No shortage of those, has she. The way she delivers the line, too...holding tree, at the end, as if she is crying, sad, alone...the price of her freedom intimated. One of a number of her songs that flat made me cry upon first and subsequent listens. Such bare bones honesty.
What more can one say about Joni that has not already been said. For those that get it she's the greatest musical and poetic genius ever. For those that don't? well, sorry for you.
its interesting to me that the Beatles didnt write one song comparable to the best Joni M songs, and yet they are lauded for their exceptional song writing skills. The palette of sounds JM used in her guitar and piano writing is unsurpassed in my view.
Jimi Hendrix,Mitch Mitchell and Joni hung out all nigt in a hotel room,singing,talking,playing..into the wee hours of the night..... the next day,Jimi asked Joni if he could record her performance that night! he brought his big Tenec Taper recorder and did so.... Joni's something speacial,play on drummer,play on Jimi and Play on Joni. we love ya forever....
Dynamics, live on stage. One with her guitar and her song. She IS her song. Chords caress her flute-like voice. And someone, thankfully, caught it on film. This is music, folks -- life-saving, true, tapped into juice of the human experience, the times and all-time, holy shit did-you-hear-that? music!
reminds me of my trippy sister. she tried hard back in the day to turn me on to joni, dylan, etc.. instead, I listened to the Archies, Sean Cassidy or other bubble gum pop. It wasn't until I got into my mid 30s that I rediscovered Joni. My sister cornered me and made me listen to Blue all the way through over a bottle of wine. Thank God I did.
There's a man who's been out sailing, in a decade full of dreams. And he takes her to a schooner, and he treats her like a queen. Bearing beads from California, with their amber stones and green. He has called her from the harbor, he has kissed her with his freedom, he has heard her off to starboard in the breaking and the breathing of the water weeds. While she was busy being free. There's a man who's climbed a mountain, and he's calling out her name, and he hopes her heart can hear, 3,000 miles he calls again, he can think her there beside him, he can miss her just the same. He has missed her in the forest, while he showed her all the flowers, and the branches sang the chorus, as he climbed the scaly towers of a forest tree. While she was somewhere being free. There's a man who sent a letter and he's waiting for her reply. He has asked her of her travels since the day they said goodbye. He writes, "Wish you were beside me, we could make it if we try." He has seen her at the office, with her name on all his papers, through the sharing of the profits, he will find it hard to shake her from these memories. And she's so busy being free. There's a lady, in the city, and she thinks she loves them all. There's the one who's thinking of her, There's the one who sometimes calls. There's the one who writes her letters, with his facts and figures scrawl. She has brought them to her senses, they have laughed inside her laughter. Now she rallies her defenses, for she fears that one will ask her for eternity. And she's so busy being free. There's a man who sends her medals, he is bleeding from the war. There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store. There's a drummer, and a dreamer, and you know there may be more . She will love them when she sees them, they will lose her if they follow. And she only means to please them, and her heart is full and hollow like a cactus tree. While she's so busy being free. Like a cactus tree- Being free.
This amazing song describes my life when I was in my twenties. I am still busy being free but no more love in my life at age of 73. I absolutely love this song and this brilliant artist💕
Just beautiful. Makes my heart ache and my eyes well with emotion. Why aren't there more artists today with this purity and beauty. No need for artificial promotion. Just pure poetry and voice.
I am 51 years old, a father and I have a 20 yr old daughter and tell her this I think of her when I hear this and offer her this advice, "....just be busy being free!" Joni's songs and her voice are one of our greatest treasures, in any age!
I first heard this song when I was 16. Now I'm 50. I am getting older, but this song sounds as beautiful, sad, new, as when I first heard it. Thanks for posting.
1970. I think I saw her live that year. And maybe a few other years. It all blends together. But 50 years later, I still can't get enough of her. Maybe *the* artist of our generation.
Every time I listen to this song it takes me back to the 60's. There are so many wonderful women singer songwriters but no one comes close to Joni Mitchell.
