Joni Mitchell: "Clouds" Song by Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, Jul 23, 2018.

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  1. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Thank you to everyone who participated in the song by song thread we just completed for Joni Mitchell's debut album, Song to a Seagull. We will be continuing the series with her second album (and moving through the complete discography in release order). Today we begin a discussion of Joni's second release, Clouds.

    Previous threads in this series
    Joni Mitchell: "Song to a Seagull" Song by Song Thread

    Clouds

    [​IMG]

    Album Notes

    Released: May 1969
    Produced by Joni Mitchell & Paul A. Rothchild

    FOR SADIE J. MCKEE

    Composed and arranged by Joni Mitchell
    Recorded at A&M Studios, Hollywood, California (thank you)
    Engineered by Henry Lewy
    "Tin Angel" produced by Paul Rothchild
    Special thanks to Michael Vossi and Elliott Roberts
    All music published by Siquomb Publishing Corp., 55 Liberty Street, New York, N.Y. 10005
    Cover art by Joni Mitchell
    Art direction: Ed Thrasher

    [​IMG]

    Clouds is the second studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on May 1, 1969, by Reprise Records. After releasing her debut album to considerable exposure, Mitchell recorded the album at A&M Studios in Hollywood. She produced most of the album and painted a self-portrait for its cover artwork. Clouds has subtle, unconventional harmonies and songs about lovers, among other themes.

    Clouds charted at number 22 in Canada and number 31 in the United States. It has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, for shipments of 500,000 copies in the US. Clouds was generally well received by music critics.

    Production
    Mitchell recorded Clouds at A&M Studios in Hollywood and played acoustic guitar and keyboards; she was joined by Stephen Stills on guitar.[2] She produced all of the album's songs, except "Tin Angel", which was produced by Paul A. Rothchild.[3] She also painted the album's cover artwork—a self-portrait.[4]

    Two songs, "Chelsea Morning" and "Both Sides, Now", had already been recorded by other singers by the time Mitchell started work on the album.[5] Mitchell wrote "Both Sides, Now" after reading Saul Bellow's 1959 novel Henderson the Rain King on a plane and drawing on a point in the novel where the protagonist is looking at clouds from a plane.[6] The coincidence inspired the song's lyric about looking at clouds from both sides as a metaphor for life's ambiguities and mysteries, as she explained in a 1967 interview, "I dreamed down at the clouds, and thought that when I was a kid I had dreamed up at them, and having dreamed at the clouds from both sides as no generation of men has done, one should be able to accept his death very easily."[6]

    Clouds mostly features Mitchell's vocals and acoustic backing.[7] Songs on the album feature unconventional, subtle harmonies, particularly "Songs to Aging Children Come",[4] which employs chromatic harmonies.[8] For the 1969 film Alice's Restaurant by Arthur Penn, Arlo Guthrie, and Venable Herndon, "Songs To Aging Children Come" was re-recorded and performed by Tigger Outlaw in an arrangement for solo vocals and guitar as diegetic music during a funeral service. Mitchell's composition was seen as pivotal for the "extraordinarily cinematic" and "beautiful" character of the scene.[9] Mitchell was originally cast to perform the song herself, but declined after unsuccessful royalties negotiations with the film's producers.[10]

    Release and Reception
    Clouds was released by Reprise Records on May 1, 1969.[15] It peaked at number 22 on the RPM albums chart in Canada.[16] In the United States, the album charted at number 31 on the Billboard 200.[17] It won a Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance for 1969.[17] In a contemporary review, Robert Christgau of The Village Voice felt that "without David Crosby's production ... Joni's voice sounds malnourished, which it is."[7] He observed three "excellent" songs—"Roses Blue", "Both Sides, Now", and "Chelsea Morning"—but critiqued that the latter two "have been done better elsewhere", particularly Gloria Loring's cover of "Chelsea Morning".[7]

    Clouds was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 28, 2001, having shipped 500,000 copies in the United States.[15] In a retrospective review, AllMusic editor David Cleary called Clouds an "essential release" and "a stark stunner, a great leap forward for Joni Mitchell", commenting that her vocals "are more forthright and assured than on her debut and exhibit a remarkable level of subtle expressiveness."[4]Although she found Mitchell "a bit too young and chipper to be singing about disillusionment", Pitchfork Media's Jessica Hopper nonetheless viewed the album as a "landmark" for Mitchell and an "introduction to [her] real deal, shaking folk tradition and giving off a little humor and spirit."[13] Rolling Stone observed an "older-and-wiser tone" and "much-improved second album" after Mitchell's 1968 debut.[14] The magazine ranked the song "Both Sides, Now" number 171 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.[18]

