Reasons to love Joni Mitchell's Hejira album

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if she'd stuck "The Wolf That Lives in Lindsey" to Hejira instead of holding it for another couple of years, it would have been a perfect album.

Was it written then? I don't have it in front of me, but was that not one of the Mingus-written songs?

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:14 (twenty years ago)

why is it that I am vaguely annoyed by Joni Mitchell? I really don't even know that much about her, and do in fact like some of her songs. However, something about her seems a little, I don't know, taken care of, or priviledged. I can't put my finger on why I think this though, it's certainly a gut reaction rather than a rational one.

― Dominique (dleone), Thursday, 13 April 2006 13:16 (twenty years ago)

Dom, agreed. A friend of mine used to point to the line from "Free Man In Paris" on Court and Spark where she sings "I felt unfettered and alive" as unintentionally revealing. I would concur — it's hard to believe anyone who truly felt "unfettered and alive" would ever describe themselves that way.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Thursday, 13 April 2006 14:31 (twenty years ago)

I'm not telling you not to get annoyed by Joni's hippie narcissism, but the first-person speaker in "Free Man" was never supposed to be Joni -- it was David Geffen. The irony in the lyrics is pretty heavy-handed, including the point you make here.

― Vornado, Thursday, 13 April 2006 16:01 (twenty years ago)

And it was only in Paris where the speaker felt unfettered and alive. Until Hejiramost of Joni's characters are FAR from unfettered.

Was it written then? I don't have it in front of me, but was that not one of the Mingus-written songs?

I think I've read that this song was lying around for a while.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 13 April 2006 16:05 (twenty years ago)

I would concur — it's hard to believe anyone who truly felt "unfettered and alive" would ever describe themselves that way.

Except, of course, that this song is written from the perspective of David Geffen.

Tho one could argue that knowing David Geffen well enough to write this sort of song bespeaks an even more ridiculous level of privilege.

― Myke. (Myke Weiskopf), Thursday, 13 April 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Don't judge Joni on "Free Man In Paris", it's one of her most awkward songs lyrically.

However am I the only one who thinks the cold war metaphor in "Blue Motel Room" is brilliant?

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 14 April 2006 02:52 (twenty years ago)

Tho one could argue that knowing David Geffen well enough to write this sort of song bespeaks an even more ridiculous level of privilege.

Geffen was not exactly unreachable back then, he was an up-and-comer - anybody opening for anybody at the Troub from '72-'78 coulda made friends with DG

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 14 April 2006 12:35 (twenty years ago)

two months pass...

I think I finally feel some affinity with Don Juan's Reckless Daughter.

It really works as a somewhat exhausted, 10 at night cooking session record. I never realised how vast, how high she was aiming on this. Not all of it works (and it's no Heijera) but it's prime Joni all the same.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 1 July 2006 21:01 (nineteen years ago)

I'm glad I found a way in though, but it's only a crack still. I need to explore the obtuse parts some more but happy to do it instead of it being a chore now.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 1 July 2006 21:03 (nineteen years ago)

it's all about "Dreamland" for me on that record.

― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 1 July 2006 22:28 (nineteen years ago)

'Paprika Plain' used to be my biggest hurdle, but I've really turned around since I got the "remix" that's on one of her recent compilations.

― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:20 (nineteen years ago)

I've said this before here: Anyone who writes a song like "Furry Sings the Blues" that's at once so abominally clueless about its subject and so self-satisfied -- "I don't know what you play" but I get such a great vibe from you, man -- deserves its subject's dismissal: "I don't like you."

And I count myself among her fans. But . . . shit.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

This is no "Blue." Nor no "Gaucho."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

Yikes, "abominably."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

"Dancing with wild abdomen."

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:57 (nineteen years ago)

Hmm, this has been discussed on the other thread linked above, but I think Joni's very conscious of the awkwardness of her position and is actually mocking herself. The wording "I'm not familiar with what you play, but..." is pretty funny, and the joke's on Joni.

― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Sunday, 2 July 2006 11:01 (nineteen years ago)

yes, but ... two things; one, Joni's narative voice is not necessarily Joni; she's one of the few pop writers capable of writing within a persona, and two, even if she is writing as JM, she's not hung up on being right all the time; can't think of another writer able to pass up the dionysan pleasures of the mermaid cafe- or admit to it - because 'I miss my clean white sheets and fancy french cologne'. I think she knows the limits of the narrators approach in 'Furry ...' but isn't arrogant enough to assume that she can speak for Furry either; instead, by speaking the limits of both sides she shows without saying the misrecognition at the heart of the appropriation of Black music by the white boho...

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Sunday, 2 July 2006 11:09 (nineteen years ago)

Not long after the line Ricky quotes she asks, "Why should I expect that old man to give it to me true? Fallen on hard luck, and times, and on other thieves, while my limo was shining on his shanty streets..."

I always used to think the song was slightly patronising, it's only been in the last year or so that I've felt like I really got the lyrics. And this has been one of my absolute favourite albums for ten years. Odd how sometimes things just slide over you like that.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 2 July 2006 12:58 (nineteen years ago)

FWIW, I heard Mitchell perform "Furry" (and "Coyote" and "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter") about 10 months before Hejira came out. She did a long intro to it, telling a story of hunting down Furry Lewis in Memphis. There was no question that she was self-consciously mocking her own narcissism and cluelessness (and in fact enhancing it: there was also no question that she had a fair degree of familiarily with his music before she saw him). She also said she was trying to revisit the feelings that had prompted "For Free" with a sharper appreciation for the nuances and ambiguities of a well-heeled pop star romanticising people who were desperate to get paid anything for their art.

― Vornado (Vornado), Monday, 3 July 2006 14:53 (nineteen years ago)

six months pass...

Yeah, comparing "For Free" and "Furry" is pretty symbolic of how Joni had evolved during those 5 years.

― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 10:08 (nineteen years ago)

I like "Furry Sings The Blues" even more now. It used to be my least favourite track on the album and now it's one of my favourites. The "I'm not familiar with what you play..." bit is actually brilliant! There's something about the whole album where it's sort of like Joni reaches this true non-judgmentalism as a narrator, she's very detached from herself - she's in the songs themselves as a character judging and being judged but the songs themselves are so deeply ambiguous and inconclusive, certainly until the last few tracks.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 19 January 2007 13:38 (nineteen years ago)

Actually, thinking of it, this theme is also at the core of "The Boho Dance". It seems like Joni had some issues with being a professional artist (which kinda contradicts all the tales of Joni as diva bitch)

― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 14:15 (nineteen years ago)

I don't know if it does... That's kinda my point above - it's entirely possible that Joni was deeply patronising in any vaguely-true-core-story behind "Furry Sings The Blues", but then she realises later what she's doing and makes a song about it.

Likewise Joni could very well have been a diva bitch one minute and then felt deeply uncomfortable with success the next.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:05 (nineteen years ago)

"Refuge of the Road" is now my favorite Joni song.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

yeah that song is unstoppable

Night Ride Home carried me through autumn, that thing is underrated - even her gigantic-ego resetting of a Yeats poem works for me

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:21 (nineteen years ago)

I adore Night Ride Home. Up there with her best records for me.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:29 (nineteen years ago)

Having exhausted the golden years, I am tempted to get 'Night Ride Home' although the one time I listened to it in a store, I remained unconvinced. How's 'Chalk mark in a rain storm'?

― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

the way she says "No regrets, Coyote"

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:32 (nineteen years ago)

How's 'Chalk mark in a rain storm'?

Not so good, nowhere near as good... and occasionally fucking terrible.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:37 (nineteen years ago)

That's the one with the "superstar" duiets, no?

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:51 (nineteen years ago)

Haven't heard Chalk Mark. I remember hearing mixed things about Night Ride Home for years and since Joni's lower voice on Turbulent Indigo kinda really bummed me out, I didn't give it a chance. When I finally got it I was like "Holy shit" - right now for me it's up there with Hejira, I can't see it supplanting Blue but then again Blue is such a pivotal album for me personally that its place in my heart is pretty extra-textual

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:57 (nineteen years ago)

"Come In From The Cold" is pretty marvelous; I love the synths and guitar.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

I actually kind of like the Peter Gabriel one, synth slush-fest that it is... but the BILLY IDOL(!) track is unbelievably (or maybe not) bad.

