Lyrics to
Paprika Plains

This version of Paprika Plains was released by Joni Mitchell in 1977.

Our About Joni Mitchell page at Decade Lyrics includes the lyrics for Paprika Plains from 1977 as well as all of the other lyrics from Joni Mitchell that we have in our lyrics database.

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It fell from midnight skies
It drummed on the galvanized
In the washroom, women tracked the rain
Up to the make-up mirror
Liquid soap and grass
And Jungle Gardenia crash
On Pine-Sol and beer …
It’s stifling in here …
I’ve got to get some air …
I’m going outside to get some air

Back in my hometown
They would have cleared the floor
Just to watch the rain come down!
They’re such sky oriented people–
Geared to changing weather …
I’m floating off in time
I’m floating off
I’m floating off in time

When I was three feet tall
And wide eyed open to it all
With their tasseled teams they came
To McGee’s General Store
All in their beaded leathers
I would tie on colored feathers
And I’d beat the drum like war …
I would beat the drum like war
I’d beat the drum
I’d beat the drum like war

But when the church got through
They traded their beads for bottles
Smashed–on Railway Avenue
And they cut off their braids
And lost some link with nature
I’m floating into dreams
I’m floating off
I’m floating into my dreams

I dream paprika plains
Vast and bleak and God forsaken
Paprika plains
And a turquoise river snaking

(Where crows gaze–vigilant on wires
Where cattle graze the grasses
Far from the digits of business hours
The moon clock wanes and waxes–
But here all time is stripped away
Nowhere on these plains
Is a sprout or an egg in evidence
To measure loss or gain …
Only a little Indian band
Come down from some windy mesa
No women to make them food and child
No expressions on their faces
I’m low in a helicopter
And the wind from whirling blades
Flaps their woven blankets
And flags their raven braids
How came they to this emptiness?
How came they to this dream?
How came I to this view
From a flying machine
Of earth and air and water
And a band of Indian men
Without herds or flocks or crops
Or families or fires to tend?
Like a phoenix up from ashes now
A blanket figure springs
With a fist raised up to turquoise skies
Like liberty
And at the point of vanishing
Where the sky and the earth meet
A bomb blooms
Deadly mushroom
White
Gold
Heat
Like a phoenix up from ashes
Up from violent mysteries
And growing ’till the giant blast
Is to it like a golfer’s tee
there comes a child’s beach ball
And memory takes me back
to the beach to toss it up
to the garage to get it patched
A pink and yellow beach ball
Rolling
Grand
Detached
Turning the blues and greens of earth
From space probe photographs
I float out of the hovercraft
Naked as infancy
And weightless
And drifting
Horizontally
Like a filing to a magnet
Like the long descent of rain
I am drawn
I fall against the ball
And lose paprika plains
I suckle at my mother’s breast
I embrace my mother earth
I remember perforated blinds
Over the crib of my birth
And just as Eve succumbed
To reckless curiosity
I take my sharpest fingernail
And slash the globe to see
Below me–
Vast Paprika plains
And the snake the river traces
And a little band of Indian men
With no expressions on their faces.)

The rain retreats
Like troops to fall on other fields and streets
Meanwhile they’re sweet talking and name calling
And brawling on the fringes of the floor
I spot you through the smoke
With your eyes on fire
From J&B and coke
As I’m coming through the door
I’m coming back
I’m coming back for more!
The band plugs in again
You see that mirrored ball begin to sputter lights
And spin
Dizzy on the dancers
Geared to changing rhythms
No matter what you do
I’m floating back
I’m floating back to you!

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Want more lyrics and songs by Joni Mitchell?

Joni Mitchell has released many songs over the years besides Paprika Plains. Joni Mitchell released songs from 1968 to 2007 spanning across albums like Song To A Seagull, Clouds, Ladies Of The Canyon, Blue, For The Roses, Court And Spark, The Hissing Of Summer Lawns, Hejira, Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Mingus, Wild Things Run Fast, Dog Eat Dog, Chalk Mark In A Rainstorm, Night Ride Home, Turbulent Indigo, Taming The Tiger, Both Sides Now, and Shine. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Joni Mitchell.

If you're a fan of popular 1970s songs looking for more songs from 1977 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Paprika Plains by Joni Mitchell

The lyrics for Paprika Plains are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Joni Mitchell. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Paprika Plains have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Paprika Plains - Joni Mitchell and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Paprika Plains by Joni Mitchell in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Paprika Plains" means the words set to the music of Paprika Plains, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Joni Mitchell. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Paprika Plains and the lyrics to Paprika Plains are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Joni Mitchell who came here looking just for the lyrics to Paprika Plains, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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