard this while curiously searching for good music. This song although nice,gave me the chills due to the thought of children brides around the world as we speak,along with pregnancy by priest,Fathers,so many sick scums in this world. Its just un bearable & heart wrenching to hear about things like this. Very admirable woman&beautiful voice…

Beautifully written with sensitivity & those poor young women that were treated with such cruelty, there children taken from them must have been a living hell Nice that Joni brought this to light

She is prophetic

Possibly a timely revisit to sadness and beauty…. <3

One of the greatest songs of Joni

Thank you so much for you thoughtful education and heartfealt music.

God bless you M. Murphy She is a marvelous talented artist…

Wow, I’ve never heard that song before and I can’t stop crying … Very VERY moving

Joni sos la mejor cantante de la historia !!! Te amo !!!!

I was so amazed when I found this on youtube I missed knowing about this song. She has written so many fabulous songs In USA some years ago the crowd at a Bob Dylan tribute jeered and jeered poor Sinead O”Connell because she said things against the catholic church.. it was horrible to witness.. and yet the wonderful Joni can explain and speak with clarity and write this song so brilliantly.

Beautiful syncopation.

Joni is an artist. It’s even a burden. She’s gifted with deep insight and it has to put it somewhere. What a gift that she was gifted to put it to such brilliant use. So many are eaten alive by their depths and Joni rides this wave of artistry. I like so many love her so much.

If anyone doubts the magnificence and power of Joni Mitchell as an artist… an artist up there with Dylan, Lennon & McCartney and Van Gogh, then just listen to this.

Singer- songwriter extraordinaire… In a league of HER own Greetings from Dublin Ireland brother and sisters We love her HERE.

The movie The Magdalene Sisters is a great representation of what life was like in the Laundries.

Breathtaking!!!

Wow. Just wow.

Yikes !!!! Thank You Joni !!!! Nice Guitar Word and Lyrics !

Joni…A national treasure!!

Stunning. Powerful and beautiful.

Outstanding and heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing

Moved me to tears… took me by surprise to find myself wiping away a tear popping out beneath my spectacles. Her song ‘Little Green’ (about putting her baby up for adoption) does it to me too…..

If you google “Magdalene Erin Layton,” you will find links to a one-woman show that has been performed at the NYC Fringe Festival and is currently the subject of a fund raising campaign to send it to Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.  Here (below) is a paste of the email I received about this.  I saw the show in NYC, and it is fantastic and heart-breaking. Dear friends, family and close colleagues: Please SAVE THE DATE on Sunday, May 31st as we partner with the organization, Artists Without Walls, in hosting a matinee benefit to celebrate and support the international premiere of MAGDALEN at the world renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August! Tickets and show information will be released at the end of April. We hope to see you on the 31st!  With gratitude,  The MAGDALEN team, Erin Layton (writer/performer) & Julie Kline (developer/director)

My heroine a true legend. Love this woman!

I prefer this Purely acoustic version to the one on the Turbulent Indigo  album.

Simply beautiful.

that brought tears to my eyes…. beautiful

pure genius

Amazing song, amazing Joni

A national treasure!

They wilt the grass they walk upon. They leach the light out of a room.

Thank you Joni for your wise words, so elegantly put! My daughter’s father was born in one of those horrific places, where they made them work up until they gave birth as some sort of punishment, he was born in 1961. Need I say it all affected him terribly.

I could watch her play forever!

She is sooooo good!

Joni is like a force that comes from the infinite spirit like a messenger to teach us. She ispart of this world, but beyond it too.

Totally wonderful very sad song

genius, she’s a fricking genius. love her.

An amazing and sad sad sad story. A wonderful song. A huge talent. A wish that strong, free women will fight in favor of less fortunate women everywhere in the world…

That early 90’s “baggy/large” clothing style was absolutely beautiful!

Ahh, Miss Joni……You still bring the water to my eyes.

)Joni stands alone in my heart.

