Reasons to love Joni Mitchell's Hejira album

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

But I love the work with Joni.

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)

This counts as another reason to love this record

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

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.

Get Night Ride Home!

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

That might be 'Hissing' I think.

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").

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).

It was only recently that I realized furry sings the blues was about a real singer, furry lewis

was an 8.0 last time. gonna go read this now

that review is wonderful

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

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

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

touché

bit of a dickish comment from me tbh

goat album. outstanding review. accurate score.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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/

I'll have to get my hands on it!

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.

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

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

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

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

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