Fantastic. What a song. What a person and a life. She takes care of every word, note, stance, glances at the audience, and inward glances at the memories embodying it all.
What baffles me is how she wrote a song in her early twenties which pretty much tells the story of her life. As with her 'Both sides now'. How does somebody that young just do that?
She sang this on my birthday, 9 years before I was born, and somehow it was still for me and I've discovered it now 43 years later, when I needed it most.
I have always loved this song. Her first album has always been my favorite. Got to see her at Carnegie Hall in February of 1972. I got to say hello after the show and I was SO smitten,
Joni is the greatest female songwriter of all time. Her astonishing inventiveness, lyrics that are poetry first and then words, voice that is angelic....hard to imagine modern culture ever producing someone better.
Such beauty and poetic allusion here. Melancholic expectation. Her lyrics are more than words. Her expression of her internity transcends mere thoughts and feelings. Her sounds and her breathing and her beating heart drill down so dark and deep. Yet you can't put your finger on it. It just is.
What happens when we are all gone? Will anyone remember the sweetness when each of us heard her for the first time, and we instantly fell in love with her? I am so glad I have lived when I have, no regrets except for the saddness I have experienced, so much saddness.
If this song came out today, the media would cast dark unflattering remarks about all her suspended lovers. But this song is sung into the times it was written and it comes off as eerily beautiful and soft to the heart. Hard to resist it candor, and her voice is never better. I can only name 5 songs that have knocked me down, and held my breath while listening to its masterful delivery and composition. This is one of them.
Few songs can put tears in my eyes nearly every time I hear them. Spontaneous tears of emotion for the beauty and pathos the words and music. This song is one of them.
I read a lot of bittersweet rememberances here, of a time so beautiful and perfect -- if only we could get back to it, back to the garden. Me too. Me too. Oh Joni, my eyes are filled with tears listening to your songs tonight (no joke). So beautiful.
cactus tree is probably my all-time favorite by her now. i've never heard anything more breathtaking and instantly enchanting than this song is to me. joni truly is special, there's absolutely no doubt about it. complete and utter magic taking the form of music
@HolyMotherofGrid Cactus tree is from Joni's first album, "Songs to a Seagull". You can get it on amazon.com. Buy it! It's the most hauntingly beautiful thing she ever did. Every song is a gem. My favorite is "Marcy". I heard it on the radio when I was18 years old...that would have been 1969, and I have loved it ever since. I still play the album just about every day. Have it on my mp3 player and on my computer at work, along with just about everything else that she has done. .
everyone is unique, some more unique than others - and this is true of her artistic genius. there is no one out there really quite like her. oh sure there are loads of great singer songwriters, but none of them have her soul and ability to write and sing poetry with her special touch.
I am 69 y/o, male, lifetime amateur musician, composer. I watch and listen to Joni to hear something beautiful, almost every day. I enjoyed most of the famous pop groups all my life, but I didn't listen to her pop-jazz compositions from the mid 70's on until this year. I don't think she got much airtime for her pop-jazz compositions after the early 70's, but some of her most beautiful music was ,yet, to come, and I missed it until CZcams, 2012.
Words are not adequate to describe the beauty of this song and this performance. Just listen, again and again. She is a gift to us all; I will cherish it always.
how impossiblly beautiful can one creature be???she runs through me like a lifelong pulse....graceful,selfeffacing,potent,massively talented in so way arts....enchantment of others ...the prime talent!!what a world she weaves before our very eyes!
This song is more moving to me now than it was back then. I understand it better now. I just watched a documentary about her on Netflix and it was awesome!
Joni,Thank you so much for sharing the world with such beautiful music and poetry...You are simply awesome! Listening to you simply made life worth living...Not to mention you look incredibly gorgeous the older you get...
It's hard to think of anyone isn't it? So few people really put that poetry into their lyrics. This is one of my favourite songs of hers. Absolutely stunning.
Gosh, it's as if I could've penned these lyrics..Very touching and beautiful from her heart...from movie, "A Walk In The Moon"..I love Joni Mitchell for her truth..
