Oh I Wish I Had a POLL, I Could Skate Away On: The Joni Mitchell Tracks/Albums Results Thread (ILM ARTIST POLL #26)

"Hejira" was my favourite song in the world at 14, I printed out all the lyrics and stuck them on my bedroom wall.

― Tim F, Wednesday, October 3, 2012 10:42 PM (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I am now 14 year old Tim F

xp well she's certainly teasing the guy, answering his metaphysical boast with an acerbic and then a prosaic remark, but anyway since the next thing she remembers is drawing his face on a map of Canada it's reasonable to suggest there's also a level of vulnerability, even love (though it's ofc slightly undercut by the drawing being on the back of a cartoon coaster lit by a tv screen)

what makes the central metaphor unlikely as a putdown imo are
a) the singer's fetichization of the lover - even if she does not explicitly desire drinking a case of the lover, the repeated focus on the act suggests infatuation
b) the beautiful preceding lines:

Oh you are in my blood like holy wine
You taste so bitter
And so sweet

If you wanted to criticize wine for being weak or harmless, this is not how you would describe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_dY2cy0E2I

That's phantastic dreamy stuff. It reminds me of another song, something from "wild things run fast"?