Lyrics Song For Sharon - Live 1995 - Joni Mitchell

Went to Staten Island Sharon
Buy myself a mandolin
And I saw the long white dress of love
On a storefront mannequin
Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars
All for something lacy
Some girls gonna see that dress and
Crave that day like crazy

Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada
They can balance and they can climb
Like their fathers before them
They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline
Shine your light on me Miss Liberty
'Cause as soon as this ferry boat docks
And I'm headed to the church
To play Bingo, fleece me with the gamblers' flocks

I can keep my cool at poker
But I'm a fool when love's at stake
'Cause I can't conceal emotion
What I'm feeling is on my face
There's a gypsy down on Bleecker street
I went in to see her as a kind of joke and
She lit a candle for my love luck and
18 bucks went up in smoke

Sharon, I left my man at a North Dakota junction
And I came out to the "Big apple" here
Face the dream's malfunction
Love's a repetitious danger
You'd think I'd be accustomed to
Well, I do accept the changes
Better than I used to do

Woman I knew just drowned herself
The well was deep and muddy
She was just shaking off futility
Punishing somebody
Friends were calling up all day yesterday
All emotions and abstractions
It seems we all live so close to that line and
So far from satisfaction

Dora says, "Have children"
Mama and Betsy say, "Find charity"
Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into ecology
Well, there's a wide wide world of noble causes
And lovely landscapes to discover, but
All I really wanna do right now, is
Find another lover

We were kids in Maid stone, Sharon
And I went to every wedding in that little town
To see the tears and the kisses and the
Pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown
And walking home on the railroad tracks
Or swinging on the playground swing
Love stimulated my illusions
More than anything

And when I went skating after Golden Reggie, it was
White lace I was chasing, chasing dreams
Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans
He showed me first you get the kisses
Or then you gonna get the tears
The ceremony of the bells and lace, still veils this reckless fool here
Hehe

Now there are 49 skaters on Wolman rink
All round in circles and in pairs
In this vigorous anonymity
A blank face at the window stares and stares and stares and stares
The power of reason
And the flowers of deep feeling
Seem to serve me, only to deceive me

Sharon, you've got a husband and a family and a farm
I've got the apple of temptation and a diamond snake around my arm
But you still have your music
I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky
Sing for your friends and your family
I'll walk green pastures by and by