    Clouds is considered a contemplative album by Rolling Stone.[14] David Cleary comments that songs such as "Tin Angel", "That Song About the Midway", and "The Gallery" present sketches of lovers,[4] that "I Don't Know Where I Stand" is about the uncertainty of new love, that "The Fiddle and the Drum" likens a warmongering U.S. government during the Vietnam War to a bitter friend, that "Roses Blue" discusses the misuse of the occult, and that "I Think I Understand" deals with mental illness.[4] Jessica Hopper from Pitchfork Media feels that, "lyrically, [Mitchell] was transitioning from the era's de facto hippie sensualism (colors! the weather! vibes!) to the classically prosodic style (Keats! Cohen!) she'd become known for."[13]

    Contemporary Reviews

    "There is a tendency for parts of the melody of some songs to be very similar to melodies for other of her songs - but this is nowhere near as strong a tendency as it is in Leonard Cohen's songs. The comparison with Cohen is the best possible - both write generally soft songs with very vivid and beautiful word-images. Cohen's poetry is stronger, but Joni Mitchell's music is much stronger and much more innovative than his. She uses instrumentation in "Chelsea Morning," and sings unaccompanied in the "the Fiddle and the Drum."

    In general, if you liked her first album you'll like her second. The quality and type of songs on both albums are very similar. This album is better recorded than the first - which had a very uneven level throughout. And, thank you Reprise, for printing the words to the songs. If you want the album, you'll probably want the words."
    California Tech, May 1969

    "She is an artist. The chord patterns in "Roses Blue" seem non sequiturs at first, and may be quite taxing, but they hang together well, and soon the listener forms an individual conception of the cut as a whole.

    Many of the songs on the LP have very different melodies; trying to run them down may seem, at times, like chasing wild geese (or chasing geese wildly). But soon patterns begin to emerge, and the listener may flatter himself to be rather ingenious to have recognized them.

    However, it is not his ingenuity but Miss Mitchell's. Her lyrics and melodies have a fine turn to them cool and glistening as icicles, but glowing warm as embers.

    The inside of the album jacket contains the lyrics from all her songs on the LP. And, perhaps not too amazingly in the light of her talent in the performance of her songs, the lyrics read so well as poetry that even if we didn't like the performance, we could still dig the poetry."
    Washington Post, June 1969

    "All the songs on CLOUDS, Joni Mitchell's album, are her own. Her voice is pure, and she sings with spare acoustic guitar accompaniment. When I say that her songs are her own, I don't merely mean that she wrote them. She owns them, because each of them, different from the others, concerns herself, and paints—in a different part of the mind of a valuable person, unique in place and time, who affects us and enters us precisely because she will tell only her own story."
    The Guardian, June 1969
     
  2. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Thanks to those who participated in the Song to a Seagull thread. Just letting you know that this Clouds thread has begun!

    @bluemooze @Sear @Damiano54 @jkauff @Hall Cat @bob_32_116 @DeYoung @scousette @Kiss73 @Denim Chicken @HenryFly @Tommy Jay @Johnny Thunder @All Down The Line @Bytor Snowdog @Hardy Melville @anth67 @VU Master @Planbee @Bruno Republic @BRush @cublowell @Sax-son @chrisblower @correctodad @DmitriKaramazov @Cokelike- @EddieMann

    And I'll go ahead and post the first song. Folks can begin posting general thoughts on the album, as well as thoughts on 'Tin Angel':

    Track 1: "Tin Angel"


    Varnished weeds in window jars
    Tarnished beads on tapestries
    Kept in satin boxes are
    Reflections of love's memories

    Letters from across the seas
    Roses dipped in sealing wax
    Valentines and maple leaves
    Tucked into a paperback

    Guess I'll throw them all away
    I found someone to love today

    Dark with darker moods is he
    Not a golden Prince who's come
    Through columbines and wizardry
    To talk of castles in the sun

    Still I'll take a chance and see
    I found someone to love today

    There's a sorrow in his eyes
    Like the angel made of tin
    What will happen if I try
    To place another heart in him

    In a Bleeker Street cafe
    I found someone to love today
    I found someone to love today
     
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  3. Sear

    Sear Dad rocker

    Location:
    Tarragona (Spain)
    IMO Clouds is not as strong as the first album, but an essential purchase nonetheless
     
