Mitchell, Joni - The Magdalene Laundries Lyrics

A true genius - up there with the best there has ever been. Mention Mozart, mention Malher, you should also mention Mitchell.

I’m guessing Joni doesn’t get a Christmas card from The Vatican.😳🤭😮

Melancholy tunes or not, I love you Joni Mitchell. You're one of the few bright lights in this world. KG

Weren’t the relatives of these young woman criminally charged?These women were sexually assaulted by them!That is unimaginable!

There is a dramatic film about the laundries and a Documentary.

I love Joni's songs and her talent, but this one I do not like as it perpetuates a lie that has developed in recent years. For your consideration... a bit of corrective research:

https://www.catholicleague.org/myths-of-the-magdalene-laundries/

Who knew this question would yield a revelation like “so I tuned to the crows and the seagulls and the sonic references available...”

My life had included Joni Mitchell's musical talent throughout all my years.
Her incredible femininity and grace makes her one of a very few Women who command attention and deserve it.
She just keeps getting better.
A truly wonderful Musical Icon.

this is something so good about Joni..this song..shedding light on this atrocious story..Joni, i take my humble hat off to you

She could sing the ingredients to rice crispies cereal and sound awesome :)

Joni is a global Inspiration ... God Bless her! and she's a Canuck too!

I'd say Joni is a national treasure but the truth is she is an international treasure. One of, if not the most spectacular, example of artistic genius there has ever been. She is my spirit animal.

Breathtaking!!!

One of the world's very best...

What a gift Joni Mitchell is to the world

Joni...A national treasure!!

3 greatest artists of the 20th century: frank lloyd Wright, Picasso, and Joni. A case can be made.

Wow! What a performance! Genius!!

joni.... only....is all you need..

Stop believing the bullshit you read , or from hate filled singers like Joni ..read the reality ..
https://www.catholicleague.org/myths-of-the-magdalene-laundries/

Growing up in the 70's, I discovered her. For years I wouldn't listen to her because her music affected me in such a way it made me cry. I'm in my 50's now and damn if she doesn't still make me cry. Guess I'll never get over her. Cheers.

My uncle was born in one too, back in 1949. We never k new he existed until after my grandmother died (in 2005). My mother had always thought my nan was holding back a big secret and a few days after she died admitted to her aunt that she thought something bad had happened in her mother's past. My aunt came out with the secret. My nan was obsessed with washing and cleaning clothes. I remember as a child my mother and her getting into a huge argument because my nan wanted to do the washing on Christmas day but my mum wanted her to relax. My nan got really mad and upset. It's only in retrospect we understand now. My grandmother and grandfather moved to England in 1951 and had a child in 1952. They went on to have 4 children here (we're still not sure if my grandfather is the father of my uncle born into the Magdalene). We spent years trying to find my long lost uncle after my nan died. We found his birth certificate and searched everywhere for him even going as far to randomly call people with his name in America, as we were told it was likely he was adopted. We were told there wasn't much chance of finding him but after a few years, with help from the London Irish Centre, we finally did. It turned out he was never adopted because my grandmother wouldn't sign the adoption papers. She had him until he was 2 years old, in the laundry, after which he was put into the care system. We spoke on the phone with him for a few weeks before he came over to meet us and I still remember the moment he walked into our house. We knew, instantly, he was my grandmother's child as he looked exactly like her. It was uncanny. It was as if he were a male version of my grandmother. He even had her mannerisms. He was the sweetest, most gentle man. His life had been filled with incredible suffering and pain - he was abused as a child by a priest and beaten, told his mother was dead some 45 years before she actually had died, so to never bother searching for her. He's now an integral part of our family. What was odd, was his name - Hubert. See, I have another uncle called Hubert. Apparently the story goes when my uncle Hubert was born (English Hubert we refer to him as now, much to his displeasure as he thinks of himself as Irish) my grandfather was in charge of going to the registry office to register his name. They had decided on Hugh, but my grandfather, being drunk, had misheard and registered him as Hubert. So I have two uncles called Hubert. Irish Hubert and English Hubert. Knowing just what my nan went through and experienced makes me so angry and I just can't believe what a strong woman she was to carry that weight around her her whole life. How much shame and guilt she must have felt. I wish she were here to see how happy her son has made us all.

