The Only Joy In Town
 
 by Joni Mitchell
 
 I want to paint a picture
 Botticelli * style
 Instead of Venus on a clam *
 I'd paint this flower child
 "You are the air my flowers breathe"
 He calls and the ladies turn around
 On the first day of Spring
 I'm looking at the only joy around
 
 He's the only joy around
 The only joy I found
 The only joy in town
 
 The Spanish steps * are crowded
 Bunch of bodies brooding there
 Dead pan side walk vendors
 Hustling vacant stares
 Making all the more exceptional
 This fool in a flower crown
 On the first day of Spring
 I'm looking at the only joy in town
 
 He's the only joy around
 The only joy I found
 The only joy in town
 
 The Botticelli black boy
 With the fuchias in his hair
 Is breathing in women like oxygen
 On the Spanish stairs
 In my youth I would have followed him
 All through this terra-cotta town
 On the first day of Spring
 We'd dance and sing
 And be the only joy around
 
 We'd be the only joy around
 The only joy in town
 He's the only joy I've found
 All day
 
 At night these streets are empty
 Where does everybody go
 Where are the brash and tender rooms
 In Roman candle glow
 Where are Fellini's circus'
 La Dolce Vita * clowns
 On the first day of Spring
 I'm looking
 At the only joy in town
 
 He's the only joy around
 The only joy I found
 The only joy in town