Joni Mitchell – John d eccles

Music is magical, it enables you to remember what you were doing when you listened to it instantly. It also reminds you of how you felt when you listened to it. So here are my top three songs this week.

Comes the Sun – The Beatles

Here in the Pennines here in the UK we have 6 months of winter and the village almost hibernates until spring. Its only around this time of year that when the clocks go forward and we get lighter evenings we get to see the neighbours a little more and people stop for a chat. I definitely know summer has arrived when we have the first sunny morning and I have the car windows down and this song comes on the radio as I drive over the moors to work. It sets me up for the day.

God Only Knows – The Beach Boys

I first heard this track on my transistor radio as a teenager. I was on a train travelling to Cornwall to meet my Mother, Father and Brother who had gone on holiday. I couldn’t leave at the same time due to work commitments. I had obviously heard the Beach Boys but the harmonies on the track along with the light coming through the carriage windows made it seem almost hypnotic.

I can still remember the compartment I was sat in, the man in a suit reading his Financial Times, the mother in her flowered dress keeping her little boy occupied by reading him Swallows and Amazons and the musty smell of the velvet upholstery that made your legs sting after sitting on it for an hour or two.

Little Green – Joni Mitchell

Off her 1971 album Blue it’s a track I never get tired of listening to. Every song on this album is a track about lost love wrapped up in the crystal clear voice of mitchell. The words and melodies are magical. Every now and again I put this album on late at night when everyone has gone to bed and listen to it with a drink in my hand. Instantly I am transported back to 1971 thinking about all the people who are no longer with us and count my blessings that I still have my health and the support of a loving family.

Although these songs are magical they may change next week when I hear something I haven’t heard for ages and that reminds me of something else, but that’s life I guess.

Each week I choose a song from a movie which may be popular or not. The only criteria is that its a great song and it fits the scene in the film perfectly. Let me know if you agree.

Both Sides Now – Joni Mitchell

“Both sides now“, was a song written by Joni Mitchell and featured on her 1969 second Album ‘Clouds’. Although the Album was well received she never released the track in her own right. It was Judy Collins who released the song and made it a huge hit.

The version of the track which resonated with me the most is the version off the 2000 Album ‘Both Sides Now’. Its a version that somehow with the passing of time has aged beautifully. Mitchells voice once crystal clear now sounding like a ageing jazz singer makes the song even more poignant.

It is said that this was a song that Joni grew into, improving on her original and with the help of a huge orchestra and beautiful swirling string arrangements, this is definitely a track to listen too in the wee small hours when all is quiet.

It was Richard Curtis who re-introduced the track to a new audience in his 2003 film Love Actually. The scene involves Emma Thompson who has just discovered on Christmas Eve that her husband has been having an affair with his secretary. The scene is a masterclass in heartbreak without words and you can feel every emotion as she pulls herself together before they take the kids to the School Christmas concert.

Fantastic song, epic acting.