search
Cactus Tree
Joni Mitchell
Text File
CACTUS TREE by Joni Mitchell
This is taken from a BBC video recording of a 1970 live performance, so it may
differ slightly from the album version. Joni never sings a song quite the same
way twice.
Open D tuning (D A D F# A D)
Capo IV, all chords listed relative to capo
Chords:
D [OOOOOO]
Asus4/D [O4O3OX]
Gadd9/D [O2O1OO]
D/A [XO43O4]
A7(no 3) [XO21O2]
Intro: [Asus4/D, Gadd9/D, Asus4/D, Gadd9/D]
[Asus4/D, Gadd9/D]
There's a man who's been out sailing in a decade full of dreams
[Asus4/D, Gadd9/D, D/A, A7(no3)]
And he takes her to his schooner and he treats her like a queen
[Asus4/D, Gadd9/D, Asus4/D, Gadd9/D]
Bearing beads from California with their amber stones and green
[Gadd9/D, D, Gadd9/D, D]
He has called her from the harbor, he has kissed her with his freedom
[Gadd9/D, D, Gadd9/D, A7(no3)]
He has heard her off to starboard, in the breaking and the breathing
[D/A, A7(no3), Asus4/D, Gadd9/D, D, Gadd9/D, D]
Of the water weeds, and she's so busy being free
There's a man who's climbed a mountain and he's calling out her name
And he hopes her heart can hear three thousand miles, he calls again
He can think her there beside him, he can miss her just the same
He has missed her in the forest while he showed her all the flowers
And the branches sang the chorus as he climbed the scaley towers
Of a forest tree, while she was somewhere being free
There's a man who's sent a letter and he's waiting for reply
He has asked her of her travels, since the day they said goodbye
He writes, wish you were beside me, we can make it if we try
He has seen her at the office, with her name on all his papers
Through the sharing of the profits he will find it hard to shake her
From his memory, and she's so busy being free
There's a lady in the city and she thinks she loves them all
There's the one who's thinking of her, there's the one who sometimes calls
There's the one who writes her letters with his facts and figures scrawl
She has brought them to her senses, they have laughed inside her laughter
Now she rallies her defenses, for she fears that one will ask her
For eternity, and she's so busy being free
There's a man who sends her medals, he is bleeding from the war
There's a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There's a drummer and a dreamer, and you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them, they will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them and her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree, while she's so busy being free
Notes:
> The right hand is Travis-style fingerpicking. I haven't quite exactly nailed it
down yet, but a basic three-finger picking pattern seems to work just fine.
> Sometimes (including the intro at the beginning), Joni starts with the Gadd9
fingering and slides up to the Asus4 rather than playing the Asus4 flat out.
Likewise, she sometimes slides down from the Asus4 to the Gadd9, or hammers on to
the Gadd9 from an open D chord.
Enjoy, acoustic classic rock junkies! Let me know what you think!
![chord popup]()
