Both Sides, Now コメント集

The Song of the Month: Jan. #1
Artist: Joni Mitchell
Title: Both Sides, Now

Comment: I like the melody of the song. I think this songwriter wants to tell what is the meaning of life./ The best part of this song is “I really don’t know life at all,” because nobody knows for sure what life is./ It is a sweetly flowing song and the lyrics are pretty easy to understand, since it mentions looking at things from two sides a lot. However, the hard part to understand is the word “illusion”. I think it is the key word to understand what the singer saw from looking at both sides of everything./ I think this song has the dark and the bright sides of everything. / I was impressed with the singer’s lively voice. I think that clouds mean both positive and negative things./ I think it is a very positive song, and I love each metaphor in the song. Joni Mitchell seems to paint a world of her own and helps us to see that ‘every cloud has a silver lining.’ / I think she wants to tell us what life means. However, I couldn’t read her mind. / I guess the writer says all things have both sides, but she doesn’t know whether that is good or bad. She doesn’t know about life./ She sings that something vague in life has two faces. Clouds, love, and life, they don’t take concrete shape./ The melody of this song is very fluent and it makes me relax. This song tells us that there are lots of good things and bad things in life. “I’ve looked at life from both sides now” is my best part./ I can’t understand what the writer wants to say but I feel this song is kind and warm. It is difficult to know everything about everything in my life./ The best part is “I really don’t know life at all.”/ I felt that this song contains her view of life in gentle melody. / This song seems to be easy and light, but it is really difficult and deep. It has incalculable value of thinking of what this song is all about. / The world is not so simple that people cannot understand everything./ I think this song reflects Joni’s view of life. This song is written from a girl’s point of view./ This song sings about the singer’s opinion about life. Her voice is gentle./ I have listened to this song, but I don’t know the lyrics. So, it is difficult for me to understand this song./ She sings, “I really don’t know life at all.” Me neither./ This song shows views of life from different angles, and how life changes with time./ The song included shadow and light. It made me feel warm because it only used guitar sound and the singer sang with love./ This is a song about life. I really don’t know love and life at all. I can only see illusions of love and life./ This song makes me imagine as if I were in a fantasy world./ One sunny day, the author lies on the grass while listening to light music and look back on his own life./ Metaphor is so beautiful that it seems this song was written with image of heaven. I suppose this song makes listeners feel happy and ease pains./ I think the singer tries to understand the difficulty in many ways (not in one way). She thinks living is difficult./ This song is was easy enough for me to read and listen to./ I think that there are pretty words in this song. There is trouble in life, but she laughs about it. / It is hard for me to sing this song. We can’t eat clouds on the air as ice cream, but I was fascinated by the vastness of human beings./ I suppose that this song sang a change of life. The song has a power though it was gentle./ The surroundings are changing like clouds. This song has little gloom and pleasure./ I like “it’s life’s illusions I recall.” I feel the author imagined his dreams. However, they remain illusions./ I like the phrase “I really don’t know….” This phrase is not said until someone first shows their weak part of themselves./ I think she sees things from bright and dark sides. She realizes things have many faces and wonders how beautiful and confusing they are. I totally like this song because of the contrast in this song and I come to think about clouds so deep. So, this song is really sensational to me./ The metaphor is cute. It seems that the songwriter is very gentle, and appeals to us about how precious our lives are./ Clouds are always changing their face and shape. They include many things that make us fancy. Their ever changing shapes looks as if each of them were a sign of life./ The song sings about bright and dark sides in human life./ The songwriter has various experiences and she has a strong sensitivity./ It’s very soft. This songwriter begins her point of view from a small thing at first and it becomes larger at the end. / “I really don’t know life, love, clouds at all” is the best part of the song. I think life is the important word in this song./ I think the author wants to say her life and how she feels about her life. / I’ve heard this song before./ I don’t know whether the artist is satisfied with life or not. I likes the metaphor of clouds in the lyrics./ This singer has so gentle voice that I feel sleepy./ The song makes me happy. I feel the songwriter write this song on a grand scale. The writer herself is a person of high caliber./ The singer told me how to live my own life. The phrase “I really don’t know love/life at all” impresses me as wonderful./ It’s a relaxing song. Very laid back. “Clouds” means life in this song. Things in life are unpredictable./ The song goes very slowly and I love it. The song makes me feel peaceful./ The song makes me imagine freedom, dream and the importance of them./ I felt this song is warm and shiny. I felt positive thinking about life from this song. This song sings human heart. / This song sings about her philosophy. It’s a quiet and beautiful song./ I could only know that this song is talking about love and life. The best part is “I’ve looked life from both sides now.”/ I like “ice cream castle”. I want to eat it. I’ve listened to this song before. This song sounds easier than all other songs so far./ I found something nostalgic in this song./ The lyrics encourage us to find a bright side in everything./ The song was very soft and gentle. So, it was actually easy to fill up the blanks./ The first two verses looked simple and tame. So, I liked the third verse best./ I can’t understand its lyrics, but I like its rhythm and melody./ This song seems to be a happy song. It is interesting that this song uses the same words again and again./ I was surprised at many metaphors in the song. They give us better understanding of the song. I am all the more interested in the song./ The singer7s soft voice makes me feel calm. I like this song. I have heard this song on TV./ I think the lyrics reflect the writer’s life./ I have heard this song before and I am glad to listen to the lyrics in detail./ This song is soft and kind. The writer compares something human to something in the nature, such as mountains or the sky. / I feel that life isn’t always going well. I am pleased with this song./ I’ve heard this song on TV, so it sounds very close to me./ The song sounds very comfortable. The voice of the singer contrasts very well with the guitar./ I realized that she sings about both dark and bright sides of life, love and clouds. I found this song easier to listen to than the others before./ This song was composed of easy words. So, I caught the words easier than before./