Loved her voice and heart and soul as a stranger for giving us everything you could ever wish for – rare bird on a wire signals pure pleasure through her music ! Longer than most stay married ! Thanks JM dig Leonardo on the wall …

My uncle was born in one too, back in 1949. We never k new he existed until after my grandmother died (in 2005). My mother had always thought my nan was holding back a big secret and a few days after she died admitted to her aunt that she thought something bad had happened in her mother’s past. My aunt came out with the secret. My nan was obsessed with washing and cleaning clothes. I remember as a child my mother and her getting into a huge argument because my nan wanted to do the washing on Christmas day but my mum wanted her to relax. My nan got really mad and upset. It’s only in retrospect we understand now. My grandmother and grandfather moved to England in 1951 and had a child in 1952. They went on to have 4 children here (we’re still not sure if my grandfather is the father of my uncle born into the Magdalene). We spent years trying to find my long lost uncle after my nan died. We found his birth certificate and searched everywhere for him even going as far to randomly call people with his name in America, as we were told it was likely he was adopted. We were told there wasn’t much chance of finding him but after a few years, with help from the London Irish Centre, we finally did. It turned out he was never adopted because my grandmother wouldn’t sign the adoption papers. She had him until he was 2 years old, in the laundry, after which he was put into the care system. We spoke on the phone with him for a few weeks before he came over to meet us and I still remember the moment he walked into our house. We knew, instantly, he was my grandmother’s child as he looked exactly like her. It was uncanny. It was as if he were a male version of my grandmother. He even had her mannerisms. He was the sweetest, most gentle man. His life had been filled with incredible suffering and pain – he was abused as a child by a priest and beaten, told his mother was dead some 45 years before she actually had died, so to never bother searching for her. He’s now an integral part of our family. What was odd, was his name – Hubert. See, I have another uncle called Hubert. Apparently the story goes when my uncle Hubert was born (English Hubert we refer to him as now, much to his displeasure as he thinks of himself as Irish) my grandfather was in charge of going to the registry office to register his name. They had decided on Hugh, but my grandfather, being drunk, had misheard and registered him as Hubert. So I have two uncles called Hubert. Irish Hubert and English Hubert. Knowing just what my nan went through and experienced makes me so angry and I just can’t believe what a strong woman she was to carry that weight around her her whole life. How much shame and guilt she must have felt. I wish she were here to see how happy her son has made us all.

A pleasure listening to Joni Michael.

What a great song writer you are. No doubt about your influence to music.I respect your talent and you will be remembered for that gift you have us all.

Goddess level musicianship and angelic voice … Oh it’s Joni – astonishing story telling.

Oh Joni, what a gift!

One in a lifetime.

Joni’s too brilliant to write a cheerful song

Brilliant song about true events. Some Sisters of charity and mercy showed little charity and no mercy.

I can’t help it, get a lump in my throat every time I view this. “The last will be first and the first will be last.” I have to hold back tears

Im very familiar with the story of the Magdalene laundries, but since I never really cared for Joni Mitchell that much I’ve deprived myself of this great song.

Wow fair play to her I didn’t know she knew these things

The One and Only ️️️

Pure freakin genius

I am so glad I chanced upon this video this evening and so very glad you included the explanation for how this song came about.

A true original…nobody can copy greatness like this.

This is wonderful.

She’s the angel of our generation. What a gift!

These bloodless brides of Jesus If they had just once glimpsed their groom Then they’d know and they’d drop the stones Concealed behind their rosaries

What a song? The genius lyrics!

Boy how relevant this has become overnight in America 2019.

Always loved Joni and her music. She is genius and an inspiration. So sad about Magdalene Laundry and the slave work of those dear girls. Bless them all.

Genius. ‘Nuff said.

If anyone is interested in this disgrace, watch the film “The Magdalene Sisters” to learn about this horrible treatment of women in Ireland. Actually, the Magdalene laundries ended much later than Joni realized.

The angel of our generation. Beyond compare!

Absolute genius

That story made me cry.

More cheerful songs Joni, your caretaker said!

She is on another level as a songwriter and performer. Like Dylan.

A solemn performance.

Apparently Prince was captivated/obsessed with Joni’s craft!

THIS WOMAN IS A GENIUS FROM ANOTHER PLANET.

Who knew this question would yield a revelation like “so I tuned to the crows and the seagulls and the sonic references available…”

Who could not love Joni Mitchell?

incredible sound -here’s my Joni Mitchell story, I’d read a good review in Rolling Stone for Blue, couldn’t find it anywhere,so I bought ‘For the Roses’ hell I loved it…forgot about Blue got that later not as good as ‘Rose’s’ I’m tired…gotta lay down

phenomenal  talent !!!!!