Is that the Diane Lane, Viggo movie? I believe I saw a good portion of that once, though not all. I love Joni Mitchell for many things, the least of them most definitely not being that she is a truth teller. Most folks hate those, but I don't. She has recently joined my personal Mt. Rushmore, along with Muhammad Ali and George Carlin--all time greats unafraid to speak truth. Good to read you, Eileen Bento.
I love this song--absolutely magnificent--and what an incredible live performance. I saw Joni once, live, in 1979 or 1980. Wouldn't I have loved to see her earlier in her career. Thank goodness for you tube.
![Joni Mitchell - Cactus Tree (2021 Remaster) [Official Audio]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/myeJYtiKJR0/mqdefault.jpg)
wish I could unhear it so I could hear for first time again
just heard it for the first time for you
Gary Peatling don’t listen to it for a year. Put it on your Calendar to listen to it 1 year from now?
It's great every time
Or live
Beautifully stated 💕
There's something about Joni's songs that get stuck in your head like nothing else. This one is so beautiful.
whitecookie absolutely agree with that 💕💙💙
So true
There are no words. Such a brilliant woman. Hauntingly beautiful. There will never be another like Joni.
How lucky we are to have walked the earth at the same time as this great lady and for her sharing her beautiful music with us.
i have thought that same thing many, many times
'Her heart is full and hollow like a cactus tree'... what a great line. Such a genius lyricist. Her first album is one of my favorites.
No shortage of those, has she. The way she delivers the line, too...holding tree, at the end, as if she is crying, sad, alone...the price of her freedom intimated.
One of a number of her songs that flat made me cry upon first and subsequent listens. Such bare bones honesty.
emerald764 absolute genius
Mine too
It's a "send chills" line for sure.
She is pure genius 🩷
What more can one say about Joni that has not already been said. For those that get it she's the greatest musical and poetic genius ever. For those that don't? well, sorry for you.
Agree completely
its interesting to me that the Beatles didnt write one song comparable to the best Joni M songs, and yet they are lauded for their exceptional song writing skills. The palette of sounds JM used in her guitar and piano writing is unsurpassed in my view.
There are more poetic genius, theres not one above all. Van morrison, Dylan, Crosby, Brian wilson, Cohen...
Jimi Hendrix,Mitch Mitchell and Joni hung out all nigt in a hotel room,singing,talking,playing..into the wee hours of the night..... the next day,Jimi asked Joni if he could record her performance that night! he brought his big Tenec Taper recorder and did so.... Joni's something speacial,play on drummer,play on Jimi and Play on Joni. we love ya forever....
Absolutely
Dynamics, live on stage. One with her guitar and her song. She IS her song. Chords caress her flute-like voice. And someone, thankfully, caught it on film. This is music, folks -- life-saving, true, tapped into juice of the human experience, the times and all-time, holy shit did-you-hear-that? music!
❤❤❤
reminds me of my trippy sister. she tried hard back in the day to turn me on to joni, dylan, etc.. instead, I listened to the Archies, Sean Cassidy or other bubble gum pop. It wasn't until I got into my mid 30s that I rediscovered Joni. My sister cornered me and made me listen to Blue all the way through over a bottle of wine. Thank God I did.
yarbles67 amazing story 💕
Having a child secretly at 19 y/o can plunge one into creative depths, rich ones for Joni. She mines depths.
over a bottle of wine. :)
Aw what a great story
There's a man who's been out sailing,
in a decade full of dreams.
And he takes her to a schooner,
and he treats her like a queen.
Bearing beads from California,
with their amber stones and green.
He has called her from the harbor,
he has kissed her with his freedom,
he has heard her off to starboard
in the breaking and the breathing of the water weeds.
While she was busy being free.
There's a man who's climbed a mountain,
and he's calling out her name,
and he hopes her heart can hear,
3,000 miles he calls again,
he can think her there beside him,
he can miss her just the same.
