Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite songwriters. My favorite song by her is about a street musician, and what runs through her mind as a successful and recognized performer, when she sees him playing on a humble street corner. I dedicate this wonderful song to all street musicians.
For Free
by Joni Mitchell
I slept last night in a good hotel
I went shopping today for jewels
The wind rushed around in the dirty town
And the children let out from the schools
I was standing on a noisy corner
Waiting for the walking green
Across the street he stood
And he played real good
On his clarinet, for free
Now me I play for fortunes
And those velvet curtain calls
I've got a black limousine
And two gentlemen
Escorting me to the halls
And I play if you have the money
Or if you're a friend to me
But the one man band
By the quick lunch stand
He was playing real good, for free
Nobody stopped to hear him
Though he played so sweet and high
They knew he had never
Been on their T.V.
So they passed his music by
I meant to go over and ask for a song
Maybe put on a harmony...
I heard his refrain
As the signal changed
He was playing real good, for free
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Sometimes memory can deceive - but my best recollection is that this happened as I'm about to relate it: In the early '70's I had a little apartment in the East Village, NYC, on E. 8th street just East of Tompkins park. Ritchie was a street clarinetist - blind, very compelling player, lots of fire, really strange time sense. An acquaintance, Gary, a street person and (kind of) a guitar player(Gary himself pretty strange...sounded like midwest through-and-through but carried (as he showed me) an Icelandic passport?...oh well, the '70's) brought Richie to my little pad. Richie was, Gary said, coming off heroin and needed a place to crash. I turned my bed over to Richie. He slept for days (as I recall). He'd wake up and have to pee and not know where he was and just pee in the corner, over all of my LP's (oh well).
ReplyDeleteAs I recollect, in addition to the circumstance that Richie often played clarinet at the corner of W. 8th and 6th Aveneue (a "noisy corner" in a "dirty town" if there ever was one), it was supposedly commonly known that Richie was the "playing for free" guy and that Joni had already sent him money. Who knows?
...an additional comment regarding "Richie":
ReplyDeleteI recall hearing (never saw this) that Richie had been known to work himself into a lather (like I said, he was a real intense clarinet player) and smash his clarinet against the pavement...