Carey (song)
Encyclopedia
"Carey" is a song from the 1971 Joni Mitchell
album Blue
. It was inspired by her time with a cave-dwelling hippie
community in the village of Matala, on the Greek
island of Crete
.
James Taylor
, who plays guitar on some Blue tracks (although not on "Carey" itself) and with whom Mitchell had a brief affair
. However, Mitchell has stated publicly that the "Carey" in question was a memorable character named Cary Raditz (or "Carrot" Raditz), a cane-carrying chef
with bright red hair
that she met in Matala during her Europe
an odyssey
of 1970. Other references to the village and the al fresco hippie lifestyle abound in the song lyrics, most notably to Matala's now-defunct Dolphin Café (called The Mermaid Café in the song). Mitchell frequently introduced live performances of "Carey" by recounting anecdote
s about Raditz and their Cretan adventures.
and Spain
, were intended as a "time out" from her increasing fame and fortune in the music business. Whilst on the road, she learned to play the Appalachian dulcimer
, which was to become a feature of her musical output in the following years. Her dulcimer skills were first showcased on Blue and in particular the original recording of "Carey", which also features Stephen Stills
(of Crosby, Stills & Nash
) on bass
and acoustic guitar. "Carey" was released as a single
, debuting at number 93 on the Billboard Chart
on 4 September 1971 and lasting just one week; nevertheless, it remains one of Mitchell's most enduring and popular songs.
albums - Hits
(1996) and Dreamland: The Very Best of Joni Mitchell (2004) - and has been covered
by Cyndi Lauper
, Goldie Hawn
, Universal Honey
, Sara Gazarek
and Kiki Dee
. Lauper's updated interpretation was regarded by many critics as the highlight of a televised Joni Mitchell tribute concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom
in New York on 6 April 2000.
Mitchell herself performs a different interpretation of Carey on her 1974 live album
Miles of Aisles
. Backed by jazz
band Tom Scott & The LA Express
, and recorded at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles
, this reggae
/ska
version has been criticised as "light-weight"; Rolling Stone
went so far as to say that the song was "murdered".
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...
album Blue
Blue (Joni Mitchell album)
Blue is the fourth album of Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. Exploring the various facets of relationships from infatuation on "A Case of You" to insecurity on "This Flight Tonight", the songs feature simple accompaniments on piano, guitar, and Appalachian dulcimer...
. It was inspired by her time with a cave-dwelling hippie
Hippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
community in the village of Matala, on the Greek
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
island of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
.
Autobiographical elements
The song is sometimes rumoured to be about fellow singer-songwriterSinger-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
James Taylor
James Taylor
James Vernon Taylor is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. A five-time Grammy Award winner, Taylor was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2000....
, who plays guitar on some Blue tracks (although not on "Carey" itself) and with whom Mitchell had a brief affair
Affair
Affair may refer to professional, personal, or public business matters or to a particular business or private activity of a temporary duration, as in family affair, a private affair, or a romantic affair.-Political affair:...
. However, Mitchell has stated publicly that the "Carey" in question was a memorable character named Cary Raditz (or "Carrot" Raditz), a cane-carrying chef
Chef
A chef is a person who cooks professionally for other people. Although over time the term has come to describe any person who cooks for a living, traditionally it refers to a highly skilled professional who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation.-Etymology:The word "chef" is borrowed ...
with bright red hair
Red hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
that she met in Matala during her Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
of 1970. Other references to the village and the al fresco hippie lifestyle abound in the song lyrics, most notably to Matala's now-defunct Dolphin Café (called The Mermaid Café in the song). Mitchell frequently introduced live performances of "Carey" by recounting anecdote
Anecdote
An anecdote is a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. It may be as brief as the setting and provocation of a bon mot. An anecdote is always presented as based on a real incident involving actual persons, whether famous or not, usually in an identifiable place...
s about Raditz and their Cretan adventures.
