I don’t know if it’s context …or if the strength of the songwriting is the “thing”…but some albums, and some songs in particular, stick with me like a brand on my spirit.

The first time I heard this album, other than the random “Help Me” or “Free Man in Paris” on FM radio, I was sitting in my friend Ben’s old Plymouth listening to a cassette that he’d gotten somewhere.  We were probably talking about what we thought the future might hold…or maybe women…or any of the other things that young men might talk about in old cars. Who knows what we were talking about…we talked about a lot of things and figured out very little…but this song, this one song, has really stuck with me over the years

This whole album is one of the greats….but this song on the cassette really hit me hard when it came over the cheap Jensen speakers

I don’t think it was ever even close to being a hit on the radio…I don’t remember ever hearing it played over the air…but what a beautiful song.

Still I sent up my prayer
Wondering who was there to hear
I said “Send me somebody
Who’s strong, and somewhat sincere”
With the millions of the lost and lonely ones
I called out to be released
Caught in my struggle for higher achievements
And my search for love
That don’t seem to cease

The Same Situation lyrics © Joni Mitchell/Crazy Crow Music/Siquomb Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

That’s just an excerpt of the lyric…just the part that hit me the hardest for some reason.

05 The Same Situation

Like I’ve already said…I don’t know if it was just the context or a combination of a lot of things that made this song and this lyric embed themselves so completely in my head.

I guess that’s the beauty of a piece of art …it is “what it is”…but there is so much more to a really good piece.  It is “what it was”,too…and you pull all the old feelings and memories along with you to some extent when you listen to it.

I shouldn’t try to “get deep” or over think any of this…I just think that it’s one of the most beautiful lyrics in a giant group of really amazing lyrics that Joni Mitchell has written.

‘Nuff said.