  4. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Clouds was one of the earlier Joni records I heard. After purchasing copies of Blue and Court and Spark on CD, I struggled to find any other albums by Joni at regular stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. It was then that I discovered that my mom had copies of several albums on vinyl (Clouds, Ladies of the Canyon, Blue, Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Mingus) and my dad had set up the old turntable so that I could listen to my parents' records if I wanted. This was how I first heard Clouds, during my junior year of high school, listening on vinyl and reading along with the lyrics in the gatefold. I absolutely loved the album artwork (still do) and that meant Clouds was one of the earliest Joni records I listened to when I unearthed those vinyl records. I was drawn to it. I have always found this to be a very autumnal, rainy day kind of record with a sadder and more somber overall mood than the debut. Joni was at this point very influenced by the Laurel Canyon scene and her contemporaries. She hasn't always spoken favorably about this record, but I think it is a beautiful record with a kind of icy fragility to it. I don't connect with it as personally as I do some of the other early records, but it is stunning and contains some of her greatest songs.

    Tin Angel
    'Tin Angel' is one of my favorite songs on the album, and I think it goes a long way towards setting that rainy day mood I was describing above. This is a kind of stately, mournful song that perfectly suits a gloomy day. It's a love song, but it certainly doesn't paint a romantic, starry eyed portrait. This is more honest about the fragilities and challenges in a relationship...being deeply in love with someone who isn't perfect, but can be easily tarnished like tin. I think it's an absolutely gorgeous song and Joni's voice on it is haunting. I really love Tom Rush's version as well, which was released the year before Joni's version on his 1968 album The Circle Game. His version adds a melancholy string section and changes the perspective to third person. It's lovely and captures that sad mood very, very well.

     
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  5. Damiano54

    Damiano54 Senior Member

    When I bought album in 1975 I thought how much the cover image of Joni
    looked like Mia Farrow, though the mouth is very Joni Mitchell.
     
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  6. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Her second album and her second with a single very clear and consistent theme. 'Song to a Seagull' had an explicit liberating geographical journey to hold it together. This time with 'Clouds' the journey she's taken is deep within the duality of a young woman's nature, as the album progresses we experience the constant switching between self-confidence (especially in her ability to manage without a man) in one song and the deep doubts about herself as someone else's other half.
    On this album, the doubts start immediately and viscerally as soon as the spark has caught fire. You can imagine in ''Tin Angel" the events in the Bleecker Street café convulsing and churning her stomach enough for her to experience nausea, and while that unpleasantness is going on; maybe even simultaneously, the visual sensations she will always experience when emotions overcome her because she's who she is, drive her towards the lysergic imagery of this fragile romantic ecstasy.
    Anyway, one of the greatest fallacies about Joni's early albums is that only 'Blue' is the one where she stripped herself bare. No, although it's intermittent on the other albums, when she opens herself as here it's equally courageous. It's just that it belies the lazy album categorisation we're fond of, so that so many seem to cling to the notion that ''Blue" is unique.
    ''Tin Angel" has to begin this journey and " Both Sides Now" is the destination when we're all very much wiser for having shared it with her.
     
  7. StarThrower62

    StarThrower62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    Tin Angel is sublime to my ears. The beauty and expression of her voice is unparalleled in popular music.
     
  8. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    The real-life identity of the man in 'Tin Angel' is as unimportant to me as in most of the other love songs we're going to be discussing on this album, but she does a fantastic job of revealing his dark ,solemn and intense personality with just a few strokes of her finest brush.
    I think we can all feel that this guy is the first she's fallen for with these particular character traits. He could do with half of her heart because his is half-broken perhaps.
    I hope no-one knows who this guy is supposed to be, because I'd like it to be a composite male mirror image of the careworn Joni we hear.
     
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  9. EddieMann

    EddieMann I used to be a king...

    Location:
    Geneva, IL. USA.
    Thanks PW for starting this thread. I also appreciate you posting the lyrics to the songs as they are very important. Now, it’s off to the basement I go to get my vinyl copy of Clouds.
     
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  10. beccabear67

    beccabear67 Musical omnivore.

    Location:
    Victoria, Canada
    I approach Joni's albums as collections of poetry and stories as much as albums of music, which of course they also are. This is because we had the words to Both Sides Now (sometimes titled just Clouds) in a school text book, and I really appreciated it in that format whereas some of the more dated and archaic items failed to connect with me at all. I think I only knew the song from a male vocalist's cover of it before reading the words. Joni is definitely a poet to me, a true magician with words. And then the music is so supportive of it as well adding another depth.
     
