"My Secret Place" is a song written by

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

that first appeared on her 1988 album ''

Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm ''Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm'' is the thirteenth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, released on March 23, 1988, by Geffen Records. Her third release on the label, the album features duets with a number of artists such as Pet ...

''. Recorded as a duet with

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

, the song was released as the first single from the album and reached number 41 on the Canadian singles chart, becoming her first song to reach the Canadian Top 100 since "

Coyote The coyote (''Canis latrans''), also known as the American jackal, prairie wolf, or brush wolf, is a species of canis, canine native to North America. It is smaller than its close relative, the Wolf, gray wolf, and slightly smaller than the c ...

" eleven years prior.

Anton Corbijn Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (; born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, film director, and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2,Pitman, Joanna"The silent partner" ...

directed the song's music video, which was shot in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

and includes scenes of Gabriel and Mitchell walking across a desert and chatting at a dinner table.

Background

"My Secret Place" and "Number One" were the first two songs Mitchell wrote for ''Chalk Mark in A Rainstorm''. When Mitchell was working on new material in Britain,

Robert Plant Robert Anthony Plant (born 20 August 1948) is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin from its founding in 1968 until their breakup in 1980. Since then, he has had a successful solo ca ...

visited the house she was staying at with the intention of finding potential songs to record. During his stay, Mitchell sang him stripped–down renditions of "My Secret Place: and "Number One" with an acoustic guitar. Plant was impressed with both songs, but was particularly interested in recording "Number One". Mitchell ultimately opted not to collaborate with Plant and instead elected to record "My Secret Place" with

. Mitchell's husband,

Larry Klein Larry Klein is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is based in Los Angeles. He began his career as a bassist, playing with jazz artists Willie Bobo, Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Way ...

, had played on Gabriel's '' So'' album in 1986, which prompted Gabriel to invite Mitchell and Klein to his Ashcombe House studio, where the duet between Gabriel and Mitchell on "My Secret Place" was recorded. On "My Secret Place", Mitchell expended an entire reel of tape by layering the same guitar part 24 times. She rationalized this decision as a means to make her guitar more prominent in the mix, believing that the guitar overdubs would "beef up" certain sections and make the chord changes more noticeable. Mitchell executed these guitar parts on a

Martin D-28 The Martin D-28 is a dreadnought-style acoustic guitar made by C. F. Martin & Company of Nazareth, Pennsylvania. History The Martin D-28 uses a dreadnought design, a naval term adopted and used by many to describe its larger body dimensions, ...

acoustic guitar and utilized a

guitar tuning Guitar tunings are the assignment of pitches to the open strings of guitars, including classical guitars, acoustic guitars, and electric guitars. Tunings are described by the particular pitches that are made by notes in Western music. By c ...

of C# G# D# F# G# C#. Lyrically, the song details a story about moving from New York City to the Colorado mountains with a loved one. Mitchell described "My Secret Place" as the only love song on ''Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm''.

"The song's about the threshold of intimacy. It's a shared thing so I wanted it to be like the ''
Song of Solomon The Song of Songs (), also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is a biblical poem, one of the five ("scrolls") in the ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. Unlike other books in the Hebrew Bible, it is erotic poe ...
'' where you can't tell what gender it is. It's the uniting spirit of two people at the beginning of a relationship."

Critical reception

J.D. Considine of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' thought that the song showcased "the similarities between her itchell'svoice and Peter Gabriel's", saying that they "illustrate the shifting confidences of shared intimacy". He highlighted moments in the song where the two swapped lines within a stanza, which he thought was an effective means of demonstrating the fluctuations in balance within a relationship. The publication also listed "My Secret Place" as one of Mitchell's 50 greatest songs. '' Uncut'' commended the drumming of

Manu Katché Manu Katché (born 27 October 1958) is a French drummer and songwriter of Ivorian descent. He has worked extensively as a session musician, notably with Sting and Peter Gabriel, and his solo albums as a bandleader are largely in the jazz fusio ...

and also praised the song's vocals, saying that "Gabriel and Mitchell's voices tie together to the point of being inseparable. They finish each other's sentences and sing in unison, an aural equivalent of a couple who've accidentally started to dress the same." Ken Tucker of ''

The Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first Alternative newspaper, alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf (publisher), Dan Wolf, ...

'' thought that the song's lyrics evoked the "confessional mode that made Mitchell the most admired '70's singer-songwriter" and deemed the song as a strong album opener. Greg Quill of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'' was more critical, saying that "My Secret Place" was "arguably the least appealing song on the album", although he praised Gabriel's "strong counterpoint" vocals.

Track listing

* UK 7" single (Geffen GEF 37) #"My Secret Place" (edit) – 3:17 #"Number One" – 3:46 * US 7" single (Geffen 7-27887) #"My Secret Place" (edit) – 3:17 #"Lakota" – 6:25

Personnel

– lead and backing vocals, guitars, keyboards *

– lead and backing vocals *

– bass guitar, keyboards *

– drums,

talking drum The talking drum is an hourglass-shaped drum from West Africa, which can be used as a form of speech surrogacy by regulating its pitch and rhythm to mimic the tone and prosody of human speech. It has two drumheads connected by leather t ...

Chart performance

References

{{authority control Joni Mitchell songs 1988 songs 1988 singles Songs written by Joni Mitchell Song recordings produced by Joni Mitchell Geffen Records singles