cmxxxii. MITCHELL, Joni: Trouble Child

cmxxii. MITCHELL, Joni (1943-        )

Trouble Child (1974)
JM, piano, vocals
Chuck Findley, trumpet
Dennis Budimir, guitar
Jim Hughart, bass
Joe Sample, piano
John Guerin, drums, percussion
Milt Holland, chimes
Tom Scott, oboe
(4:00)

Chuck Findley's muted trumpet is multi-tracked to great effect. One of Joni's best, melancholy-tinged songs:

Up in a sterilized room
Where they let you be lazy
Knowing your attitude's all wrong
And you got to change
And that's not easy

Dragon shining with all values known
Dazzling you, keeping you from your own
Where is the lion in you to defy him
When you're this weak
And this spacey?

So what are you going to do about it
You can't live life and you can't leave it
Advice and religion, you can't take it
You can't seem to believe it
The peacock is afraid to parade
You're under the thumb of the maid
You really can't give love in this condition
Still you know how you need it

They open and close you
Then they talk like they know you
They don't know you
They're friends and they're foes, too
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu

So why does it come as such a shock
To know you really have no one?
Only a river of changing faces
Looking for an ocean

They trickle through your leaky plans
Another dream over the dam
And you're lying in some room
Feeling like your right to be human
Is going over too

Well, some are going to knock you
And some'll try to clock you
You know it's really hard to
Talk sense to you
Trouble child
Breaking like the waves at Malibu