Joni Mitchell’s Melancholy Christmas Song Gets The Exquisite Video It Deserves


Joni Mitchell’s “River,” a 50-year-old Christmastime song of lost love, finally has an official video to go with it. (Watch it below.)And the folk-pop legend sounds like she couldn’t be happier.“River expresses regret at the end of a relationship… but it’s also about being lonely at Christmas time,” Mitchell said in a statement at the end of the animated work, which was posted to her YouTube channel on Thursday. “A Christmas song for people who are lonely at Christmas! We need a song like that.”Mitchell sings plaintively of wanting a river she “could skate away on” ― reflected in Skazka Studios’ black-and-white animation of a solitary figure gliding across the frozen water.The watercolor style captures “the song’s lonesome mood while paying tribute to Mitchell’s prolific creativity as a painter,” according to her website.“River” appeared on Mitchell’s 1971 album “Blue.”The video is one melancholy ride, but worth it.

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