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".
borderline
Joni Mitchell Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
So distrustful, so displeased
Running down the table
I see a borderline
Like a barbed wire fence
Strung tight, strung tense
Prickling with pretense
A borderline
Why are you smirking at your friend?
Is this to be the night
When all well-wishing ends?
All credibility revoked?
Thin skin, thick jokes
Can we blame it on the smoke
This borderline?
Every bristling shaft of pride
Church or nation
Team or tribe
Every notion we subscribe to
Is just a borderline
Good or bad, we think we know
As if thinking makes things so
All convictions grow along a borderline
Smug in your jaded expertise
You scathe the wonder world
And you praise barbarity
In this illusionary place
This scared, hard-edged rat race
All liberty is laced with
Borderlines
Every income, every age
Every fashion-plated rage
Every measure, every gauge
Creates a borderline
Every stone thrown through glass
Every mean-streets kickass
Every swan caught on the grass
Will draw a borderline
You snipe so steady
You snub so snide
So ripe and ready
To diminish and deride
You're so quick to condescend
My opinionated friend
All you deface, all you defend
Is just a borderline
Just a borderline
Another borderline
Just a borderline
"Borderline" by Joni Mitchell is a track that discusses the theme of boundaries and division. In the song, Joni describes how people interact with each other along various lines of demarcation, including race, nationality, and even personal opinions. Joni observes that people often hold strong convictions that align with these borders, which can cause them to become blinded to the perspectives of others. The opening lines of the verse refer to Joni's observation of people at a gathering, and she notes that everyone seems tense and uncomfortable, much like a barbed wire fence. The second verse encompasses the idea that our beliefs - whether linked to religion, nationality, team allegiances, politics or other convictions - define the borders that often separate us from one another.
In the final verse, Joni speaks towards how people tend to ridicule and reject ideas that oppose their own views, perpetuating a feeling of mistrust between one another. Joni argues that the borders we build do nothing more than promote disorder and divide us from one another. This song attempts to reflect on how we should learn to respect those different from ourselves, rather than form impenetrable borders between us.
Line by Line Meaning
Everybody looks so ill at ease
Everyone appears uncomfortable and uneasy
So distrustful, so displeased
They show distrust and dissatisfaction
Running down the table
Quickly scanning the whole situation
I see a borderline
I recognize a physical and figurative border dividing people
Like a barbed wire fence
It creates a sharp division that reminds of barbed wire fences
Strung tight, strung tense
The borderline is stretched and tense, as if ready to cause harm
Prickling with pretense
People are trying to conceal their real intentions
A borderline
The border itself is the subject of the song
Why are you smirking at your friend?
Why are you mocking and making fun of your friend?
Is this to be the night
Is this the occasion
When all well-wishing ends?
When we stop wishing good things for each other?
All credibility revoked?
The trustworthiness of people is questioned
Thin skin, thick jokes
People feel easily offended, but they make fun of others
Can we blame it on the smoke
Is the confusion caused by the smoke (or alcohol)?
This borderline?
This dividing line between friends
Every bristling shaft of pride
Every source of pride that protrudes and hurts like a thorn
Church or nation
Religion or country
Team or tribe
Sports teams or ethnic/tribal communities
Every notion we subscribe to
Every idea that we believe in
Is just a borderline
All our beliefs create borders that separate us
Good or bad, we think we know
We believe that we can distinguish between good and bad
As if thinking makes things so
As if our thoughts can dictate reality
All convictions grow along a borderline
All our strong beliefs are established along a border
Smug in your jaded expertise
Feeling complacent and self-satisfied about your cynicism
You scathe the wonder world
You criticize the beauty and goodness of the world
And you praise barbarity
You commend violence and cruelty
In this illusionary place
In this fake or deceptive environment
This scared, hard-edged rat race
This fearful, competitive struggle for money and status
All liberty is laced with
All our freedoms are limited by
Borderlines
The boundaries between different nations, classes, and ideologies
Every income, every age
Every level of income, every stage of life
Every fashion-plated rage
Every trend or fad that people follow blindly
Every measure, every gauge
All standards and criteria we use to judge ourselves and others
Creates a borderline
Generates a division between those who meet the standards and those who don't
Every stone thrown through glass
Every act of violence we commit against others
Every mean-streets kickass
Every ruthless and aggressive behavior we display in public
Every swan caught on the grass
Every innocent or beautiful thing that becomes damaged or ruined
Will draw a borderline
Will lead to a separation between beauty and ugliness, good and bad, us and them
You snipe so steady
You criticize and complain constantly
You snub so snide
You insult and belittle others with sarcasm
So ripe and ready
You are eager and willing to attack and ridicule
To diminish and deride
To reduce and mock the worth of others' opinions and feelings
You're so quick to condescend
You tend to look down on people and treat them as inferior
My opinionated friend
My friend who has strong beliefs and convictions
All you deface, all you defend
You attack and tarnish everything that contradicts your beliefs, and you defend your position blindly
Is just a borderline
All these arguments and contradictions are just the result of our differences
Just a borderline
The border is what causes all the problems
Another borderline
One more dividing line separating us from each other
Just a borderline
Yet another border that is preventing human connections
Lyrics © RESERVOIR MEDIA MANAGEMENT INC
Written by: Joni Mitchell
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Q
Joni Mitchell: Borderline lyrics:
Everybody looks so ill at ease
So distrustful, so displeased
Running down the table
I see a borderline
Like a barbed wire fence
Strung tight, strung tense
Prickling with pretense
A borderline
Why are you smirking at your friend?
Is this to be the night
When all well-wishing ends?
All credibility revoked?
Thin skin, thick jokes
Can we blame it on the smoke
This borderline?
Every bristling shaft of pride
Church or nation
Team or tribe
Every notion we subscribe to
Is just a borderline
Good or bad, we think we know
As if thinking makes things so
All convictions grow along a borderline
Smug in your jaded expertise
You scathe the wonder world
And you praise barbarity
In this illusionary place
This scared, hard-edged rat race
All liberty is laced with
Borderlines
Every income, every age
Every fashion-plated rage
Every measure, every gauge
Creates a borderline
Every stone thrown through glass
Every mean-streets kickass
Every swan caught on the grass
Will draw a borderline
You snipe so steady
You snub so snide
So ripe and ready
To diminish and deride
You're so quick to condescend
My opinionated friend
All you deface, all you defend
Is just a borderline
Just a borderline
Another borderline
Just a borderline
brandy cooper
If anyone sees this comment and cares to do so, I say we all meet up New Year’s Eve on capital hill and say NOTHING, yet play this song end to end, over and over. If any concept can unite us, I would hope it is the realization that we need to rethink our “borderlines”. No ballad states it more articulately.
manuel ponce
too complicated
Bubba fug00gle
How about we do it January 6th instead?
Michael Lawrence
it's not just her voice & vocal ability that defines joni, it's her depth as a composer & songwriter that elevates what she does to genius. great singers are a dime a dozen these days, but singer-songwriters are a dying breed...
Phil Kelly
Michael Lawrence So true
Delisle4
I could listen to Joni Mitchell over and over again and still find something new in every song....and never get bored. Her melodies put me in such a different space. Astral travel for the ears, the heart, the mind and soul...
rickytleg
This woman is a musical and lyrical genius.
hannjenn
An artist through-and-through.
Sue DeSimone
rickytleg and an amazing painter!
Joe Farrell
"Good or bad we think we know as if thinking makes it so" Amazing song from a wonderful artist.