He has missed her in the forest,
while he showed her all the flowers,
and the branches sang the chorus,
as he climbed the scaly towers of a forest tree.
While she was somewhere being free.
There's a man who sent a letter and he's waiting for her reply.
He has asked her of her travels since the day they said goodbye.
He writes, "Wish you were beside me, we could make it if we try."
He has seen her at the office, with her name on all his papers,
through the sharing of the profits,
he will find it hard to shake her from these memories.
And she's so busy being free.
There's a lady, in the city, and she thinks she loves them all.
There's the one who's thinking of her,
There's the one who sometimes calls.
There's the one who writes her letters,
with his facts and figures scrawl.
She has brought them to her senses,
they have laughed inside her laughter.
Now she rallies her defenses,
for she fears that one will ask her for eternity.
And she's so busy being free.
There's a man who sends her medals,
he is bleeding from the war.
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store.
There's a drummer, and a dreamer,
and you know there may be more .
She will love them when she sees them,
they will lose her if they follow.
And she only means to please them,
and her heart is full and hollow like a cactus tree.
While she's so busy being free.
Like a cactus tree-
Being free.
THUMBS UP IF YOUR LOVE OF JONI MITCHELL BROUGHT YOU HERE...
Joni has the voice of an Angel. What a beautiful song from a Beautiful woman..
The lyrics in the last verse are devastating. Amazing.
This amazing song describes my life when I was in my twenties. I am still busy being free but no more love in my life at age of 73. I absolutely love this song and this brilliant artist💕
You must Love yourself no matter what. xxoo
Me, too...
@@1234saluki Yes I do♥️
im 19 now and i found this song last year, i hope ill grow as u do and always stay busy being free
Ah, yes, I can relate to what you wrote in your post.
Just beautiful. Makes my heart ache and my eyes well with emotion. Why aren't there more artists today with this purity and beauty. No need for artificial promotion. Just pure poetry and voice.
I am 51 years old, a father and I have a 20 yr old daughter and tell her this I think of her when I hear this and offer her this advice, "....just be busy being free!" Joni's songs and her voice are one of our greatest treasures, in any age!
No one past or present can touch the genius of Joni
Best version of this song. I'm crying like a baby now! Totally flood of memories.
I first heard this song when I was 16. Now I'm 50. I am getting older, but this song sounds as beautiful, sad, new, as when I first heard it. Thanks for posting.
I just heard this for the first time and it made me cry.
1970. I think I saw her live that year. And maybe a few other years. It all blends together. But 50 years later, I still can't get enough of her. Maybe *the* artist of our generation.
Every time I listen to this song it takes me back to the 60's. There are so many wonderful women singer songwriters but no one comes close to Joni Mitchell.
Fantastic. What a song. What a person and a life. She takes care of every word, note, stance, glances at the audience, and inward glances at the memories embodying it all.
What baffles me is how she wrote a song in her early twenties which pretty much tells the story of her life. As with her 'Both sides now'. How does somebody that young just do that?
Hmmm... I thought it was MY life she was singing....
Dean Glover pure , true soul
Doroshi43 I feel that connection too - I think that’s what makes it such an incredible song , it’s so unsuspectingly relatable and universal
This is her life story?
Dean Glover , Devine Intervention.
This voice takes you right up to heaven.....
Absolutely beautiful.
There is only one Joni Mitchell and she is the greatest
Decades later and this song still moves me like nothing else. Her soul and poetry just pour on through.
She sang this on my birthday, 9 years before I was born, and somehow it was still for me and I've discovered it now 43 years later, when I needed it most.
She keeps doing that.... I will be 75 next week, and this song is for my life from 22 to 66.... I cry every time I hear it.
THIS!! Yes! very cool Tiffany
Don't now how 12 "people" can possibly dislike this suspended moment in time ; anyway...
I'm crying.
Long live Joni.
