The five saddest Joni Mitchell songs (2024)

We all have an artist who is guaranteed to make us cry, a band or singer we turn to when we need to completely wallow in our emotions. Maybe their music is inherently sad, or maybe their songwriting style is so beautiful that it inevitably leaves listeners in tears.Joni Mitchellqualifies for both of those categories, and as a result, she has been the go-to crying soundtrack for generations of listeners.

This may be down to how much raw emotion Mitchell affords her lyricism. Beginning with Blue in 1971, which was written during her own “Blue Period”, she completely committed herself to honesty and vulnerability in music, infusing her songs with her own sadness and sorrow. The record charted her experiences of addiction and adoption, heartbreak, homesickness, and everything in between. It was entirely worthy of its name.

Blue is undoubtedly Mitchell’s finest exercise in sonic sadness, but melancholy has crept into almost all of her releases. Sonically, she has flitted between folk, jazz, and even delved into electronic production, but her commitment to emotionally-driven lyricism has been unwavering. From bittersweet break-up songs to laments on the state of the world, her discography is full of poetic sorrow, uncompromising on artistry or emotion.

Picking out the saddest songs in Mitchell’s discography, then, is a difficult task. There are worthy contenders on almost every record – in fact, Blue could probably feature on this list in its entirety – but we’ve narrowed it down to just five songs that demonstrate Mitchell’s ability to reduce listeners to tears. From ‘River’ to ‘Blue’, find our picks for the saddest Joni Mitchell songs below.

Joni Mitchell’s five saddest songs:

‘River’

An alternative Christmas playlist staple. At odds with the excessive jubilance of the festive season, ‘River’ provides a soundtrack to those more melancholic December nights. Mitchell describes the festivities of those around her, of Christmas traditions like trees and carols, but all she can think about is her lost love. A crisp piano accompanies her laments as she juxtaposes the joy of Christmas with her own sorrows.

“I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” she sings, “I’m so hard to handle, I’m selfish and I’m sad, now I’ve gone and lost the best baby that I ever had.” The sentiment of the song completely clashes with our usual expectations for a Christmas song. There’s no rocking around the Christmas tree or kissing under the mistletoe, only self-indulgent sorrow.

‘Little Green’

Almost every song on Mitchell’s magnum opus, Blue, could be a contender for the saddest in her catalogue. The record shaped Mitchell’s approach to songwriting, as she infused her lyrics with real-life experiences and sorrows, discovering the power in vulnerability. One of the finest examples of this is ‘Little Green’, which charted Mitchell’s experience of putting her child up for adoption.

Mitchell knew that she couldn’t afford to raise a child at this point in her career, so she signed the adoption papers in the mid-1960s and then penned ‘Little Green’ about her experience. “You sign all the papers in the family name,” she sings, “You’re sad and you’re sorry, but you’re not ashamed, Little Green, have a happy ending.” Mitchell knows that this is the right decision for her and for her child, but that doesn’t offset the overwhelming sorrow she feels as a result.

‘See You Sometime’

Mitchell has penned her fair share of break-up songs, but ‘See You Sometime’ is up there as one of the best (and one of the most heartbreaking). It charts the inevitable curiosity that follows a break-up, the longing to know what your former partner is up to now, to catch up with them over coffee. “Where are you now?” Mitchell asks, “Are you in some hotel room? Does it have a view?”

Mitchell proclaims to be “feeling so good,” but she still can’t shake her need to see her former lover. “We start out so kind and end so heartlessly,” she observes, “But I’d still like to see you sometime…” It’s a truly heart-wrenching song that will leave anyone currently going through a break-up in tears, understanding exactly what Mitchell was feeling at the time.

‘The Sire of Sorrow (Job’s Sad Song)’

Though it’s not necessarily one of Mitchell’s most well-known songs, ‘The Sire of Sorrow’ is an obvious choice – it features the words “sorrow” and “sad” in its title alone. This is one of few songs in Mitchell’s catalogue that doesn’t stem from her own feelings of misery. Instead, it borrows from the Biblical story of Job, a man whose belief in God is unwavering despite the continual misfortunes that come his way.

Mitchell borrows phrases from the Bible — in the opening line, for example — but she also uses the story of Job to chart feelings of hopelessness more generally. “What have I done to you that you make everything I dread and everything I fear come true?” she asks throughout the song. Her heavy lyrics don’t just chart the thoughts of the Biblical figure, but the ponderings of all those who struggle with the weight of the world.

‘Blue’

Songs are like tattoos, and the lyrics to ‘Blue’ are well worthy of inking on your skin. The title track from Mitchell’s 1971 album encapsulates the feeling of the entire record, as she directly addresses her depression, personifying it as “Blue”. It’s an aching piano track that finds Mitchell completely giving in to sadness. “Blue, I love you,” she sings, “Blue, here is a shell for you, inside you’ll hear a sigh, a foggy lullaby, there is your song from me.”

The song primarily focuses on Mitchell’s relationship with depression, her hope to one day escape it, and her simultaneous tendency to give in to it. But ‘Blue’ also looks at the broader effects of depression and addiction around her. “Well, there’s so many sinking now,” she sings, “You gotta keep thinking you can make it through these waves, acid, booze and ass, needles, guns and grass, lots of laughs, lots of laughs.”

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