Both Sides Now

Race's interest in female singers with unique voices made me think about Joni Mitchell today.  If you don't know who she is, you might know one of her songs "Big Yellow Taxi" or "Paved Paradise" which got a lot of covers in the last decade.)

In 1967, when Joni MItchell was 24 years old, some well known performers at the time started recording her music - one song in particular, Both Sides Now, became a top ten hit.  Eventually Joni recorded it herself.   33 years later, after a life time of experience in the world, she recorded it again.

What makes it particularly interesting is that the song itself is a reflection on seeing things in life differently after some experience.  I think both versions are valuable and the comparison as touching as the compared.

I thought I would just put up both versions.  I'm using live versions just to add to the comparison... but I'm also putting a third video of the studio version of the new song to which someone loosely edited a visual documentary of Joni's career.

1970 Performance:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcrEqIpi6sg

2000 Performance

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKQSlH-LLTQ

New Studio Version:

EDIT:  The video I mentioned earlier and posted originally is only available to see at the youtube site:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTTFqFhvCHM

So I'm providing an audio only youtube video here:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqQlfFuQFXo&feature=related&fmt=18

Bonus video...  this is the version that made the song famous:

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LJuAmTv3i4&feature=related