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 (eighteen years ago) link
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 (eighteen years ago) link
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 (eighteen years ago) link
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 (eighteen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 1 July 2006 21:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― sleeve (sleeve), Saturday, 1 July 2006 22:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:20 (seventeen years ago) link
And I count myself among her fans. But . . . shit.
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:50 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Sunday, 2 July 2006 09:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Baaderonixx immer wieder (baaderonixx), Sunday, 2 July 2006 11:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― sonofstan (sonofstan), Sunday, 2 July 2006 11:09 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Vornado (Vornado), Monday, 3 July 2006 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 10:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Friday, 19 January 2007 13:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:12 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link
Not so good, nowhere near as good... and occasionally fucking terrible.
― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 15:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:04 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
I never understand the hate toward "Furry Sings the Blues," tbh.
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:07 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link
But I love the work with Joni.
― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― is anyone anticipating the new Baaderonixx? (baaderonixx), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:12 (seventeen years ago) link
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 (seventeen years ago) link
― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link
― fandango (fandango), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 19 January 2007 16:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― Period period period (Period period period), Friday, 19 January 2007 21:55 (seventeen years ago) link
This counts as another reason to love this record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYF6T6bfCw4
― Milton Parker, Saturday, 18 February 2012 05:09 (twelve years ago) link
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 (twelve years ago) link
Get Night Ride Home!
― Tim F, Saturday, 18 February 2012 06:37 (twelve years ago) link
That might be 'Hissing' I think.
― sleigh tracks (1933-1969) (MaresNest), Saturday, 18 February 2012 11:28 (twelve years ago) link
I bought Night Ride Home thanks to this thread. I've never been able to call it anything other than a good minor record with a couple of tremendous tunes (e.g. "Come in From the Cold").
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 18 February 2012 13:30 (twelve years ago) link
Naw I think there's so much amazing stuff on here (beyond "Come In From The Cold" which I agree is stunning). The chilling "old as the hills" vibe of "When All The Slaves Free" (her reedily murmured "ecstasy"... "tragedy"...), the heart-cutting double-tracked vocals on "Cherokee Louise", the perfect Tango in the Night pop of "Nothing Can Be Done", the absolute desolation of "Two Grey Rooms"...
I love the sound of her voice here too, damaged by smoking but still just supple enough to hit the targets it aims for, making the damage into just a metaphor for emotional damage, the sense of having seen too much that runs through the album. After this it got to the point where she just sounded limited a lot of the time (though she did use her vocals to great effect on particular songs here and there).
― Tim F, Saturday, 18 February 2012 21:11 (twelve years ago) link
It was only recently that I realized furry sings the blues was about a real singer, furry lewis
― dave coolier (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 18 February 2012 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
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 (three years ago) link
Yeah, I was aware of that concert on YouTube. But always worth spreading the word
― Duke, Wednesday, 2 September 2020 11:24 (three years ago) link
i was not aware, thanks!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 2 September 2020 14:04 (three years ago) link
Terrific review (10!)
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/joni-mitchell-hejira/
― jaymc, Sunday, 4 December 2022 05:23 (one year ago) link
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 (one year ago) link
that review is wonderful
― estela, Sunday, 4 December 2022 07:57 (one year ago) link
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 (one year ago) link
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 (one year ago) link
that’s funny because I haven’t listened to Spotify since then
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 December 2022 12:22 (one year ago) link
touché
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 4 December 2022 12:59 (one year ago) link
bit of a dickish comment from me tbh
― assert (matttkkkk), Sunday, 4 December 2022 13:14 (one year ago) link
goat album. outstanding review. accurate score.
― ミ💙🅟 🅛 🅤 🅡 🅜 🅑💙彡 (Austin), Sunday, 4 December 2022 14:40 (one year ago) link
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 (one year ago) link
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 (seven months ago) link
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 (seven months ago) link
Coyote's in the coffee shopHe's staring a hole in his scrambled eggsHe picks up my scent on his fingersWhile he's watching the waitresses' legs
awful good
― corrs unplugged, Sunday, 18 February 2024 12:45 (three months ago) link
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 (three months ago) link
This is my favourite JM album. Going to listen again right now.
― Duke, Sunday, 18 February 2024 23:18 (three months ago) link
https://i.postimg.cc/QNwMpKvS/Screenshot-20240530-213416-Firefox.jpg
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Friday, 31 May 2024 04:38 (one week ago) link
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 (one week ago) link
I'll have to get my hands on it!
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 31 May 2024 17:51 (one week ago) link
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 (one week ago) link
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 (one week ago) link