In this poignant piano ballad, Joni Mitchell encounters a street musician who is performing for free and gaining little attention from passersby due to his anonymity. She considers her own career of making music for money and fame, and is saddened his talent isn't being appreciated simply because he's not on TV.
Mitchell revealed the song's inspiration when she introduced it at the Newport Folk Festival in 1969, saying: "There's a young man in New York City, I don't know his name, but he's blind and he sits on the street and plays his clarinet for whatever money people will give him. I've often ridden past him, and wondered about his life and I've written this song for him. It's called 'The Boy Who Plays for Free.'"
According to a 1970 article by Ray Schulz for the East Village Other, an underground New York City newspaper, "Blind Richie" wasn't happy about Mitchell's musical tribute to him. He allegedly complained that the singer's empathetic effort was phony because she didn't even bother to get to know him.
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