Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and throughout western Canada, before moving on to the nightclubs of Toronto, Ontario. She moved to the United States and began touring in 1965. Some of her original songs ("Urge for Going", "Chelsea Morning", "Both Sides, Now", "The Circle Game") were recorded by other folk singers, allowing her to sign with Reprise Records and record her debut album, Song to a Seagull, in 1968. Settling in Southern California, Mitchell helped define an era and a generation with popular songs like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Woodstock". Her 1971 album Blue is often cited as one of the best albums of all time; it was rated the 30th best album ever made in Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time", rising to number 3 in the 2020 edition. In 2000, The New York Times chose Blue as one of the 25 albums that represented "turning points and pinnacles in 20th-century popular music". NPR ranked Blue number 1 on a 2017 list of Greatest Albums Made by Women.
Mitchell switched labels and began exploring more jazz-influenced melodic ideas, by way of lush pop textures, on 1974's Court and Spark, which featured the radio hits "Help Me" and "Free Man in Paris" and became her best-selling album. Mitchell's vocal range began to shift from mezzo-soprano to more of a wide-ranging contralto around 1975. Her distinctive piano and open-tuned guitar compositions also grew more harmonically and rhythmically complex as she melded jazz with rock and roll, R&B, classical music and non-Western beats. In the late 1970s, she began working with noted jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Pat Metheny as well as Charles Mingus, who asked her to collaborate on his final recordings. She later turned to pop and electronic music and engaged in political protest. She was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards in 2002 and became a Kennedy Center Honoree in 2021.
Mitchell produced or co-produced most of her albums. A critic of the music industry, she quit touring and released her 17th and last album of original songs in 2007. Mitchell has designed most of her own album covers, describing herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance".
Free Man In Paris
Joni Mitchell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Everybody's in it for their own gain
You can't please 'em all
There's always somebody calling you down
I do my best
And I do good business
There's a lot of people asking for my time
They're trying to be a good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
And no one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Behind the popular song
I deal in dreamers
And telephone screamers
Lately I wonder what I do it for
If I had my way
I'd just walk through those doors
And wander down the Champs-Élysées
Going café to cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
That very good friend of mine
I was a free man in Paris
I felt unfettered and alive
Nobody was calling me up for favors
No one's future to decide
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
But for the work I've taken on
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Behind the popular song
Joni Mitchell’s “Free Man in Paris” conveys the inner thoughts of a successful music executive who longs for the freedom he once experienced in Paris. The executive admits that he has reached a point in his career where pleasing everyone is impossible, and people are continually trying to get ahead or gain favors from him. Despite the success, the singer misses the freedom of Paris and wishes to walk unhindered down the Champs-Élysées, going from café to cabaret, with no one determining his future or calling him up for favors.
The song focuses on the idea of freedom, both personal and artistic. The singer is weighed down by his job and the constant pressure to produce popular music. He yearns to break free from these constraints and experience the sense of liberation he once had in Paris. This idea is reinforced in the repetition of the phrase “I was a free man in Paris, I felt unfettered and alive.” The use of the past tense implies that this feeling is no longer present in his life, but he still longs to recapture it.
There are various interpretations of this song, including that it is a reflection of Joni Mitchell’s own struggles in the music industry. Some speculate that the “free man” in the song could be David Geffen, the music executive who helped launch Mitchell’s career as a recording artist. Regardless of its inspiration, “Free Man in Paris” is a vivid depiction of the pressure and desire for freedom that can coexist in the music industry.
Line by Line Meaning
The way I see it, he said, you just can't win it
According to him, it's impossible to succeed entirely in this industry
Everybody's in it for their own gain
Every individual in this industry is focused on their own benefits
You can't please 'em all
You can't make everyone in this industry happy
There's always somebody calling you down
Somebody or the other is always discouraging you in this industry
I do my best
Despite the challenges, I give my best shot
And I do good business
Despite the challenges, my business is successful
There's a lot of people asking for my time
Many people demand my time in this industry
They're trying to get ahead
Everyone is trying to move ahead in this business
They're trying to be a good friend of mine
People pretend to befriend me also to benefit from it
I was a free man in Paris
In Paris, I was free to do my work without any obligations
I felt unfettered and alive
I felt free from all the burdens and alive
There was nobody calling me up for favors
Nobody demanded favors from me
And no one's future to decide
Nobody depended on my decisions
You know I'd go back there tomorrow
I miss the feeling of being free; I would go back if I could
But for the work I've taken on
Due to the work commitment that I've undertaken at present
Stoking the star-maker machinery
Managing the popular song-making machinery
Behind the popular song
Responsible for the creation of the popular music
I deal in dreamers
I deal with people who dream of success
And telephone screamers
And people who shout at me over the phone
Lately I wonder what I do it for
In recent times, I'm questioning why I'm doing this
If I had my way
If I had my choice
I'd just walk through those doors
I would just walk away and leave this industry
And wander down the Champs-Élysées
I would roam around in the famous streets of Paris
Going café to cabaret
Stopping at each café to enjoy the ambiance and moving on to another cabaret
Thinking how I'll feel when I find
Wondering about how it would feel if I find
That very good friend of mine
That trustworthy friend of mine I can confide in
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Joni Mitchell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind