Songfacts®:

• Mitchell (from a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times): "That was my first farewell to show business. I was in Canada, where I have a sanctuary where I still go sometimes, and I had decided to quit show business and get away from all the pressures I felt. To me, this was an unfair, crooked business and it has nothing to do with real talent. I was up in Canada about a year and I guess it strengthened my nervous system a little, so I finally came back."
• The "Run For the Roses" is a name for the Kentucky Derby horse race, where the winning horse is covered in a blanket of roses in the winner's circle. Introducing this song in concert in 1972, Mitchell said: "That comes from the expression 'To run for the roses.' You know what that's all about: you take this horse and he comes charging into the finish line and they throw a wreath of flowers around his neck and then one day they take him out and shoot him."
• This is the title track to Mitchell's fifth album, which was her first released on David Geffen's Asylum Records. Mitchell and Geffen were good friends at the time - she had moved to British Columbia and stayed with Geffen on her return trips to Los Angeles.