Who is Joni Mitchell’s “mean old daddy”?
While Joni Mitchell has arguably written countless classic albums over the course of her career, with virtually all of her work in the 1960s and ‘70s being exemplary to the point of it being hard to find a fault in it, there’s always one album that a large amount of her greatest fans consider to be the absolute apex of her output.
With its majestic lyricism and intelligently woven song structures, 1971’s Blue is perhaps the finest offering of the Canadian singer-songwriter’s career, and the inclusion of wondrous tracks such as ‘California’, ‘A Case of You’ and ‘River’ are what make it stand out as a special moment in her discography. However, on the first half of the record is perhaps the most mysterious track of all, with ‘Carey’ being a thematically ambiguous and intriguing song that has always puzzled fans, with many people wondering just who the titular character is.
Mitchell wrote the song while living on the Greek island of Crete in 1969, having wound up in the caves of Matala where many hippies of the counterculture period used to make a pilgrimage in order to find some sort of enlightenment. While it’s not known whether Mitchell experienced any of this, she came away from her stay in the area after meeting some interesting characters and soaking in the atmosphere of a historic burial site from the time of the Roman Empire.
Throughout the song, Mitchell addresses the ‘Carey’ in the title and speaks about how she’s enjoyed her time on the island but misses her home comforts, and makes reference to several specific elements of her stay. Lines like, “Oh, you know it sure is hard to leave here, Carey / But it’s really not my home”, really suggest that she’s reluctant to depart this haven, but she also goes on to claim, “I miss my clean white linen / And my fancy French cologne”.
Who exactly was Carey, the “mean old daddy”?
However, what on earth does she mean by, “You’re a mean old Daddy / But I like you fine”? Well, Mitchell addressed on several occasions that the Carey she is talking about in the song was someone she met out in Crete who had something of a fiery temperament, but who was also a source of many memorable moments during the trip. Referring to him during a speech she made in a live performance at The Troubadour, Mitchell described him as having “a flaming red personality, and flaming red hair and a flaming red appetite for red wine”, adding that he was a “very unforgettable character”.
Among his most memorable moments, according to Mitchell, were blowing up the doors of a restaurant where he was working on the island, but for many years, while she had referred to him by his full name of Cary ‘Carrot’ Raditz, the real Cary Raditz hadn’t come forward to speak about being the inspiration behind the song.
However, in recent years, Raditz has been far more forthcoming about being the subject of the song, and has offered many interviews to news outlets where he has spoken about his reasons for not wanting to identify himself. In a 2014 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Raditz claimed that he “wasn’t as nice to her as [he] should have been” and that, “I had a nasty, aggressive character then, and I was feisty. I was always getting into fights at the taverna – probably losing more than I won.”
Speaking to the New Statesman in 2021, he would go even further about how he wished things had been different, and was frank about his feelings on his portrayal. “For many years. I never talked about it,” he told the publication. “I didn’t want anyone to know it was me. Because all they wanted to talk about was my relationship with her.”
While he may have been referred to as a “mean old daddy”, and also the very same “redneck on a Grecian isle” in ‘California’, he’s one of Mitchell’s most fascinating characters to have appeared in any of her songs, and as far as anyone else should be concerned, that’s a badge you should wear with pride.
