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Joni Mitchell- Carey
Carey is a track that seems to get comparatively overlooked when people talk about Blue, since it lacks the devastating sadness of songs like River or A Case Of You, but isn’t quite as uptempo and joyous as All I Want or have the enjoyable snippiness of California. It’s a song that cuts to the very heart of the album though and perfectly illustrates some of the album’s main themes: the tension between wanting to be in a relationship and the desire to have freedom to both literally and metaphorically keep traveling, as well as the desire for an expensive upscale lifestyle in contrast to a youthful bohemian life.
The song starts with Joni in Greece, coming up with excuses to leave (“My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feet”) but there’s no anger or sadness in the vocal which makes it seem like she doesn’t actually want to leave even as she says “it’s really not my home”. The chorus has Joni and Carey getting dressed up to go out for a night on the town. I’ve long thought Carey’s cane is just a thinly veiled reference to doing some coke before you go out, but I’ve also read that he was a real person who walked with a cane so you can make your own call on that one. The Mermaid Cafe verse has such delight in Joni’s voice that it nicely mirrors the emotion of someone getting drunk with their friends (She downs at least 3 rounds of drinks and a bottle of wine) and even though she calls Carey “the bright red devil who keeps me in this tourist town”, there’s affection behind it. Carey’s reappearance in “California” as “the red red rogue” and how she’s returning “strung out on another man” lends more credence to the idea that Joni cared about him more than she let on.
The next verse has Joni fantasizing about the life she could lead elsewhere, with no real certainty or grand plans, just wanting a bit of luxury and beauty (“I’ll rent me a grand piano and put some flowers ‘round my room”) beyond what she has, but ultimately she decides to enjoy her life there and focus on the music and Carey for a little longer, which is also illustrated by the repetition of the first verse, showing the passage of time and how it’s becoming more and more difficult for her to leave. However, that desire for.
The final verse gives us an expanded version of the first verse’s conclusion
Maybe it’s been too long a time
Since I was scramblin’ down in the street
Now they got me used to that clean white linen
And that fancy French cologne
The emphasis on repeating the finer things she misses brings home the idea that her desire for “the good life” is why she’s really leaving, even as she resents the fact that she wants them so much. Joni’s desire for nice things and to not have to live a bohemian life resurfaces throughout her catalog, most notably The Boho Dance and in The Last Time I Saw Richard and River in this album. Even though having a good time with Carey can make up for losing some of her freedom, it can’t make up for the loss of a high-class lifestyle, so there’s one last coke and booze fueled night before Joni really leaves for good but then she’s off in pursuit of something better, even if she’s reluctant to admit that.
Bonus trivia fact for the non-tl;dr crowd: James Taylor plays guitar on California, All I Want, and A Case Of You, all of which are better than any James Taylor song. (I actually like James Taylor, but come on.)
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