Text: Joni Mitchell. Night Ride Home. The Only Joy in Town.

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
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy I found
(Botticelli black boy)
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
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy I found
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy in town

Botticelli black boy
Botticelli black boy

The Botticelli black boy
With the fuchsias 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
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy in town
(Botticelli black boy)
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

The only joy around
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy I found
(Botticelli black boy)
He's the only joy in town

(Botticelli black boy)
He's the only joy in town
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy I found
(Botticelli black boy)

The only joy around
(Botticelli black boy)
He's the only joy in town
(Botticelli black boy)

The only joy in town
(Botticelli black boy)
The only joy I found
(Botticelli black boy)