I never knew the story behind this. It always made me so sad. Now as I listen to this I am filled with sorrow.

Beautiful and bold as we should be to Stand out against injustice,a pure humanity for the world can rise up against inequality and injustice.god bless this universe

I’m not one to idolise as a rule, but I bow down to this amazing lady whose beautiful songs, wisdom-drenched lyrics and moon-silver voice have impressed and influenced me for over 40 years. A true star. Long may you continue Joni!

I’m thankful I was not raised Catholic. How they took the most beautiful ideal as the beatitudes and turned it into such a dark and evil thing is mind blowing.

genius,,,genius

Yes a maestro, supreme player singer composer……………..heartfelt songs that are ageless and enchanting……thank God.

Human beings inhumanity toward one another never ceases to amaze me! I so many ways we have not changed much from our primitive ancestors! The most frightening part of this is our ability for self destruction. First time I have ever heard this, am a big Joni Mitchell fan, have been for many years! Hang in there Ms Mitchell, hope you are doing well! Thank you for so much inspiring music over the years!

Ooooooooh the genius of Joni Mitchell

It cracks me up her initial « Ooohhh »… i love Joni Mitchel!

How sadly appropriate to hear this musical story now to reinforce the ‘me too’ movement. Sear it into our brains. Shout it out over the apologists and the guilty.

THERE IS A FABULOUS MOVIE “THE MAGDALENE SISTERS”…

I love her guitar playing….Irish Catholicism such an easy target. Sadly, the lifeline for many.

A sad comment on religious organisations and bigots beautifully sang —as usual by Joni

My Mother passed away last year and grew up in Ireland. Women knew what would happen if they made that one mistake while growing up. I was recently told that at 19 years old, my Mother had 8 teeth pulled at the dentist on a winter evening and had to cycle home on a miserable cold wet night on a bicycle. And one more thing, was required to attend funeral of a neighbor and represent the family on the way home. I never knew this before she passed away. I cried when I heard this song. Thank you Joni.

Such a sad and succinct song

Przepiękna Osobowość od paru pokoleń ludzie uczą się od Niej opowieści śpiewem…

It really hurts me to hear that huskiness already pervading her voice (in 1994) from years of smoking cigarettes. Still great yet so sad.

The story in this song breaks my heart. Just like all the poor little girls who have been castrated, made child brides.

I’m from Ireland, I’ve only heard Christy Moore sing this, and I assumed he wrote, or picked it up from an Irish song writer as he often does. I actually can’t believe it was Sweet Joni who wrote it. And what an incredible guitar player she is, btw.

What is that beautiful Guitar Joni is playing, please, can anyone tell me???  Also less you be in any doubt, let me assure you that the sentiments expressed in this song are factual, to Ireland and the Vatican’s eternal shame.  May God have mercy on them, I know for one I wouldn’t.

It’s the goddamn men who are fallen.

As much as I know of Collings guitars, I am amazed she is playing a Collings Baby here. Great song and story.

Greetings from Dublin Ireland brother and sisters I had no idea Joni Wrote THIS I have heard many versions… Ireland shame what happened.. We are still trying to make up to those ladies… Last year they got an official apology from the government and some aid Met the president etc. It’s not enough But a good start…

As a dispossessed mother herself, the whole story of the Magdalene Laundries would have hit Joni right in the most tender parts. For all the bullshit thrown around promoting this abhorrent thing we call adoption, Joni is a voice to the contrary. How much we need it.

PURE GENIUS

My mother provided slave labor in the laundry of the Convent of the Good Shepherd during WWII and just after. This song breaks my heart every time. She spent her life thereafter struggling with shame-driven mental health issues. She literally was the flower bulb that never bloomed not any spring. All the nuns that mistreated God’s children are gone now, mostly, and, unlike them, I believe in God’s justice. Hey Sisters, I hope it’s not too hot down there!

An old friend.. She used the Parker fly to change tunings as Her voice got lower (was still smoking since ’70s) This guitar is amazing..I still don’t know how She plays w/o a pick or finger stuff.. Beautiful Album Aloha

This went on until the 1990’s with that sect. Even in San Francisco from my understanding.

Very powerful.

I frequent this page sonicboy19. Maybe once or twice a week for a long time now. Thank you so much. What a sound.