Joni is nearly always bad at those straight rock'n'roll-ish tracks.

I really should get round to hearing/owning Taming The Tiger, Shadows And Light (Live)... and maybe Both Sides Now and Travelogue just to complete things.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:00 (nineteen years ago)

I actually don't have the problems with Turbulent Indigo a lot of people seem to... I'd probably rate it fairly equally. But I listen to Night Ride Home far more, such a gorgeous sprawl (but not bloated) of a record. But with daggers "Cherokee Louise" just... tears me up.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:04 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of bad tones.

Does anyone else fucking HATE Jaco's playing and tone on Hejira...drives me nuts, mr. bloop bleeeeeble ddee whale humping sound maker beret dude.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:05 (nineteen years ago)

It used to be my least favourite track on the album and now it's one of my favourites

I never understand the hate toward "Furry Sings the Blues," tbh.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:07 (nineteen years ago)

sorry dude I think Jaco kicks ass on Hejira, perfect lazing complement to the winding slinky wandering songs there

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

I really can't get into Jaco solo, or the Weather Report I've heard.Bought, borrowed, tried.

But I love the work with Joni.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:08 (nineteen years ago)

Wow, Jaco's bass is what I like best on Hejira. It's funny how he only played on a few of the tracks, although the whole album seems to bear his mark. His bass also makes the greatness of "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" (the title track)

― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:12 (nineteen years ago)

weather report is horrid fusion. i'd bet i'd like spyro gyro better if i'd ever heard spyro gyro.

I guess the Jaco thing is mostly cuz I prefer the more forward moving vers. of Coyote on The Last Waltz so much better...it feels like low flying crop spraying plane zooming over empty fields (on the Last Waltz)

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:13 (nineteen years ago)

well yeah - the Band, whatever else one wants to say about them, are pretty much the ideal backing band at that time & on that night especially

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:16 (nineteen years ago)

actually fuck it, Night Ride Home is better than Turbulent Indigo, clearly.

― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

yeah my favorite parts of Hejira are the bass, like the slide from the dominant before resolution in Coyote (or wait, is that the Last Waltz version?!)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:46 (nineteen years ago)

"Coyote" is performed in The Last Waltz? OK, top of queue.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:49 (nineteen years ago)

I've been thinking about the decline in Mitchell's songwriting and I wonder whether she doesn't have a George Harrison problem. Their grievances against the industry, misanthropy, and proselytizing tendences ultimately crippled them, even though each is capable of the occasional marvel. (And Mitchell's better than George anyway).

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:53 (nineteen years ago)

I love her vocal melodies, they're like nothing I've ever heard. She sings her words like a saxophone solo. In a way it almost seems irrelevant to the music in the background but they aren't, they're just the least predictable way around the song. And I love that her lyrics are at the same time cryptic and utterly frank.

― Period period period (Period period period), Friday, 19 January 2007 21:55 (nineteen years ago)

five years pass...

This counts as another reason to love this record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYF6T6bfCw4

― Milton Parker, Saturday, 18 February 2012 05:09 (fourteen years ago)

iirc, Hejira is Prince's all-time favorite record, by anyone.

I love Hejira almost as much as Court and Spark, but this is as far as I've gotten, chronologically, in Joni's discography. I took a stab at Mingus but, to echo some of the comments upthread, I just can't get with that fretless bass guitar sound. Intellectually, I can recognize and appreciate the importance of what Jaco did, but I can't stand to listen to it.

― Let A Man Come In And Do The Cop Porn (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 18 February 2012 05:19 (fourteen years ago)

Get Night Ride Home!

― Tim F, Saturday, 18 February 2012 06:37 (fourteen years ago)

Skipping 60 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

just looked at the comments and ... apparently a pristine concert performance by a once-in-a-lifetime supergroup is already pretty well known? news to me anyway.

― lukas, Tuesday, 1 September 2020 19:45 (five years ago)

Yeah, I was aware of that concert on YouTube. But always worth spreading the word

― Duke, Wednesday, 2 September 2020 11:24 (five years ago)

i was not aware, thanks!

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 2 September 2020 14:04 (five years ago)

two years pass...

Terrific review (10!)