Noticing: This song uses many sets of rhyme. The melody seems to flow. I was pleased with the way the third singer sing this song./ Probably the singer is trying to see the real figures of love and life, but she only gets to see its illusions. The clouds represent the familiar things you always try to get to know more, even though you wouldn’t ever be able to understand them fully./ I found that this song used many contrasts. I couldn’t fully understand this song, but I felt in this song a lot of aspects of our environment. / My impression of the song has not changed. Joni Mitchell sings like she has her head in the clouds, painting her own landscape for everyone to see and enjoy. Despite seeing the pros and cons of each element (clouds, love etc.) she sings like a little girl unsure about where to go in life./ There are many rhymes. So, I was surprised at the writer’s power of idea. It’s a quiet song. I feel this song can cheer depressed people./ She has very clear voice. Written in easy English, however, the meaning of lyrics is not simple. I think that I still may not understand it fully./ I was amazed how many rhymes, contrasts and repetitions there are in this song. This is easy to understand because the same words were repeated many times../ This song made me relax. I don’t like Judy Collins’s version very much./ I realized that the writer describes clouds, love, and life in good contrasts. / After listening to other singers, I found the way Joni Mitchell sings this song is the best./ The words in the song are clear-cut. Contrast, rhyme in the song makes this song even better./ There are repetitions of the same words in the song./ I feel great kindness when I listen to Ann Sally’s version of this song./ I have heard this song before and this song sounds very familiar to me. The clear contrast in the lyrics makes this song beautiful./ Listening to the song, I feel as if my heart was cleaned. This song has many techniques of poetry writing, like rhyme and metaphor, so it has been loved by a lot of people around the world. / The lyrics show her internal feelings./ Judy Collins’ version doesn’t inspire me. / The word “love” seems meaningful in this song. This song may have been composed when the singer felt loneliness in her life because it appears on her voice that she was holding something in trouble. / The song was filled with rhymes. I think the singer made this song on a sunny Sunday morning. She must have thought of her life sinking in a chair and relax./ I found that there are too many rhymes in this song. This song makes me relax and has come to be one of my favorites./ Clouds, love , and life are important words for this song. The lack of these words would destroy the beauty of this song./ She once saw anything when she looked at clouds. However, she cannot find anything but clouds. She only thinks of clouds./ I thought the singer wanted to say whether life is a good thing for everyone./ There is a beautiful flow of colors In this song. / It’s a very cheerful song. The author didn’t realize his dreams. This song sounds emotional./ It seems as if someone is in confusion about what life is. Whatever is mysterious for him / her, it’s expressed as if it is an illusion./ This song lets me use much of imagination for landscape of the green field and the wind breathe through. / I’m surprised to find there are a lot of contrasts./ I think this song is very soft. The singer puts her emotion into every single word and sends them one by one to listeners. / This song is being sung naturally, and the songwriter wrote the lyrics frankly. For instance, she compares clouds to something vague, such as life and love./ The voice is so clear that this song makes me feel comfortable./ Songwriters of this time are professional in using contrast, metaphor, and rhyme in the lyrics. Clouds show me variation of human mind./ I consider what life and love is. Although this melody is very soft, the singer has profound feelings behind it./ This is a soft and heartwarming song. I wonder what the writer means by “friends are acting strange.”/ This song is like a lullaby. This is a drowsy song. This song makes me relax. The singer has beautiful voice. “Ice cream castles in the air” is one of my favorite parts of the song./ I find life in this song. The author though a lot of aspects of life and wanted to send some message to us./ I liked the third version of this song the best. The beginning part was very abstract to me, but it got more and more concrete. I got very sleepy listening to the song./ On my first listening, I thought this song is merely vague but now I understand its clear meaning and I have second thought about life./ The lyrics rhyme so clearly that I can feel comfortable. The atmosphere is changed by different singers./ Everyone loses something in living every day, but they gain something instead. / I think this song is grand. / This song is looking at life in all sorts of ways. It seems to be telling us that things don’t go the way you want in the 2nd verse. / Now I can feel more transparency than before. I think this song just matches my image of the title of the movie, “青春の光と影”./ This is a song written in rhyme at a lot of places. I feel her supple mind from this song. It’s a refreshing song./ I was surprised to find that a lot of metaphors were used in this song. / This author has watched tow sides of clouds, love and life. They first appear bright or promising, but later they are getting darker./ Tons of contrast were used in this song, and it was very valuable experience for me to learn about it./ It was hard for me to understand this song and what the singer really wants to say. But I thought it had a beautiful melody and tender lyrics. The slight change of words made a big difference./ I want to know more about the song. Personally I like the way Ann Sally and Judy Collins sing better than Joni Mitchell’s./ I find some contrasts and comparisons. This song is composed in a wonderful way. The message reached my heart./ The song has a lot of contrasts and comparisons. I think the writer of the song was very clever. I want to write a poem which has that much of metaphor. / I find a lot of rhymes. They are sunny./ I think ‘clouds’ , ‘love’, ‘life’ mean the writer herself. I realized the song is written in many rhymes, and this helps make me comfortable./ The lyrics of the song have many rhymes. They make the song intimate. I got shocked because I failed to guess the missing words from the context./ I didn’t notice last words of each line all rhymed. / I liked Joni Mitchell version the best. Her voice and the words of the song were as close and strong as if she was singing to our heart, so it seems that we are healed now./ When I listened to the song, I felt as if I was afloat in the sky./ I like Joni Mitchell version the best. I like her powerful voice and the guitar.