I love it when someone comes along and exposes the Church for its monstrous behavior. In America they would tie this same kind of women into a chair on a long pole. Dip them into a stream for 15 to 20 minute, and if they were still breathing after that submersion, they were declared innocent of being a Witch. Thanks for being one to expose these kinds of behaviors, Joni.

Magic voice

I love this song. How tragic for those poor women.

Priesthood; the scourge of Ireland.

I could’t love her more.

It took me this long to truly appreciate this Artist. Im 57.

She always affects me!

God’s angel of music.

I just wished she didn’t write about such light-hearted topics 😉 She is the coolest! Get well Joni <3

A foreigner telling a story Irish people can’t still articulate. Magdalene laundries were open until the early nineties. I was born and raised on this island. 2019 and we still haven’t owned up to our shame. An island of lies and shame and guilt.

The cover up by the Catholic Church for the terrible things that went on in these convents went until 1996, with pope Paul John II being one of them individuals in charge of that. Watch the 2003 movie The Magdalene Sisters.

I never knew this was a song by Joni Mitchell. I know if it through Christy Moore, Live at the point 2006 and always assumed he or some other Irish songwriter was responsible for it given it’s an Irish topic. The more you know.

What a gift Joni Mitchell is to the world

they made a film about it, It’s funny how the church uses bullying tactics until you stand up to them Then it’s all contrition, hated the nuns, this song hits it perfectly

I am the son of a good man, and a strong mother. And two strong grandmothers, and two good grandfathers. And we were Catholics. The evil described in this song was not normal. But the Catholic church’s demonisation of sexuality is evil. Good Catholics managed to live with it well. But they really should not have had to. God made us to love. With body as well as soul. And blessed us with the intelligence to provide for birth control. All children born could be wanted and provided for. If the reason of love prevailed.

I love this Goddess

There’s a film, if you really want to understand the wickedness of this institution. All in the name of religion….the very word sickens me. Religion….a word used by people to disguise their misdeeds against society, I’ll grant, not all of them, but far to many run under this shroud and get away with it I’m not talking about the Irish, I’m talking about people world wide…Those who fight against ‘oppression’..I think sometimes need to look in their own back yard before they go spouting their righteousness against the rest of the world. It takes one to know one. For me, I cannot find an innocent among our nations. I see a playground. But with bigger boys and more deadly toys. my da’s bigger that your’s….You know the drill. It’s time we all grow u;p and realise we need eachother to survive.

I’ve loved her above all others……

Hey, she’s a pretty good guitar player!

Just a beautiful and smart woman!

pure gold

Tears…

Joni Mitchel has always been one of my heroes but has now rocketed to the top of the list having wrote this song and publicised the savage nun system of the Catholic Church that controlled Ireland for a time after the British were sent packing

I have this as a MP3 and never, until now, seen the footage. Thank you.

did you ever find love Joni? Look to heaven now Joni!

Seems effortless and authentic. All you can wish for.

3 greatest artists of the 20th century: frank lloyd Wright, Picasso, and Joni. A case can be made.

God…makes me cry every time.

ah Irish Catholicism – nothing like it – thankfully

so so sad a tale , yet so beautifull a song

She could sing the ingredients to rice crispies cereal and sound awesome 🙂

so far ahead of her time in lyrics

Wonderful commentary, beautiful song by Joni. But really, kind of a bonehead question:  “What inspired you to write the Magdalene Laundries.”  Well, the laundries were the inspiration!

In the presence of GENIUS

Sublime…

I saw Joni at the Troubadour in LA in 1969. We had the front table which actually was so close that it touched the stage. I could have reached up and touched her shoe without getting out of my chair. Fond memory.

genius doesn’t even apply, this is other worldly …. and just one of her songs.

can’t describe Joni she’s has the words I have an open mouth

The best.

listenihg to this as the snow falls on the mountains and foothills, hope we can support woman to stand before the storm, faith in the spirit, faith in mother earth

How can the people in the audience not want to get up and hug joni feel her embrace….a group hug?

God, her voice here …

There’s no one to compare her to, except to herself…

Tragic, thank you for shining light on this horror that. It may never happen again.

What a personality.

Those of you who have done these abominations in the name of the God who is love. Your names shall be lost forever, never to be spoken again. I was a young girl, and you did this to Me.