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  11. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    There was no precedent for the bravery of her decision to place a song with such a mournful sounding progression of slowly picked notes as the key opening intro to the album. In 2005 it was similarly used on
    'Palimpsest' by Bill Callahan on the (smog) album 'A river ain't too much to love'

     
    Last edited: Jul 23, 2018
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  12. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Yes, Joni's music was often as deeply confessional and personal as it was on Blue. That's part of the magic of her whole catalog-- yes, deeply courageous and why I think so many people connect so deeply with Joni's work. Her first three albums are often unfairly categorized as being "hippy dippy" music, which isn't accurate and ignores the beauty and honesty found on them.

    Wow, this Bill Callahan song is beautiful and very much a sibling of 'Tin Angel' with the same mood. I can easily see what made you think of it. Thank you so much for sharing!
     
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  13. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    In this song the lines that remain obscure dark magic for me: 'columbines and wizardry' and 'castles in the sun'. I'm guessing I'm not well read enough and these are literary allusions that North Americans are likely to get. If anyone can confirm a literary connection I'd be grateful.
     
  14. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I looked for an answer to my question above in this blog piece. Didn't get that but did get other insights and an explanation for why Joni considers 'Clouds' her nadir musically.


    Tin Angel – Joni Mitchell – songs from so deep Tin Angel – Joni Mitchell
     
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  15. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I can't provide any more insight into your questions about the lyrics, but thanks for the blog post. I knew that Joni felt she was too influenced by her work with CSN on this record, but I agree with the writer that it is really Crosby's writing she seems most influenced by here on a few of the songs. But I think Joni is too hard on this record, as artists can often be too hard on their own work. The modal-medieval style is an interesting sonic template for her to play with for a record.

    Here is the next song on the record:

    Track 2: "Chelsea Morning"


    Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
    And the first thing that I heard
    Was a song outside my window
    And the traffic wrote the words
    It came ringing up like Christmas bells
    And rapping up like pipes and drums

    Oh, won't you stay
    We'll put on the day
    And we'll wear it 'till the night comes

    Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
    And the first thing that I saw
    Was the sun through yellow curtains
    And a rainbow on the wall
    Blue, red, green and gold to welcome you
    Crimson crystal beads to beckon

    Oh, won't you stay
    We'll put on the day
    There's a sun show every second

    Now the curtain opens on a portrait of today
    And the streets are paved with passersby
    And pigeons fly
    And papers lie
    Waiting to blow away

    Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning
    And the first thing that I knew
    There was milk and toast and honey
    And a bowl of oranges, too
    And the sun poured in like butterscotch
    And stuck to all my senses

    Oh, won't you stay
    We'll put on the day
    And we'll talk in present tenses

    When the curtain closes
    And the rainbow runs away
    I will bring you incense
    Owls by night
    By candlelight
    By jewel-light
    If only you will stay
    Pretty baby, won't you
    Wake up, it's a Chelsea morning

    Joni introduced the song this way on October 12, 1967 at the Second Fret in Philadelphia:
    Well, that’s one morning sunshine, love and rainbow song [ed note: she had just sung Come To The Sunshine] and I have another, and it was written much later, and in a different place. You see, a long time ago I purchased some stained-glass windows that were about to be demolished because they were wrecking the house for unwed mothers that they were in. The unwed mothers were without, of course. And, uh, I rescued them for $5 each and took them back to a very peaceful place and set them up in my windows and, every morning when the sun came up the rainbows came in. And, uh, then one day I moved to New York City, which is a very different place; very different circumstances for writing under ‘cause it’s noisy all the time. So I put my stained glass windows up and I covered up all of the sky, which was about that much of one corner above the church – a postage stamp piece of sky. And, uh, I wrote a very different morning rainbow, sunshine and love song, noisy as New York City.
     
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  16. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    Here's Joni doing 'Chelsea Morning' live in 1970 for the BBC:



    This was one of Joni's earliest successes, a song covered by Judy Collins, Fairport Convention, Jennifer Warnes, and Dave Van Ronk--all released before Joni put out her version in '69. It's a wonderful late '60s folk song with a great melody and lyrics that are both poetic and accessible. I've always loved "We'll put on the day and we'll wear it till the night comes." In 1974 someone called out for the song during a live show and Joni said,

    "I, I don’t sing that song anymore… It’s like… you know Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience? It sorta belongs to my musical childhood, to me, you know? I’m not trying to be snobbish about my own songs (laughs).

    That’s one thing that I always like about the painterly arts better than musical arts, is that like nobody would go up to Picasso and say: “hey, listen man, would ya paint a little of your blue period for us?”

    This is definitely early Joni and a signature song of the period. It brings you right into the sensations and sounds of a busy urban morning.
     
