Joni

 

 

My first exposure to Joni's songs was when I was rifling through a stack of LP's that my older brother brought back with him when he returned from the Air Force during Viet Nam. The album was "For The Roses." When he wasn't around - I put it on his turntable (which I was not supposed to be touching), dropped the needle and BAM - I was done for.  Besides my Godfather Leonard Cohen's tunes, Joni's music and lyrics influenced my life more than anyone else's....    This tune - a more recent one - deals with a topic near and dear to my heart - the barbarity of Christianity...  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 No, not any spring Not any spring ~ Joni Mitchell - The Magdalene Laundries ~

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