Summary
Soul Music with stories of the lasting impact of Joni Mitchell's song 'River', from her iconic 1971 album Blue.
A song about the breakdown of a relationship and of a longing to be elsewhere that has become a melancholy Christmas anthem.
It's coming on Christmas They're cutting down trees They're putting up reindeer And singing songs of joy and peace Oh I wish I had a river I could skate away on....
Emotional true stories of what the song means to different people, including:
* Comedian Chris Forbes, who lost his father on Christmas Day * Isobel, who fell sick far from home and understands the longing to be elsewhere captured in the song * Laura, who heard the song while pregnant at Christmastime * Writer Rob Crossan, who will forever associate the song with his first love * Canadian poet Lorna Crozier who describes the frozen rivers of her and Joni's Saskatchewan childhood
Plus thoughts from Joni Mitchell's biographer, David Yaffe.
Includes a rare live recording of 'River' from a BBC Concert in 1970, hosted by John Peel.
The other versions of the song are by (in order of appearance):
Joni Mitchell (Blue, 1971) Scott Matthews (Live Session for BBC 6 Music, 2011) Béla Fleck and the Flecktones (Jingle All the Way, 2008) The Belgian indie choir Scala & Kolacny Brothers (Live Session for BBC 6 Music, 2011).
Series about pieces of music with a powerful emotional impact.
Producer: Mair Bosworth
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2018.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others. |
| 0:05.2 | My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland. |
| 0:11.3 | It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here, |
| 0:16.3 | but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world. |
| 0:19.6 | And because the team has such a diverse |
| 0:21.2 | range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through |
| 0:26.0 | archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if |
| 0:31.8 | you like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories |
| 0:37.1 | from all around the UK. BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK. |
| 0:40.1 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:48.7 | The freezing of the river happens slowly. |
| 0:53.3 | You walk down to it as the water is getting cold and it's almost like |
| 0:57.7 | the water gets thinking about turning solid. My name is Lorna Crozier and I'm a poet, essayist, and |
| 1:09.8 | a memoirist. I now live on Vancouver Island, but I was born and |
| 1:15.9 | raised in Saskatchewan, which is the province that Joni Mitchell is from. |
| 1:25.3 | Skating outside, in the cold hearing that the blades cutting on the ice |
| 1:32.2 | it comes as close to flying i think as you can get as a human being without having wings |
| 1:38.7 | and without being able to leave the ground it's coming on Christmas're cutting down trees, they're putting up reindeer and singing |
| 1:48.2 | songs of joy and peace. |
| 1:50.9 | Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on. |
| 1:59.1 | Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on, because she's in Los Angeles, and she loved to skate as a child. |
| 2:09.1 | My name is David Yaffey. |
... |
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