Recording sabbatical
Mitchell's European travels, which also encompassed FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, were intended as a "time out" from her increasing fame and fortune in the music business. Whilst on the road, she learned to play the Appalachian dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, which was to become a feature of her musical output in the following years. Her dulcimer skills were first showcased on Blue and in particular the original recording of "Carey", which also features Stephen Stills
Stephen Stills
Stephen Arthur Stills is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash . He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time...
(of Crosby, Stills & Nash
Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young)
Crosby, Stills & Nash is a folk rock supergroup made up of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, also known as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young when joined by occasional fourth member Neil Young...
) on bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and acoustic guitar. "Carey" was released as a single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
, debuting at number 93 on the Billboard Chart
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
on 4 September 1971 and lasting just one week; nevertheless, it remains one of Mitchell's most enduring and popular songs.
Albums
"Carey" appears on two Joni Mitchell greatest hitsGreatest hits
A greatest hits album is a music compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular artist or band...
albums - Hits
Hits (Joni Mitchell album)
Hits is a 1996 greatest hits compilation by Joni Mitchell. , it has sold 488,000 copies in the United States. A counterpart album, Misses, was released on the same day as Hits...
(1996) and Dreamland: The Very Best of Joni Mitchell (2004) - and has been covered
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
by Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Goldie Hawn
Goldie Hawn
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress, film director, producer, and occasional singer. Hawn is known for her roles in Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Private Benjamin, Foul Play, Overboard, Bird on a Wire, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club, and Cactus Flower, for which she won the 1969...
, Universal Honey
Universal Honey
Universal Honey is a Canadian pop music group.The group was formed in 1992 by Johnny Sinclair and Leslie Stanwyck, both formerly of The Pursuit of Happiness.The band had moderate radio success in Canada in 1996 with the single "Any Road Back".-Discography:...
, Sara Gazarek
Sara Gazarek
Sara Gazarek is an American jazz musician and singer. Gazarek was born in Seattle, Washington and moved to Los Angeles in 2000 to attend the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. She would go on to win the Downbeat Student Music Award for Best Collegiate Vocalist in...
and Kiki Dee
Kiki Dee
Kiki Dee is an English singer with a career spanning more than 40 years....
. Lauper's updated interpretation was regarded by many critics as the highlight of a televised Joni Mitchell tribute concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom
Hammerstein Ballroom
The Hammerstein Ballroom is a two-tiered, 12,000 square feet ballroom located within the Manhattan Center Studios on 311 West 34th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America. It is known for its elegant appearance and excellent acoustical design...
in New York on 6 April 2000.
Mitchell herself performs a different interpretation of Carey on her 1974 live album
Live album
A live album is a recording consisting of material recorded during stage performances using remote recording techniques, commonly contrasted with a studio album...
Miles of Aisles
Miles of Aisles
Miles of Aisles is a 1974 double live album by Joni Mitchell backed by the L.A. Express, recorded on the Court and Spark tour. It reached #2 on the charts and became one of her biggest-selling records....
. Backed by jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
band Tom Scott & The LA Express
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
, and recorded at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, this reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
/ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
version has been criticised as "light-weight"; Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
went so far as to say that the song was "murdered".
Cover versions
In 2008, drummer Russ Kunkel and the group Chateau Beach covered the song from their album Rivage.External links
- Carey at jonimitchell.com (includes lyrics)
- Joni performs Carey at Wembley Arena, London 1983
- The Mermaid Café from the jonimitchell.com's lyrics glossary (did the Café exist?)
- Acoustic Guitar interview with Mitchell (includes discussion of learning the dulcimer in Greece)
- Miles of Aisles at Amazon.com (includes link to audio clip of "reggae" version)
- Cyndi Lauper's tribute performance
- "Elect Kerry" song parody from Am I RightAm I RightAmIRight is a popular music Web site created by Charles R. Grosvenor Jr. . Visitors can view sections based on such topics as song parodies, misheard lyrics , and album cover parodies, and can submit their own without registering...
- Photos from the 1972 Mermaid Cafe (cafe which is described in the song)