I have always loved this song. Her first album has always been my favorite. Got to see her at Carnegie Hall in February of 1972. I got to say hello after the show and I was SO smitten,
d181939 I also saw her at Carnegie Hall
David Crosby said, once you're in love with Joni, you're always in love with her.
oh how I love this song and the theme of it.
this song has always been so sweet yet haunting and menlancholy to me. Classic Joni Mitchell a tinge of sadness and beauty at the same time
I see my beautiful sister Jan in her voice. She is gone now but the music lives...
Pure emotion. Small wonder so many wanted her.
Joni is the greatest female songwriter of all time. Her astonishing inventiveness, lyrics that are poetry first and then words, voice that is angelic....hard to imagine modern culture ever producing someone better.
just pure magic - beautiful - hauntingly and achingly so
When she passes, so will a generation that will never be replaced; dear Lord let my time end adjacent
Everything.... the woman is poetry in the flesh...
An incredible version of an incredible song. I've heard it thousands of times and it still gets to me.
Love this ❤️ song
We usually listen to Joni Mitchell when we're going to sleep at night. This song is one of my favorites.
S M I L E ….
I confess that I need to prepare myself before hearding her songs. Thanks for your inspiration Joni.
Beautiful song, I just heard it in the movie "A Walk on the Moon" and fell in luv with it, so peaceful.
caroline n I LOVE that movie 💕💕💙
Such beauty and poetic allusion here. Melancholic expectation.
Her lyrics are more than words. Her expression of her internity transcends mere thoughts and feelings.
Her sounds and her breathing and her beating heart drill down so dark and deep.
Yet you can't put your finger on it. It just is.
she's so busy being free... aren't we all? in the process, we forget the essentials...
What happens when we are all gone? Will anyone remember the sweetness when each of us heard her for the first time, and we instantly fell in love with her? I am so glad I have lived when I have, no regrets except for the saddness I have experienced, so much saddness.
I love you Joni always and forever. Thank you for teaching me how to be with my feelings.
I am busy being free... rallying my defenses for anything that asks for my eternity... with a heart full and hallow as a cactus tree 🌵
I just discovered this song. I think it's one of the most beautiful I've ever heard. I love old artists who still keep giving. :)
If this song came out today, the media would cast dark unflattering remarks about all her suspended lovers. But this song is sung into the times it was written and it comes off as eerily beautiful and soft to the heart. Hard to resist it candor, and her voice is never better. I can only name 5 songs that have knocked me down, and held my breath while listening to its masterful delivery and composition. This is one of them.
Please name the other ones must be good ... :)
I somehow doubt she would’ve been scrutinized so negatively. But this is beautiful ...you’re right
@@osahju914 yes. She would've.
woke up shortly after 3 am with this song running thru my head, despite not having listened to it for a decade or more. Oh Joni...
Written in a simpler time. Bravo for a woman at that time to want her freedom and not a trip to the alter. Much love for Joni ♡
A lovely lady. Always calming to my soul. Many years we have traveled together in song. Beauty and grace is she.
Few songs can put tears in my eyes nearly every time I hear them. Spontaneous tears of emotion for the beauty and pathos the words and music. This song is one of them.
I read a lot of bittersweet rememberances here, of a time so beautiful and perfect -- if only we could get back to it, back to the garden.
Me too. Me too.
Oh Joni, my eyes are filled with tears listening to your songs tonight (no joke). So beautiful.
My favorite song. God bless Joni.
Exquisite performance. There will never be another Joni.
cactus tree is probably my all-time favorite by her now. i've never heard anything more breathtaking and instantly enchanting than this song is to me. joni truly is special, there's absolutely no doubt about it. complete and utter magic taking the form of music
Artistry. This song takes me apart every time I hear it.
I don't think I have ever heard and felt such feeling music.
@HolyMotherofGrid
Cactus tree is from Joni's first album, "Songs to a Seagull". You can get it on amazon.com. Buy it! It's the most hauntingly beautiful thing she ever did. Every song is a gem. My favorite is "Marcy". I heard it on the radio when I was18 years old...that would have been 1969, and I have loved it ever since. I still play the album just about every day. Have it on my mp3 player and on my computer at work, along with just about everything else that she has done. .
everyone is unique, some more unique than others - and this is true of her artistic genius. there is no one out there really quite like her. oh sure there are loads of great singer songwriters, but none of them have her soul and ability to write and sing poetry with her special touch.
