Joni Mitchell Songs - Chelsea Morning Lyrics

Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning

Joni Mitchell - Chelsea Morning Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Clouds
Released: 1969

Chelsea Morning Lyrics

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 a-reeling 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

Writer/s: MITCHELL, JONI
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Chelsea Morning

Chelsea is a famous area in London, but it is also an area in New York City, which is what Mitchell references in this song. She moved to Chelsea in 1967 after splitting up with her husband, Chuck Mitchell, who she lived with in Detroit.

In a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mitchell explained: "I wrote that in Philadelphia after some girls who worked in this club where I was playing found all this colored slag glass in an alley. We collected a lot of it and built these glass mobiles with copper wire and coat hangers. I took mine back to New York and put them in my window on West 16th Street in the Chelsea District. The sun would hit the mobile and send these moving colors all around the room. As a young girl, I found that to be a thing of beauty. There's even a reference to the mobile in the song. It was a very young and lovely time... before I had a record deal. I think it's a very sweet song, but I don't think of it as part of my best work. To me, most of those early songs seem like the work of an ingenue."

Bill and Hillary Clinton named their daughter Chelsea after this song.

The folk singer Judy Collins, who gave Joni Mitchell a huge career boost when she recorded her song "Both Sides Now," also covered this song; her version hit #78 US in 1969. Collins performed it, along with her version of "Amazing Grace," at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993.

Collins version was released as a single in 1969 and didn't appear on an album until a live rendition was included on her 1971 set Living. She recorded a new version for her 1997 compilation Forever: An Anthology; the original single finally appeared on The Very Best of Judy Collins in 2001.