From "Urge for Going" (Joni Mitchell)
"I awoke today and found
the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky
then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and all the trees are shivering in a naked row
I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in..."
"I awoke today and found
the frost perched on the town
It hovered in a frozen sky
then it gobbled summer down
When the sun turns traitor cold
and all the trees are shivering in a naked row
I get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in..."
Copyright © 1966; Siquomb Publishing Company
"Urge for Going," written by Joni Mitchell, captures the seasonal transition between summer and winter better than any other song I can think of. I think I first heard the song on a Tom Rush album (he was among the first to record the songs of Mitchell, James Taylor and Jackson Browne before any of them released their first albums). Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard a bad cover of this song. The other versions (I know) by David Crosby and Graham Nash, Dave Van Ronk, Joni herself (of course), and an obscure Canadien band called Courage of Lassie, may vary in tempo and interpretation, but it is so evocative you can almost hear the leaves falling off the trees.
The photo above is one I took about 20 years ago in a field in Brussels (?), Wisconsin, located in northeastern Door County.
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