Canada has produced many great musical talents singers and poets such Cohen,Young,and Lofgren to name a few but although all talented one lady stands out and that lady is Joni who is second to none of them!

Sonic references, to the crows and the seagulls, that’s it fellow improvisers, she hit the central focus, let that be your guide. I happen to love you, Joni, just in case you didn’t know, ya know!

A Canadian icon………as famous and talented as she is,,,I am sure people turn away from the truth of her songs…they should not.

I love Joni Mitchell.

Dame Joni Mitchell, with this lyrics you brought light to most hideous, obscene (as obscene as the pedofiliacs that swarm inside the roman church)this history that could bloom Marquis du Sade, performed (yes performed) by the nuns and pdres in these shameless insitution. The polish pope now santified in a very shady way, was one of the pincipal coverers of this crime against the Holy Ghost, this sin will never be forgotten

if i recall correctly, this was the live interactive broadcast in which JONI refused to stop smoking on camera LOL

I had to wonder about someone who would ask, “I wonder what inspired Magadalene Laundries”? I think it might have been …. the laundries that inspired the song? Then, of course, i realized that question was a plant. But still, J.M. cared enough to write this marvelous song!

I fold my laundry that’s been waiting for me for a few days…… thank you for this

On Canada 🇨🇦 Joni Mitchell Priceless

I’d see Joni at the grocery store, sunglasses on. One just left her to her own…privacy is important here…They dont sell the Enquirer or Star there anymore. Great songstress!

Boy she’s really got her Canada on here…

Religion is mind control!  Thank goodness for people like Joni that shine a light on the nonsense.  As she said before, life is for learning.  Live your lives.

Great song, long overdue

She tuned her guitar to the seagulls. No further questions.

magic Joni wonderful song

I recall my mom, whose great-grandparent came to Canada from Londonderry, telling me back in the olden days fallen women got sent to work in the warsh house.

It feels like this is her only song that uses this tuning. Her tunings are unreal…

My goodness she is beautiful.

How prophetic was she..Answers to this scandle, any many more, perpetrated by the priests and nuns of the Catholic church are still reverberating around the world even to this very day.. August 10 2019

pure power

The seagull’s tune is one of haunting complaint.

Keep on shouting and singing songs like these from the tops of buildings. I hope those women and children find it in their hearts to forgive us. A man.

What can ya say? She’s got somthin goin on.

Great song & such a sad story, even worse is the recent discovery (2020) of 200 + unmarked graves in a single abandoned “children’s” home in Canada itself , just the tip of the iceberg I fear.

I just love hate this…thank you joni.

This song breaks my heart and makes me ashamed to be Irish. Where were our men when our women were being incarcerated?

Thankyou Joni…ruthless truth filled prose… still those parish priests have never been held accountable.

really great

Damn that’s deep.

Lovely

prince loved joni so much that if you listen to any ballad type prince song you cant unhear joni behind them,. beware its kind of freaky once you know that!

What a woman. What a song

One of the world’s very best…

You have to admit, no matter how good the intentions, by the 70’s all her songs sounded exactly the same.

DAMN! she was great.

She was a great songwriter, I have never heard this song before and was really disappointed. While songs are usually a story of some kind, this song sounds like someone singing a book report. She has much better

I was a Catholic but now so ashamed of the church I used to belong to. I’m almost 70

sister goddess!

Heartbreaking song about a heartbreaking place these poor women will see real life in a resurrection on earth soon

I went to sixteen years of Catholic school and then joined the Airborne. No diff between the two. Right down to the killing.

How many souls does Joni sell for a dollar?

I did not know this song existed until tonight. I know of at least 4 people in the US now, who are my age or older, who were born in Ireland in the Magdelene Laundries or other “mother’s homes.” We are old now. Their mothers’ would be very old if not dead by now. I’d only heard of the mother’s homes there in the last few years, and Joni made this song in 1994? How did we not know? The church can go hang itself for it’s lack of christ-like compassion.

Man would have been great to live back then

Good to get some background information on her work.

Does anyone know where to look for the full performance?

Mary Coughlan dose a song with the same title well worth a play thanks Jonie

It’s unbelievable that the Catholic Church could behave like this! And yet if you criticize the church in rural Ireland they regard it as an attack on themselves because they conflate it with the Protestant/Catholic issue.