Customer Review (Amazon UK)より:
This is a must for all Joni fans and those who haven’t heard her as well! Such a pure, crisp, clean and wonderfully multiple scale voice MUST be heard to be appreciated

Music that stays with you throughout the years,
Of all the songs on Clouds this is the one I like most (the lyrics still seem relevant today) and, for me, this is the song that proved to me that Joni Mitchell was a great singer - there is no music, just her voice, exposed and naked. The ten tracks on the cd are all completely different from one another but I would say they are unified by one word, "haunting." Joni sings " I've looked at clouds from both sides now." She will take you on a ride right through them.

This is one of my favourite Joni Mitchell albums. It's melancholy, soft, heartfelt and thoughtful. Some of the best songs here include "I Don't Know Where I Stand" - because of her beautiful melodic voice - , "Both Sides, Now" and "Chelsea Morning." These have, of course, been covered by various artists, and rightly so; they are brilliant songs! Many thanks, Joni - this album is a gem.

'Songs To Aging Children Come', yet another 'hippie' tune, has a weird and wonderful melody and an amazing set of chords. The a cappella peace protest 'The Fiddle And The Drum' is a perfect backdrop for the troubled 60s, while the famous closer 'Both Sides Now' is a mid-tempo folk standard with a pretty melody and pleasant guitar.
'Clouds' is an album of mixed emotions and contrast the "happy" and "sad" feelings. Released in 1969 originally, 'Clouds' still sounds fresh and beautiful 33 years later.

The well-known ' Both Sides Now' ends the album. It reflects the mood of the other songs. There is a sadness that we have to give up a naive view of the world in adulthood when experience causes us to become disillusioned. But it also sums up what is beautiful about life and what still gives us hope. In the end, 'Clouds' leaves you with a sense of subdued optimism and with an appreciation for its exquisitely crafted songs.




課題: “Every cloud has a silver lining.” This is an old English proverb. When do they quote this proverb most often? What does ‘cloud’ mean here? And what do they mean by ‘silver lining’? Do you think of any “Every cloud has a silver lining” situation? Ask each other and share your opinions and experiences.