Joni Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning" & Taylor Switft's "Cornelia Street": Two Great NYC Transplant Songs

If two singer-songwriters ever defined their respective generations, then they are Joni Mitchell and Taylor Swift. Both are brilliant lyricists and muscians with deeply distinct voices, their songs beloved by literally billions, and their careers and legacies are immense -- you sure don't need my dopey blog to tell you any of this and, if you do, you're more of a philistine than I can possibly comprehend. 

Interestingly, both were transplants to NYC at one time who wrote great songs about where they used to live in the city (I guess Ms. Swift still lives here but I digress).

For Canadian Joni Mitchell, it was the Chelsea neighborhood. For Pennsylvanian Taylor Swift, it was downtown on Cornelia Street. Such was their love for, and and fascination with, the city and their respective homsteads that they composed songs about them.

These songs were produced more than 50 years apart -- "Chelsea Morning" in 1966 and "Cornelia Street" in 2019. But despite being very different songs, in very different styles, by two very different singer-songwriters, and being about very different times in the life of NYC, both songs radiate with the spirit of the city and how special a neighborhood or even just a street in it remains, and how this is forever timeless. 

Sometimes in takes a transplant to NYC to best understand and communicate this as these two do.