Reasons to love Joni Mitchell's Hejira album

reason #7 seconded

10. the sound of the rhythm guitar in "Coyote"

mingus gets a bad rap, but that part when the party chimes in for the chorus on "God Must Be a Boogie Man" is retardedly genius

I think the idea of flaxen-haired Joni cooing about Birdland did turn a few people off, yes.

but that part when the party chimes in for the chorus on "God Must Be a Boogie Man" is retardedly genius

YES. Really, the whole thing is pretty engaging musically.

Either he's gonna have to stand and fight
Or take off out of here

Also, it's interesting how Don Juan's Reckless Daughter has suddenly emerged as The Great Lost Joni Album...

I hate to say it's become not so much the "great lost album" as "the great difficult "true fan" favourite". That thing where people recommend first the most outre parts of an artists discography so they can feel somehow superior?

I want to listen to Heijira again now...

Such an evocative image...and that funny little micro-yodel stuck in the middle of the word "cowgirl"...

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

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.

also noticed in that youtube video that her strat has a Gibson headstock decal - just a photoshop joke or was she hanging out with EVH??

Amazed how little from Blue makes it on that setlist

Doesn't sit well against her mid/late 70s records imo

any idea what phaser is used all over this album? whatever it is, it seems like they set it all the way to the slowest rate and just left it on throughout the entire recording session.

for a long time, i would have easily said blue or court and spark were my favorite joni album, but hejira has been the one i go back to most frequently the last few years. there's just something different and transcendent about this album. the older i get, the more i find that my favorite music is stuff that i just love, without any real way to exactly articulate why — besides just saying that i love how it sounds; which isn't very descriptive, but also feels like the best way for me to put it.

anyway. it's exceptionally good.

I find its the one that suits my mood the most, definitely. can't hear a phaser, sure it's not your copy?

The Boss CE-1 chorus/vibrato pedal was released in 1976 and was the first chorus effect in a pedal format to be available; it is very likely a part of the guitar sound on Hejira, along with a phaser pedal giving a "liquid" swirling effect - likely the MXR Phase 90 which had been released in 1974 and was the first product sold by MXR. Then one or two more layers of guitars, including an acoustic, would be added and then be panned left, center and right, giving the album its lush panoramic texture full of modulated movement.

https://jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=4622

then you have mad Jaco on top playing with a delay pedal that sounds like a chorus (iirc). very cool sounding album. I can't abide folk Joni but this is an all-timer for me

Seems like they're guessing, though.xp

Killer Live show from around the Hejira days


https://youtu.be/bLKb9Ms68ME

yeah, i was wondering if it was just a good old phase 90; i know the effects market was infinitely smaller back then and it could've only been one of a handful. i play a phase 90 a lot in my own music because, again, i just love how it sounds. makes sense, even if it is just an educated guess.

thanks for that link, cal. will definitely check it out later.

!!! that band

yeah shadows and light is a great live album, and I love that dvd. persuasions on the title track *shivers*

love the version of dreamland too

Oh, it was the Shadows and Light show? That's my favourite Joni some/many days.

and now is the time for me to admit that i just now learned about the existence of that album.

off to discogs!

I was always under the impression that the modulation sounds on the album were from Roland Jazz Chorus amps. I used to have a 70s one and could get the same chorus/vibrato sounds (though the chorus circuit in the amp is basically the same as the CE-1). Joni actually claimed a few times that the amp was actually designed for her, but I've never found any corroboration for that.

The Roland jazz chorus is the most trebly amp I’ve ever played through as a humble guitar player. Not for everyone.

Free man

https://open.spotify.com/track/60eqXSs8J3c4QERz7AqvBH?si=NVaPkBIRQVOHEEe4GVvALw

it definitely sounds like the precursor to those Jazz Chorus sounds that were so big in the 80s

Shame they didn’t play Help Me. Would have kicked with this group

man, a Phase 90 and a CE-1. the most basic modulation setup for guitar. Leg

The Roland jazz chorus is the most trebly amp I’ve ever played through as a humble guitar player. Not for everyone.

― calstars, Thursday, June 11, 2020 11:24 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thin as paper

If you haven't seen this ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxMwGTQ1bzU

oh heck the whole thing is available https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLKb9Ms68ME

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.

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

i was not aware, thanks!

Terrific review (10!)

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

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.