I said oh Carey, you’re a mean old daddy, but I like you. This is a song I gave him for his birthday. Anyway, it may not impress you, but he was very impressed. They went up to 159, and I think there were, like, really odd ones that nobody seemed to have and all of a sudden this batch came in, you know, and he was the first one to have these. He was really pleased because, out of the ten that I gave him, he had eight new cards, you know. He was the cook there and, uh, came his birthday I decided to get him something, so I bought him ten Mickey Mouse chocolate bars, which were a really big deal there because everybody was collecting the cards, you know, and had Snow White in Greek and the Seven Dwarves. What should we do with this garbage?” And he took it out of my hand real abruptly and he looked me straight in the eyes and threw it over his shoulder all over the floor. It was all white – kind of dirty white – and wrapped all around and around and around, in a big knot at the top and he had really wild red hair sticking out from underneath, and he had a little heart earring in one ear and a little gold loop in the other and he had real fierce-looking blue eyes and, uh, you know – the mark of Cain on his brow, you know – from thinking really a lot and he was real intense-looking and I said to him “Listen, you know. We walk inside the door and there was this guy standing there and he had a big turban on his head, you know. I want to tell you about this person that I met.

Joni introduced the song this way at Carnegie Hall on February 23, 1972:

I said, Oh, you're a mean old Daddy but I like you

Now they got me used to that clean white linen Since I was scramblin' down in the street Oh you know it sure is hard to leave here

Let's have another round for the bright red devilīut let's not talk about fare-thee-wells nowĪnd they're playin' that scratchy rock and roll Let's have a round for these freaks and these soldiers My fingernails are filthy, I got beach tar on my feetĪnd I miss my clean white linen and my fancy French cologneĬome on down to the Mermaid Café and I willĪnd we'll laugh and toast to nothing and smash our empty glasses down Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here Carey

Love in the Asylum by Lisa Carey