Song Lyrics

Two Grey Rooms

by Joni Mitchell

Tomorrow is Sunday
Now there's only one day left to go
Till you walk by
Below my window
The weekends drive me mad
Holidays are oh too sad
'Cause you don't go
Below my window

No one knows I'm here
One day I just disappeared
And I took these two grey rooms up here
With a view
When you walk by
Below my window

You look so youthful
Time has been untruthful
Heaven knows I loved you
30 years ago
Hot days your shirt's undone
Rainy days you run
Oh and then you fade so fast
Below my window

No one knows I'm here
One day I just disappeared
And I took these two grey rooms up here
With a view
Only when you walk by
Below my window
When you walk by

Below my window
Below my window
Hey hey
Below my window
Below my window
Below my window

Footnotes

As archived in Mojo Magazine's March 2019 issue: “I had that music back around the time of [1982’s] Wild Things Run Fast, but it took seven years to find the story to fit the music. It’s a story of obsession…about this German aristocrat who had a lover in his youth that he never got over. He later finds this man working on a dock and notices the path that the man takes every day to and from work. So the aristocrat gives up his fancy digs and moves to these two shabby grey rooms overlooking this street, just to watch this man walk to and from work. That’s a song that shows my songs aren’t all self-portraits.”

Transcriptions of Two Grey Rooms

Guitar chords by Sam Stone

Two Grey Rooms has been recorded by 19 other artists

Butler, Lindsey (- 2012)
Cullen, Lori (from "Calling For Rain" - 2006)
Dexter, Baby Jane (from "Baby Jane Dexter Bootlegs Herself" - 2005)
Dominelli, Sandro (from "Passages" - 2006)
Ebsen, Kiki (from "Kiki Ebsen Cool Songs, Vol. 2 - The Music of Joni Mitchell" - 2017)
Grimes, Carol (from "Mother" - 2003)
Khan, Chaka (from "Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration" - 2019)
Kitchen, Paul (from "Wheelhouse" - 2016)
Manning, Luca (from "When the Sun Comes Out" - 2019)
Martin, Claire (from "Time And Place" - 2014)
Metzger, Ellen (from "Songs For You" - 2002)
Moring, Cyndi (from "Cover Art" - 2013)
Norma Winstone & The Printmakers (- )
Redtenbacher's Funkestra (from "BOTH SIDES NOW: AN HOMAGE TO THE SONGS OF JONI MITCHELL " - 2023)
Reid, Kate (from "The Heart Already Knows" - 2018)
Teradélie (- 2021)
The Printmakers (from "Westerly" - 2015)
Wopat, Tom (from "Consider It Swung" - 2009)
Zakian, Laura (from "About Love" - 2008)
[more information on recordings by other artists]

Comments:

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janne_lind@hotmail.com on 2023-Mar-15 at 15:22:50 GMT-5:

I bought the album when it had just been released. When I had played it I sometimes put the song on replay over and over. It brought images of some Hollywood film noire. I don't know why.

Grace34 on 2021-Jan-19 at 20:48:48 GMT-5:

Oh, something so sweet about the line "Hot days, your shirt's undone..." The orchestra swells behind her voice, and you can feel every note swirling around you... What a way to convey deep desire.

danno on 2012-Apr-06 at 13:22:00 GMT-5:

the spareness, the simplicity of the emotional statement is so beautiful... ah yes, nothing as hauntingly painful as lost unrequited love. i know!

This song appears on:

Night Ride Home Released February 19, 1991
The Complete Geffen Recordings Released September 23, 2003
Songs Chosen by her Friends & Fellow Musicians Released November 5, 2005
Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, A Ballet, Waiting To Be Danced Released November 24, 2014