All I really really want is our love to do/
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too.
What does Joni Mitchell want? She wants an ideal love. She attempts to describe the love she is seeking on “All I Want”. The love she has isn’t bad…it is just not ideal. There is jealousy. Sometimes they don’t bring out the best in each other. Sometimes they hurt each other. But the attraction is certainly there.
On “All I Want” she wants spontaneous dancing and to write love letters to each other. She wants to knit her partner a sweater. Interestingly, she appears to go out of her way to point out that she wants this ideal love with her current (imperfect) partner. Is this searching for an idealized love harming a good love? She’s not sure.
The first thing you notice on any Joni Mitchell song is her voice. It is amazing and she always sings with passion. Also, her lyrics: they are complex, but in a way that are instantly comprehensible. She is just a good writer. The songs she writes on guitar sound a bit different due to her weird guitar tunings.
You won’t hear many people jamming Joni Mitchell songs on their guitar because alternative tunings are such a pain in the ass. This is one of the ways she achieved her unique sound. Listen to the guitar. It sounds different. This is one of the highlights of her Blue album, which is IMO a top ten album of all time.
All I Want Lyrics
I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be?
Oh, I hate you some, I hate you some, I love you some
Oh, I love you when I forget about me
I want to be strong, I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
Do you want, do you want, do you want to dance with me, baby?
Do you want to take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me, baby?
Well, come on
All I really, really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really, really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you
I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you
I want to renew you again and again
Applause, applause, life is our cause
When I think of your kisses, my mind see-saws
Do you see, do you see, do you see how you hurt me, baby?
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue
I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Looking for the key to set me free
Oh, the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
It’s the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun
Want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free
Want to make you feel free
I want to make you feel free
written by Joni Mitchell