Amen…¶…Jesus said, “Know what is in front of your face, and what is hidden from you will be disclosed to you. For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. [And there is nothing buried that will not be raised.]” His disciples asked him and said to him, “Do you want us to fast? How should we pray? Should we give to charity? What diet should we observe?” Jesus said, “Don’t lie, and don’t do what you hate, because all things are disclosed before heaven. After all, there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and there is nothing covered up that will remain undisclosed.”…

Such sad stories behind this song.

The last laundry actually closed in 1996, 2 years after this video was shot……….Shocking and dark.

I don’t get it…Joni has such a thick Canadian accent here and in the early days she was totally different. Her voice was a higher range, her demeanor was more ethereal and her accent was not the same. She is a triple water sign: Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Pisces, and Cancer Rising. Maybe she’s just a chameleon. What a consumate artist, though.

If you want to read an Irish crime noir about the Laundry in Galway, I suggest Ken Bruen’s ‘The Magdalene Martyrs.’ I’ve seen the building. How fucking utterly beyond Dickensian is this horror? And it went on in my lifetime? Not ‘ago?’ The ugliness that can be laid at the feet of the Roman church is unspeakable, all the moreso for being done ‘in God/Pope’s name. Sinead was right to tear that pic up on SNL.

Wow!

super real good elegant sing song writer

Im a fan of Joni but I never heard this song before. Worse yet if you were put in this place pregnant, they’d let you have your baby for a while then they’d take him/her away and the women never knew where they were. Heart wrenching

The reality of the Catholic system of branding & chastising women was horribly wrong then & i sure hope it’s not near as bad as it was. In other civilized societies having girls & women work for free would be considered criminal. That whole thing they got going is really weird to me. The priests & cardinals & pope & such harbored & allowed these atrocities & more for eons. I’ve always wondered why.

Sweeeeet JONI from Saskatoon!!!!

She IS a genius but these lyrics are for a specialized audience. Whatever these stories, they did not happen in the name of Christ. Evil men did it, but Christianity had nothing to do with it. BTW, Joni was 50 when this was performed. Interesting to hear where her voice was at that age.

If any entity in the world other than the Catholic Church was responsible for that type of cruelty, death, slavery, subjugation, kidnap, torture, brutality, rape and general disregard for human dignity there would be endless outcry from the world’s leaders. The silence deafens. They should have been stripped of everything they own in Ireland and considered an enemy of the state.

Should be a movie about this. So touching Joni.

…and I just happen to have my guitar tuned to the one used in the song that your question refers to. What a coincidence!

To treat poor unfortunate individuals with such intolerable cruelty … you need RELIGION! It’s perhaps the greatest curse ever laid upon mankind, stifling thought and free speech and compelling its advocates to commit the most unspeakable atrocities on those who don’t believe the same fantasy.

ireland was a third world country, destitution was common. Their was no welfare, or health service— many on the fringes were at the mercy of the church, the largest benevolent society. We can deduce from all this- the poor had no proper burials and the nuns gave no holidays for the “fallen”.

The only guitarist I enjoy watching on mute.

what a guitar player

The sins of all people, not matter the degree or by whom, are not where our eyes are to be if we desire to see Jesus, to come to a relationship with Him and experience His goodness. Men and women are sinners, incapable of keeping God’s commandments, which is why God provided grace, unmerited favor, to lead us to Him. By it, we come to ask for forgiveness for falling short, make Jesus our Lord, and begin to walk with Him with no mind on the irreversible horrors that sinful natures produce.

Who else could look this cool in dungarees?

Lesson: Ask Joni where she gets her songs and get an 8-minute monologue. TMI

genius

I like how her voice is slightly husky here. In earlier days her voice was sometimes a bit too piercing.

LOVE.

This is the harshest song of my life. I mean 1912 disaster (or whatever year) can’t compete.

😮 thx for sharing Joni omg 😮

Such an exotic and stunning woman..

Those chords…

Can somebody figure out the timing of the strumming? It seems to be in 4/4 but with an oddly timed stress on the high strings that I cannot quite figure out…

Legend! (Mrs Dodd )

amen Joni, amen

God must have thought that he wanted the world to have music perfection so he gave us Joni!

Emmylou Harris did this also!

YES she is.

The 70s? Try as late as the 90s…

words painting big pictures.