Such a beautiful and heartbreaking song. Hope it can bring some comfort to every tortured forgotten soul.

“So I sat out in the sun on a rock and I tuned my guitar to the sound of that day (...) I tuned to the crows and the seagulls, the sonic references available”

...As you do.

Heartbreaking and yet so beautiful- absolutely adore Joni.

Goddess level musicianship and angelic voice ... Oh it’s Joni - astonishing story telling.

We need to throw off the shackles of Catholicism and all its dogma.

I could watch her play forever!

I do believe that one day when Joni is gone, a big piece of my heart will die too. After listening, deeply, to her music for 45 years, I pray to God that she lives forever. We all need her.

I dread that day

Canada has produced many great musical talents singers and poets such Cohen,Young,and Lofgren to name a few but although all talented one lady stands out and that lady is Joni who is second to none of them!

162 clergy folks dont dig this.

The Magdalene Laundries is one of my favourite Joni Mitchell songs. It must be one of the saddest songs ever but somehow honours the souls of the abused with its stunning beauty. Hearing her describe the circumstances of how she came to write it really drew me in and then; wow! A solo performance which had me mesmerised, as though I had never heard the song before. I’d love to hear the rest of this performance.

Magic voice

I was an unmarried girl
I'd just turned twenty-seven
When they sent me to the sisters
For the way men looked at me
Branded as a Jezebel
I knew I was not bound for Heaven
I'd be cast in shame
Into the Magdalene laundries
Most girls come here pregnant
Some by their own fathers
Bridget got that belly by her parish priest
We're trying to get things white as snow
All of us woe-begotten-daughters
In the streaming stains
Of the Magdalene laundries
Prostitutes and destitutes
And temptresses like me
Fallen women
Sentenced into dreamless drudgery
Why do they call this heartless place
Our Lady of Charity?
Oh charity!
These bloodless brides of Jesus
If they had just once glimpsed their groom
Then they'd know, and they'd drop the stones
Concealed behind their rosaries
They wilt the grass they walk upon
They leech the light out of a room
They'd like to drive us down the drain
At the Magdalene laundries
Peg O'Connell died today
She was a cheeky girl
A flirt
They just stuffed her in a hole!
Surely to God you'd think at least some bells should ring!
One day I'm going to die here too
And they'll plant me in the dirt
Like some lame bulb
That never blooms, come any spring
Not any spring

I was a Catholic but now so ashamed of the church I used to belong to.
I’m almost 70

Stunning. Powerful and beautiful.

I can't help it, get a lump in my throat every time I view this.
"The last will be first and the first will be last."
I have to hold back tears

Wonderfully real

The 70s? Try as late as the 90s...

Joni got a nose job !!!

Her nose looks no different than it did on her first television appearance in 1966: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLu2-gG68S0

The Magdalene would be aghast not only at the treatment of these women but also that the prostitute in the bible was conflated with Mary Magdalene. That alone just goes to show you how manipulated women were in society by the male Church. This was done on purpose. (That is assuming that there was an actual Mary Magdalene at that time.)

Without this lady I doubt we’d have had Alanis Morissette, Lucy Rose, and the up and coming Mary Spender

The Magdalene Sisters is a fabulous movie

"i tuned my guitar to the sound of that day" what the heck i love that

A solemn performance.

I had no idea Joni was another hate filled anti catholic bigot ...No more will I listen to her ...

Really like that open chord she keeps hitting. Almost like a bell chiming. Beautiful!

Happy B'earthday , Joni ! 🌻💛

She opened door that flooded the world with calm beauty.

Singer- songwriter extraordinaire...
In a league of HER own
Greetings from Dublin Ireland brother and sisters We love her HERE.

This song breaks my heart and makes me ashamed to be Irish. Where were our men when our women were being incarcerated?

Boy she’s really got her Canada on here...

She IS a genius but these lyrics are for a specialized audience. Whatever these stories, they did not happen in the name of Christ. Evil men did it, but Christianity had nothing to do with it. BTW, Joni was 50 when this was performed. Interesting to hear where her voice was at that age.

Chick on the front row @ 0:41 DANG!!! 💥💥💥

Only girls? Boys did not go shoppin

This is typical anti-Catholic propaganda. You are not hearing the true story. You're hearing A story which provokes emotion, outrage and sells papers. Oh please wake up!

