Joni Mitchell - Nathan La Franeer Lyrics

Nathan La Franeer
by Joni Mitchell
I hired a coach to take me
from confusion to the plane
And though we shared a common space
I know I'll never meet again
The driver with his eyebrows furrowed in the rear-view mirror
I read his name and it was plainly written Nathan La Franeer
I asked him would he hurry
But we crawled the canyons slowly
Thru the buyers and the sellers
Thru the burglar bells and the wishing wells
With gangs and girly shows
The ghostly garden grows

The cars and buses bustled thru the bedlam of the day
I looked thru window-glass at streets
and Nathan grumbled at the grey
I saw an aging cripple selling Superman balloons
The city grated thru chrome-plate
The clock struck slowly half-past-noon
Thru the tunnel tiled and turning
Into daylight once again I am escaping
Once again goodbye
To symphonies and dirty trees
With parks and plastic clothes
The ghostly garden grows

He asked me for a dollar more
He cursed me to my face
He hated everyone who paid to ride
And share his common space
I picked my bags up from the curb
And stumbled to the door
Another man reached out his hand
Another hand reached out for more
And I filled it full of silver
And I left the fingers counting
And the sky goes on forever
Without meter maids and peace parades
You feed it all your woes
The ghostly garden grows
© 1968

Joni and cloudy days.

I love the weird siren noises, unconventional and very cool.

Sounds like a Sergio Leone movie.

I absolutely love this song except for the horrible harmonica! I don't know who's idea that was, but it ruined a perfect song that could have become as famous as her other songs........She was an absolute genius!

I know - weird effect there. Maybe simulating traffic/busy street life?

You did not get, what the harmonica really means...sorry

She IS a genius agreed. I agree too re ‘noise’ (although the purpose of the noise is meant to have a grating unpleasant sound) the recording IS ruined, it could have been done better. It’s tarnished a beautiful piece of work. People DO get what it’s meant to convey but there’s surely a correct way of doing that in a recording studio and a wrong way.

She IS an absolute genius! The noise actually added a lot to it and perfectly fit the song. It created super vivid images and helped (me) to even better picture the whole atmosphere of that ride. If you have noticed, it sounded differently every time - traffic, sirens, tunnel, plane, leaving that troubled taxi/driver behind as he drove away and she moved on along with her bags and incredible life... A marvel!

Joni Mitchell feat. My Bloody Valentine lol

Yeah, there’s some pretty sweet distortion there!

Fabulous..

The ghostly garden grows....

A wild garden to be sure