What guitar is she playing?

Thank you!

How good can you get?

Anyone else notice that her shadow resembles a bird perched, in the beginning ??

I love you Joni

And to say that TV shows like Much Music will not exist anymore!!??!!…what a shame!!…

absolutely

Then I threw my guitar away.

joni…. only….is all you need..

Join tells the tale ….sadly of so well….

Ahhh….Nothing like a good old Anti-Catholic song.

Get to the song already!!

Magdaline Laundries ? Hell on earth for the poor girls an young women incarcerated within them . Still to be abused and insulted by the nuns and sexually abused by the priest. The very people who should have shown some compassion and understanding. Divorced by the self righteous families , by whom she arrived at her nightmare situation in life , in many cases probably impregnated by the girls father , and this was known by the mother , whos’ answer (to this charge from the girl) may have been ” if he was using you, he was leaving me alone . And the church blocked any attempt to bring the longtime rumours out into the open. And although nothing to do with the Magdaline Homes / Laundries. , the homes for bad boys were no better , in many cases worse . This time it was the priests . There were no girls therefore a boy …….. And the church now looks for answers as to why the pews are empty , and the people don’t hide when the priest walks down their street .

So what happened to our culture?We have been robbed through guilt and shame.

Class

Oh those sisters did a bad thing!

truthful and she is playing a Collings!

Great Great///

Top

JONI: “Realators”..

Ireland is rotten to the core and still no justice

JM Unplugged!

God gave us Joni so us mere mortals could see what is possible.

Holy crap.

I think that you need to write at night to write a good thriller or a crime novel, what do you think?

” Open tunings like ragas “

It was over 150 bodies although the nuns had claimed about 125 existed before excavation … with no records at all on names ever provided.

Damn I miss you.

They actually closed in 1996

Songs are like tattoos. Joni’s are.

162 clergy folks dont dig this.

What model Collings guitar is that?

Joni is strangely attractive…

Let those without blame…

Symply ONE…

Weird – trying to comment when I’m f**king speechless.

JEZ a BELLE, YOU actually make “LIFE” softer. What’s a MAN to do?

I have Lived Joni mitchell since 1971

Well so much for a sunny cheery….Yikes!!!

There is a dramatic film about the laundries and a Documentary.

Good for you standing up but most girls would be 13 or even younger at least in old yoshiwara they would not touch you til at least 16 but that was bad as they told that prostitution was bad no one talks about the cattle release act of 1965 and no ever talks about women being human

sweetheart

We need to throw off the shackles of Catholicism and all its dogma.

RELIGION: Providing justification for cruelty and exploitation for thousands of years.

Who couild better tell this story?

tears….

I keep thinking I should stop posting, but if you are listening to this I just might have a point

Burn it

The cigs got to her here…

Been in one of those convents like to know more in Australia?????

The guitar is a baby Taylor I believe?

She’s a Scorpio.. look out. Her songs for the most part are not meant to be comfortable or superficially comforting.

Joni, Contact me. I have another song for you..

Only girls? Boys did not go shoppin

does not get any better

not a pedal in sight

Check out the Van Gough

Too bad she supported Brandon. Because this song is about them that tortured and killed the subject

She makes the most painful realities digestible…Who on earth IS this woman???!!!???

Wow placed in magdalene laundry at 13.5 extraoirdinary stories we share grateful wisdom of now big love be great to share story ies xo

Oh Religion what crimes are committed in thine name.

I see my post has been deleted. Just saying the comment about Priests was very true and sad to a point…it is a whopping generalisation.

So sad………..

“frequently impregnated by the parish priest”…what a whopping generalisation!

25 years ago

Joni.

I swear, that story dragged for so long, I thought at some point she’d say “I’m kidding”

Joni got a nose job !!!

Sinead O’connor

yup.

yup

xD:

“BE” a FREEMAN in “PARIS”? (Or $”).

Retired

No

Lynnville

aburridaaaa…. stop talking… sing your song…

Frank Davis blue creek Giles County

JONI GOT A NOSE JOB !!!!!

People make a big deal about her…so what if shes great, she’s just a singer with a guitar, people think she’s great cause they all want what she has..talent and fame, and cash..to me she’s just a pretty girl who sings amazing songs, but she ain’t no GOD..people can be so stupid