I am 69 y/o, male, lifetime amateur musician, composer. I watch and listen to Joni
to hear something beautiful, almost every day. I enjoyed most of the famous pop groups all my life, but I didn't listen to her pop-jazz compositions from the mid 70's on until this year. I don't think she got much airtime for her pop-jazz compositions after the early 70's, but some of her most beautiful music was ,yet, to come, and I missed it until CZcams, 2012.
Shes one of a kind...never be matched
Joni Mitchell songs were some of my earliest memories and I love her to this day.
Joni you are so incredible, words can never capture just how amazing you are. Please don't ever change.
Seemingly effortless mastery. Peerless Joni Mitchell.
Words are not adequate to describe the beauty of this song and this performance. Just listen, again and again. She is a gift to us all; I will cherish it always.
one of the greatest songs ever
how impossiblly beautiful can one creature be???she runs through me like a lifelong pulse....graceful,selfeffacing,potent,massively talented in so way arts....enchantment of others ...the prime talent!!what a world she weaves before our very eyes!
This song is more moving to me now than it was back then. I understand it better now. I just watched a documentary about her on Netflix and it was awesome!
Beautiful artistic genius.
S Kirk yes , absolutely
Joni got me through a 6-hour study session. Thank God for music like this.
I love almost every song this woman ever made but this is my favorite.
Cette chanson, me transporte, j'oublie tout, sa voix est si douce, j'adore...
Every time I listen to this, well, I have to remember to breathe. Timeless.
Joni always inspired me...she's been a part of my life for decades.
Joni,Thank you so much for sharing the world with such beautiful music and poetry...You are simply awesome! Listening to you simply made life worth living...Not to mention you look incredibly gorgeous the older you get...
One of my favorite albums by Joni. Pure poetry.
There may well be many better or more beautiful songs than this our there but i haven't heard them. Get well soon Joni. Much love.
for me, this song is for the early spring, when flora and fawna are reborn and are free.
Such a wonderful pure voice. Love ya Joni!
j.melatti
Love this SO much
Just discovered this two nights ago.
Listened 30 plus times so far!!
First time hearing this song. 😮. So amazing.
Agonizingly cathartic.
Wonderful song one of my favorites she's so busy being free......
God's angel of music.
Amazing woman. God bless her.
Wow, so beautiful...
Christ almighty what a talent.
It's hard to think of anyone isn't it? So few people really put that poetry into their lyrics.
This is one of my favourite songs of hers. Absolutely stunning.
She can almost make me believe in God, for her gift is surely divine .
One of my all-time favorite songs EVER!!! And Joni??? All-time favorite!!!
How could she do such a thing?! Harness this power to just destroy me in 3 minutes? Evil evil magical genius.
Gosh, it's as if I could've penned these lyrics..Very touching and beautiful from her heart...from movie, "A Walk In The Moon"..I love Joni Mitchell for her truth..
Is that the Diane Lane, Viggo movie? I believe I saw a good portion of that once, though not all.
I love Joni Mitchell for many things, the least of them most definitely not being that she is a truth teller. Most folks hate those, but I don't. She has recently joined my personal Mt. Rushmore, along with Muhammad Ali and George Carlin--all time greats unafraid to speak truth.
Good to read you, Eileen Bento.
Yes it is, good love story movie..
Yes, I'm with you. I like when people stand up for their rights n morals..
Brings back every memory I've ever had
I love this song--absolutely magnificent--and what an incredible live performance. I saw Joni once, live, in 1979 or 1980. Wouldn't I have loved to see her earlier in her career. Thank goodness for you tube.
INCREDIBLE
She is ageless. Her songs will go on and on
This is classic Joanie and when I’m just vegging out and relaxing I could listen to this every time