I would suggest you read some of the histories of the matter, or even some of the recent articles in Irish newspapers, the repercussions of the scandal are still occurring. Don't be blinded by the stories of apologists. Do your own research.

And while you are at it, read about the Bon Secours Mother & Baby Home scandal and the actions of the Catholic Church in Spain during Franco's reign.

phenomenal  talent !!!!!

Religion is mind control!  Thank goodness for people like Joni that shine a light on the nonsense.  As she said before, life is for learning.  Live your lives.

The movie The Magdeline Sisters will rip your heart out!

Moved me to tears😢 but beautiful and touching

Outstanding and heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing

I'm thankful I was not raised Catholic. How they took the most beautiful ideal as the beatitudes and turned it into such a dark and evil thing is mind blowing.

genius, she's a fricking genius. love her.

Damn I miss you.

God, her voice here ...

RELIGION: Providing justification for cruelty and exploitation for thousands of years.

The reality of the Catholic system of branding & chastising women was horribly wrong then & i sure hope it's not near as bad as it was. In other civilized societies having girls & women work for free would be considered criminal. That whole thing they got going is really weird to me. The priests & cardinals & pope & such harbored & allowed these atrocities & more for eons. I've always wondered why.

25 years ago

Im very familiar with the story of the Magdalene laundries, but since I never really cared for Joni Mitchell that much I've deprived myself of this great song.

She's so good, i don't have words to express it. I'm tearing up.

Thankyou Joni...ruthless truth filled prose... still those parish priests have never been held accountable.

I never knew this Joni song, first time hearing, a big surprise as I thought I had every track she ever recorded. It makes me really miss her talent and her courage and her absolute great talent at forming great music even from the darkest shadows...she is clearly one of the greatest song talents in human history. Telling us once more of yet another atrocity by the Roman Catholic Church, yet another in the grim and terrible abuses of women by the church, by men...in the sweetest voice.

The only guitarist I enjoy watching on mute.

Just a beautiful and smart woman!

I love her music so much, message, voice, harmonics all of it!

I was at one of the sites in Tuam Galway and it's mostly a hoax

Heartbreaking song about a heartbreaking place these poor women will see real life in a resurrection on earth soon

As a male this song makes me feel horrible. I can't imagine that.

The cigs got to her here...

Her answer to this question is insane...rapid thoughts & references spoken by a flat-out intellectual historian ( on this matter) turned by her mind & musical ability into ART in this song

Very powerful.

My first time hearing this one, not sure how it was missed for so many years. All I can say is I absolutely love Joni and always will........... much more than incredible :)

as time goes along...her work seems to me at least to stand up and hold up far better than all the other 'greats' of the era...maybe?

This is wonderful.

Loved her voice and heart and soul as a stranger for giving us everything you could ever wish for - rare bird on a wire signals pure pleasure through her music ! Longer than most stay married ! Thanks JM dig Leonardo on the wall ...

Check out the Van Gough

She is sooooo good!

There's no one to compare her to, except to herself...

I'd see Joni at the grocery store, sunglasses on. One just left her to her own...privacy is important here...They dont sell the Enquirer or Star there anymore. Great songstress!

I don't get it...Joni has such a thick Canadian accent here and in the early days she was totally different. Her voice was a higher range, her demeanor was more ethereal and her accent was not the same. She is a triple water sign: Sun in Scorpio, Moon in Pisces, and Cancer Rising. Maybe she's just a chameleon. What a consumate artist, though.

More cheerful songs Joni, your caretaker said!

Her guitar playing alone just melts my heart.

:-o thx for sharing Joni omg :-o

It's unbelievable that the Catholic Church could behave like this! And yet if you criticize the church in rural Ireland they regard it as an attack on themselves because they conflate it with the Protestant/Catholic issue.

A sweet voice. I'm thankful to have heard it. I am connected by the thinnest thread, or many of them. And like a spider web, I feel her vibrations.

The guitar is such an amazing, versatile instrument. Clearly there are an infinite number of ways in can be played, even though 99% of us all do it more or less the same way.....

I do love Joanie but oofahh, what a depressing song 😳