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  17. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Just one final comment about 'Tin Angel' before I join in with 'Chelsea Morning'
    When both our boys were little they (and their Dad!) loved Hans Christian Andersen's story 'The Steadfast Tin Soldier'.
    Here's an excerpt that rung a few bells for me when I sought it out earlier today:
    In front of the castle stood some little trees
    surrounding a tiny mirror which looked like
    a lake. Wax swans were floating about and
    reflecting themselves in it. That was all very
    pretty; but the most beautiful thing was a little lady, who stood in the open doorway. She
    was cut out of paper, but she had on a dress of
    the finest muslin, with a scarf of narrow blue ribbon round her shoulders, fastened in the
    middle with a glittering rose made of gold paper, which was as large as her head. The little lady was stretching out both her arms, for she
    was a Dancer, and was lifting up one leg so high in the air that the Tin-soldier couldn’t find it anywhere, and thought that she, too, had only one leg.
    ‘That’s the wife for me!’ he thought; ‘but she is so grand, and lives in a castle, whilst I have only a box with four-and-twenty others.
    This is no place for her! But I must make her
    acquaintance.’

    The story ends with both of them thrown onto a fire: the lady dancer is burnt to ashes all but for the golden rose and the tin soldier melted all but for his metal heart lying next to it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2018
  18. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Tin Angel- Maybe sparse and downbeat for an opener but it works for me. A strong composition rendered moreso by the differing emotional shadings offered across even single lyrical lines. Hurt and hope, it's all there!
     
  19. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    Chelsea Morning - Very commercial but an exuberantly joyous song i really enjoy. My favourite verse has the sun pouring in like butterscotch which is strikingly vivid to me. Simple all around but very effective and affected.
     
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  20. bvb1123

    bvb1123 Rock and Roll Martian

    Location:
    Cincinnati Ohio
    Clouds was my introduction to Joni Mitchell and it's still my favorite album of hers. And "Chelsea Morning" is still my favorite song by her. Something about this album, and, especially, this song connected with the 15 yr old me. All my friends were into Rush and Van Halen (not that there's anything wrong with that) and I was holed up in my room for like two weeks straight of playing this album. It felt like she was singing for me and me alone and I loved it.
     
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  21. lucan_g

    lucan_g Forum Resident

    I’m always amazed when people sometimes dismiss Joni’s albums prior to Blue as somehow being less mature, or less fully realized.

    There was a purity of vision, intention, and execution that is unparalleled on albums like Clouds. Things don’t always have to be ‘complex’ — or the product of misery/suffering — to be sublime or to resonate through time. This album is crystalline — and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Absolutely love Joni’s pre-Blue output, and this was my introduction to her.
     
  22. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    I love Joni, but only like this album.

    “Chelsea Morning” is beautifully sung and played, and has some nice imagery, but the subject matter - hey look, it’s a pretty day, isn’t it nice? - is a little simple and trite by Joni’s standards.
     
  23. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Mine too. For about a year the only pre 80s album I could play. On a cassette player at Uni. Back at home in summer '86 I added Hejira, Court and Spark and Blue to Clouds and Dog Eat Dog.
     
  24. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    The one-night of love with 'pretty baby' that they're going to celebrate the whole day with if he stays, is the kind of sexual high that gets a really good song out of her. Nowhere near her best, simple but not trite.
     
  25. Tommy Jay

    Tommy Jay Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    Thank You Parachute Woman for starting up the second song by song Joni thread!

    Your comments and song synopsis and other incidental nuggets of info are very informative and well done.

    Also, I continue to enjoy the different comments from everyone who participates on these threads. Many comments (the positive ones!) reflect my strong feelings about the songs much better than I can articulate.

    I absolutely adored this record when I first became aware of it. Alas, it's been several years since I've revisited "Clouds", so this thread is like a refresher course in great music for me.

    Just a quick reply to Socialguy above re: the relative "triteness" and simplicity of thought that runs thru "Chelsea Morning".

    Chelsea Morning is on my short list of favorite Joni songs because the song expresses so well the emotions of optimism, joy, and the exuberance of waking up--- feeling---just SO damn good (!) and ultimately wanting to share the feeling with that special someone. I believe it is very difficult to write a quality song that expresses positive feelings and conjures genuine emotion in the listener rather than saccharine phony happiness that so many songwriters come up with. I realize that listening is a very subjective experience and of course, YMMV, but this song bypasses trite and goes right to my listening happy place---which I'd like to go to more often, but few songs get there for me.
     
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