My Secret Place

{{Infobox song

| name = My Secret Place

| cover = My Secret Place.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Joni Mitchell

| album = Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm

| B-side ="Number One" (Europe and Australia) / "Lakota" (North America)

| released = 1988

| recorded = 1986–1987

| studio =

| genre =

| length = 5:01

| label = Geffen

| writer = Joni Mitchell

| producer = Joni Mitchell

| prev_title = Shiny Toys

| prev_year = 1986

| next_title = Cool Water

| next_year = 1988

| misc =

}}

"My Secret Place" is a song written by Joni Mitchell that first appeared on her 1988 album Chalk Mark in a Rain Storm. Recorded as a duet with Peter Gabriel, 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" eleven years prior.

Anton Corbijn directed the song's music video, which was shot in black-and-white and includes scenes of Gabriel and Mitchell walking across a desert and chatting at a dinner table.{{Cite news |last=Willman |first=Chris |date=July 1, 1988 |title=New Videos Offer Variations on a Silly Dream |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-new-videos-offer-v/170346554/ |access-date=April 15, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |page=59 |via=Newspapers.com}}

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 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 Peter Gabriel.{{cite magazine |last=Flanagan |first=Bill |date=May 1988 |title=Secret Places|magazine=Musician Magazine |pages=65–69, 72 |url=https://jonimitchell.com/library/originals/jmOriginal_200.pdf|access-date=May 12, 2024}} Mitchell's husband, Larry Klein, 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.{{Cite web |last1=Browne |first1=David |last2=Dolan |first2=Jon |last3=Erlewine |first3=Stephen Thomas |last4=Martoccio |first4=Angie |last5=Shteamer |first5=Hank |last6=Vozick-Levinson |first6=Simon |last7=Wolk |first7=Douglas |date=June 22, 2021|title=Joni Mitchell: 50 Essential Songs |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-joni-mitchell-songs-1187064/ |access-date=May 12, 2024|website=Rolling Stone |language=en-US}}

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.{{Cite book |last=Bego |first=Mark |title=Joni Mitchell |publisher=Taylor Trade Publishing |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-58979-134-3 |location=United States |pages=223}} Mitchell executed these guitar parts on a Martin D-28 acoustic guitar and utilized a guitar tuning of C# G# D# F# G# C#.{{Cite web |date=April 14, 2023|title=The Guitar-Tuning Odyssey of Joni Mitchell |url=https://acousticguitar.com/the-guitar-tuning-odyssey-of-joni-mitchell/ |access-date=May 8, 2024|website=Acoustic Guitar |language=en-US}}

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 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 thought that the song showcased "the similarities between her [Mitchell's] voice and Peter Gabriel's", saying that they "illustrate[d] 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 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."{{cite magazine |last=Sodomsky |first=Sam |date=December 7, 2020 |title=Joni Mitchell: The Ultimate Music Guide|magazine=Uncut|pages=86–89|url=https://mta-sts.jonimitchell.com/library/originals/jmOriginal_5051.pdf|access-date=May 9, 2024}} Ken Tucker of The Village Voice 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.{{cite news |last=Tucker|first=Ken |date=March 29, 1988|title=Public Invited|work=The Village Voice |url=https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=1646 |via=Joni Mitchell: Library of Articles}} Greg Quill of the Toronto Star 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.{{cite news |last=Quill |first=Greg|date=March 25, 1988 |title=Album is All Joni, Despite Heavyweight Sidemen|work=Toronto Star |url=https://www.jonimitchell.com/library/originals/jmOriginal_1142.pdf|access-date=May 12, 2024}}