Uploaded by Hvdlinde on Dec 22, 2010
James Taylor's adaption of Joni Mitchell's River. From the 2006 album "James Taylor at Christmas". "River" is a song from Mitchell's 1971 album Blue. Although never released as a single, it has become one of Mitchell's most famous songs. Rives has become rooted in the Christmas canon of modern singers with James' lonesome voice tailor-made for the tune.
I like this song for two reasons: although it's not about Christmas as such, nevertheless it gives you the "holiday- feeling" and above all it's about the miracle of skating: freedom.
In keeping with the Christmas theme of the lyrics, the arrangement of the song on Blue starts with a theme reminiscent of "Jingle Bells", and this theme figures several times throughout the accompaniment.
Although merely set near Christmas time rather than being about Christmas, the song ruminates on a recent breakup of a romantic relationship. Christmas is nearing, and Mitchell/Taylor longs to escape emotional bonds, openly wishing "I wish I had a river / I could skate away on", a river so long she "would teach my feet to fly." I think it's a
strong metaphore to combine skating and freedom. To skate on a dark frozen river must come close to how it feels for a bird to fly. It's a feeling of freedom and it brings you to places you never see otherwise. For this reason I chose to illustrate this song with pictures of skating in a Dutch landscape.
Pictures credit: www.shorpy.com
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Beautiful video! Love the pics that you chose and JT/Joni--doesn't get better than that!
lla788 2 months ago
Classic Holiday tune with beautiful
metaphoric artistic images.
Jamestrus1 2 months ago
Love James & I Love his jazzy version of this beautiful song!
PearlGirl2011 3 months ago
God ..this is so beautiful ..thank you so so much ..really enjoyed it
bekindunlimited 3 months ago
a beautiful version and beautiful scenery to boot, thanks for this, now can someone post Linda Ronstadt's version, another lovely version of this....
MrBrad711 3 months ago
You said: "In keeping with the Christmas theme of the lyrics, the arrangement of the song on Blue starts with a theme reminiscent of "Jingle Bells", and this theme figures several times throughout the accompaniment." -- That's not Jingle Bells, it's "Good King Wenceslas"
ATXguard 4 months ago in playlist YouTube Mix for James Taylor
I love James Taylor's smooth soulful voice, check this out by Corinne Bailey Rae and Herbie Hancock..
RNLovely 4 months ago
great version from a one off an amazing songwriter cheers for posting this
bedsitsongbird33 6 months ago