"The Last Time I Saw Richard" is a song by

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell ( Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian-American musician, producer, and painter. Among the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her sta ...

from her 1971 album ''

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

''. It is the last track on the album. Contrary to rumours regarding the song being about Mitchell's first husband Chuck Mitchell, she has said it was inspired by a conversation with fellow folk singer

Patrick Sky Patrick Sky (born Patrick Linch; October 2, 1940May 26, 2021) was an American musician, folk singer, songwriter, and record producer. He was noted for his album ''Songs That Made America Famous'' (1973). He was of Irish and Native American anc ...

, in which he told her "Oh, Joni, you're a hopeless romantic. There's only one way for you to go. Hopeless cynicism." In October 2015 the song was included in "Joni Mitchell: 20 essential songs" by ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...

'' which said "One of the two greatest songs on ''Blue'' and most enduring and beloved songs of Mitchell’s entire canon, "The Last Time I Saw Richard" is surely among the most poignant songs about romantic disillusionment ever written, in which a former lover’s fate is delineated with a devastating precision. "Richard got married to a figure skater/ And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator /And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on /And all the house lights left up bright."

References

1971 songs Joni Mitchell songs Songs written by Joni Mitchell Song recordings produced by Joni Mitchell {{1970s-song-stub