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/joni-mitchell-hejira/

― jaymc, Sunday, 4 December 2022 05:23 (three years ago)

was an 8.0 last time. gonna go read this now

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Sunday, 4 December 2022 05:44 (three years ago)

that review is wonderful

― estela, Sunday, 4 December 2022 07:57 (three years ago)

yeah like hanging out with a super-literate friend who loves the album as much as I do

― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 December 2022 08:04 (three years ago)

yes, thanks for sharing

haven't listened to the album since it was taken off spotify

now I'm listening again

it is the best

― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 4 December 2022 09:15 (three years ago)

that’s funny because I haven’t listened to Spotify since then

― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 December 2022 12:22 (three years ago)

touché

― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 4 December 2022 12:59 (three years ago)

bit of a dickish comment from me tbh

― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 December 2022 13:14 (three years ago)

goat album. outstanding review. accurate score.

― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Sunday, 4 December 2022 14:40 (three years ago)

As someone who benefits greatly from context and narrative, this may be personal, but to me, a great review falls somewhere between reading and listening. Even as you're reading it there are subtle recalibrations of sense memory taking place, different positions from which to view experience opening up; I return to the music altered, the music changed too. Hard to explain. Anyway, that was a great review.

― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Sunday, 4 December 2022 14:51 (three years ago)

ten months pass...

blue motel room perfectly understated, suits hejira like buckets of rain does blood on the tracks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Raw8Hmlj4c

honey tell 'em you've got... ggggeeeerrrms

― corrs unplugged, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 11:43 (two years ago)

Thank you; we've got our first cold morning in Savannah and this will be the perfect thing to listen to while driving the kids to school.

― Cow_Art, Tuesday, 17 October 2023 11:48 (two years ago)

four months pass...

Coyote's in the coffee shop
He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs
He picks up my scent on his fingers
While he's watching the waitresses' legs

awful good

― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 18 February 2024 12:45 (two years ago)

The lyrics are just next level, the sheer craft of them.

Something I was struck by recently is how perfectly each opening line sets up the song’s story (not in the sense of encapsulating it; more like dropping a pin on a map and then exploring outwards from there) and draws you in:

- “No regrets, Coyote / we just come from such different sets of circumstance”
- “I was driving across the burning desert when I spotted six jet planes / Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain”

etc.

You immediately want to know what is coming.

― Tim F, Sunday, 18 February 2024 21:27 (two years ago)

This is my favourite JM album. Going to listen again right now.

― Duke, Sunday, 18 February 2024 23:18 (two years ago)

three months pass...

https://i.postimg.cc/QNwMpKvS/Screenshot-20240530-213416-Firefox.jpg

― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Friday, 31 May 2024 04:38 (two years ago)

Great deep dive into Hejira in the new Uncut, (featuring a few bits, I must confess, by me)

https://www.uncut.co.uk/publications/uncut-july-2024-146032/

― Piedie Gimbel, Friday, 31 May 2024 11:51 (two years ago)

I'll have to get my hands on it!

― corrs unplugged, Friday, 31 May 2024 17:51 (two years ago)

There are some good live videos of this era of Joni Mitchell and her all star jazz band with Jaco, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker and Don Alias online.

Definitely worth looking up on the tube.

― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Friday, 31 May 2024 19:43 (two years ago)

This is my favorite Joni album (although Court comes close) but it only hits at full impact in mid-late Autumn.

― Slim is an Alien, Friday, 31 May 2024 20:02 (two years ago)

three months pass...

Hejira demo (working title "Traveling") released as part of archives vol. 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5wLysKasGU

sounds great, haven't had time to dive in proper

― corrs unplugged, Friday, 6 September 2024 08:06 (one year ago)

in case that embed is coming up as unavailable for anyone else
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9h2UmEXYuo

― hott ogo (voodoo chili), Friday, 6 September 2024 19:59 (one year ago)

my favorite Joni album by a long way. I don't always love Jaco and Larry Carlton but they're both perfect on it.

― encino morricone (majorairbro), Saturday, 7 September 2024 03:37 (one year ago)

one month passes...

wow the Hejira album demos on this Archives release are just exquisite. So alive.

― assert (matttkkkk), Tuesday, 22 October 2024 05:34 (one year ago)

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