I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Traveling, traveling, traveling
Looking for something, what can it be
Oh I hate you some, I hate you some
I love you some
Oh I love you when I forget about me
I want to be strong I want to laugh along
I want to belong to the living
Alive, alive, I want to get up and jive
I want to wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive
Do you want, do you want, do you want
To dance with me baby
Do you want to take a chance
On maybe finding some sweet romance with me baby
Well, come on

All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you too
All I really really want our love to do
Is to bring out the best in me and in you
I want to talk to you, I want to shampoo you
I want to renew you again and again
Applause, applause, life is our cause
When I think of your kisses
My mind see-saws
Do you see, do you see, do you see
How you hurt me baby
So I hurt you too
Then we both get so blue

I am on a lonely road and I am traveling
Looking for the key to set me free
Oh the jealousy, the greed is the unraveling
It's the unraveling
And it undoes all the joy that could be
I want to have fun, I want to shine like the sun
I want to be the one that you want to see
I want to knit you a sweater
Want to write you a love letter
I want to make you feel better
I want to make you feel free
Hm, hm, hm, hm,
Want to make you feel free
I want to make you feel free



Lyrics submitted by hamlet82

Track duration: 03:34

"All I Want" as written by Joni Mitchell

Lyrics © Joni Mitchell/Crazy Crow Music/Siquomb Music, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


All I Want song meanings
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25 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Probably one of the best songs ever written, IMHO.
    Flag whoshaton February 25, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Opinion:I absolutely love Joni. This song makes me want to drive down the coast with my windows down.
    Flag mysticlipstickon June 02, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It's the contrasting emotions in Joni's songs that makes them so poignant for me. So bitter-sweet; one line makes you want to laugh and love and the next pierces your heart with sadness
    Flag Phonophobeon March 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love Joni,this song is beautiful.
    It perfectly describes how desperately my husband and I have been trying to mend
    our relationship and get back to the way we were in the beginning
    when we brought happiness to eachother's lives. But after many years I've come to the realization
    that we're never going be that again and it's devastating.
    "I want to be the one that you want to see" ugh makes me cry. Great stuff. Joni's the best!
    Flag ndenialon May 16, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:The first lines are what struck when I first heard this - when I was in graduate school.. many moons ago. "I am on a lonely road and I am traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling..." Joni is always struggling with freedom vs. love: Free Man in Paris unfettered and alive; Both Sides now, etc. etc. She knows that she is and must be her own person - That's what makes for a lonely road and makes her yearning for love so poignant - she knows she can't ever give into it completely. There is always an aloofness to her - she is always looking in - it's what makes her so special, wise and sad.
    Flag ACADEMICon February 27, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think it's about the kind of relationship where you really love the person, but it's kind of one-sided. She feels really happy because she's in love, and she likes to make the other person happy and would do anything for them even if they didn't ask for it (write love letters, knit sweaters, etc.) because it makes her feel good. At the same time, they don't seem to feel better or feel the freedom of being in love, and they do things that hurt her. She wants love to "bring out the best in me and in you" and she's striving for an ideal relationship and wants to give as much of her love as she can, but it just isn't working because of how her and the other person interact.
    Flagged silent_eleganceon January 30, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I also think this song is not about a perfect love, but is about a love she wants to strive for..she is wishing for these things (feel better..love letter) but the person she loves sometimes worries about things that she really don't give a fuck about.
    Flag birba.mozzon January 20, 2008   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:as 2 people have said but everyone else seems to have missed: this song is NOT about a perfect love, it's about a love that is hurt by jealousy and greed and by people hurting each other. all the stuff about knitting sweaters and making each other feel free is what she is WISHing for, not what she has.
    Flag chelseamorningon August 31, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:her voice amazes me, i love the lyrics, i love the use of the appalachian dulcimer through out the "blue" album
    Flag hsnodgraon April 18, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I did a lyrical analysis of this song for my Faith and Sacraments class and related it to any relationship and how God is found in life-giving relationships. How we bring out the best in ourselves when we look for the great things God gives us. I'm not a very religious person, but that's one way you could look it. I don't think it's what the song means, I'm just throwing in that side of the song.
    Flag nagyovafanon March 25, 2007   Link

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