How Joni Mitchell Changed the ‘Jingle Bells’ Chord Progression to Evoke Holiday Melancholy in ‘River’
Music essayist Noah Lefevre of Polyphonic takes a look at how musician Joni Mitchell turned the classically cheerful holiday song Jingle Bells" into a somber ode by changing the chord progression for her Christmas song River". This particular song, off her iconic 1970 album Blue, uses a variation and adds minor chords to express her then-present melancholy and a longing for a happier time in her life when she'd go skating along a river in the frozen landscape of her childhood in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Related PostsA Brilliant Piano Cover of Jingle Bells' Played in a Haunting Minor KeyThe Gregory Brothers Perform a Sad Cover of Jingle Bells' Just by Changing the Key of the Jolly Christmas SongNancy Wilson of Heart Shares How the Iconic Riff From Barracuda' Was Borrowed From a Nazareth SongText Me Merry Christmas', Kristen Bell & Straight No Chaser's Cheery Song About Staying in Touch Over the HolidaysThanksgiving Carol', A Disturbing Animated Music Video by ADHD for Thanksgiving DayChristmas Songs Composed of the Sound of Crunching Pocky & Other Snacks From Japanese Snack Food Maker GlicoSo much of the brilliance of River' comes through in the music. The verses that bookend the song don't actually say anything about sadness, they merely set the scene as Christmas. But the chords behind those words and Mitchell's fragile delivery belie an emotion that you can never quite pin down with words alone.
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The post How Joni Mitchell Changed the Jingle Bells' Chord Progression to Evoke Holiday Melancholy in River' first appeared on Laughing Squid.