Joni Mitchell: "Hejira" Song by Song Thread

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Parachute Woman, Oct 10, 2018.

  1. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
  2. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    :agree: I think that uniformity is part of what has made me so obsessed with Hejira. I love it as a sustained mood piece, with the image of the road running out before and behind me as I listen (with a couple of breaks from the road along the way at Beale Street and a motel room in Georgia...). I find it hypnotic and captivating from first note to last. As you say, many of Joni's other albums have bigger shifts in tone and sound (which can be wonderful). Hejira is purposeful in its consistency. No piano songs, little percussion...all decisions made by Joni.
     
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  3. Fortysomething

    Fortysomething Forum Resident

    Location:
    Californ-i-a
    @Cokelike-

    9 copies? One for each song, right?
     
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  4. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    :righton:
     
  5. StarThrower62

    StarThrower62 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    In my top 5 Joni albums.
     
  6. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    :laugh:

    :cheers:
     
  7. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    I must have missed something.What, if anything, was the controversy?
     
  8. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    No controversy. Mr. Fly doesn't think "Song for Sharon" is the greatest thing Joni ever did. I do. We'll have bigger disagreements a few albums down the road... :D
     
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  9. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    It was just the next installment of Planbee and me cutting lines through the jungle with very different tools but eventually meeting in the Arizona desert. You'll never see us take the same New York ferry though.
     
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  10. Fender Relic

    Fender Relic Forum Resident

    Location:
    PennsylBama
    I met a new set of friends in the spring of 1977 and they had moved from near Pittsburgh to our out in the sticks location. They seemed more urban and hip than us hillbillies. One night they invited me to a party and instead of doing much socializing I went thru their LP collection, at their permission, and watched, listened and learned as they played DJ all night. I was turned on to a bunch of new music that night like Taj Mahal,Ry Cooder,and Joni. At the end of the night they loaned me FTR,Blue,Van Morrison's HBATSC,and St. Dominics Preview. A nice gesture that changed my musical life. Anyway, they were a natural back to Earth couple and did their own garden, cooking,baking bread,growing sprouts, etc.. So, as I was looking for a better diet they helped me learn about new ways of eating plus new music as well. How does that relate to Hejira? Well, as I started to make/bake my own bread I had bought a copy of Hejira and it became my "bread making" album. Every baking day I started by putting Hejira on the turntable and let it play as I went thru the process. It was a great companion. I see I'm not alone in thinking that Amelia is one of the greatest songs ever. I might have even over baked a few loaves getting lost in Amelia.
     
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  11. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    If you were baking already during the second song, I'm not surprised! Great post!
     
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  12. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    Amelia

    This is one of the hugely popular songs on Hejira that I never quite fell for. I have very mixed feelings about it. I like that she wrote a song about Amelia Earhart. It’s another example of “Who else was writing songs like this in the 70’s?” (Answer: no one, of course.) I admire a lot of the lyrics. I like the image of the six jet planes leaving six white vapor trails. I love the line about the Cactus Tree Motel, and the 747’s over geometric farms. The music, though maybe it feels a little simple and odd to me, is indeed hypnotic. I’ve listened to while driving across the desert many times while absorbing its mood and that was a very nice experience.

    But there’s something that I cannot get past in this song. PW and others, tell me how I’ve misunderstood this song, and why I’m wrong. Here's this song dedicated to Amelia Earhart, adventuress and aviatrix who at just 39 died in a tragic accident, perhaps after much suffering. But in this imaginary encounter with Amelia, Joni’s pouring her heart out about false advice from false friends, a breakup with some man (perhaps after he stared at a waitresses legs after a night of lovemaking), and wonders if she's maybe too cold or incapable of love. Those transitory personal issues seem awfully trivial compared to crash landing in the Pacific, and because of that I'm unable to take this song seriously.

    OK all, now please explain to me why I have totally misread this song and am missing its true message.

    (BTW, David Crosby sounds great on his cover of this one.)
     
  13. Smiler

    Smiler Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston TX
    Yes! This has been getting clear for me in this past week of refamiliarizing myself with her songs, and reading Yaffe's bio. Along those lines, a common theme I'm noticing is extremes in general: Shadows and light. Blindness and sight. Devil of cruelty/devil of delight. Each so deep and superficial between the forceps and the stone. Whether you travel the breadth of extremities or stick to some straighter line. Hope and hopelessness I've witnessed 30 years. Either going to thaw out or freeze.

    I can't add much to the excellent comments on "Amelia," though the pregnancy angle never occurred to me. I assumed the "false alarm" was referring to what she had hoped was a true love, but it didn't work out. As an explorer, traveling the breadth of extremities like Earhart, there may be an underlying fear of ending up disappeared, never finding your true home/love. Anyway, "Amelia" is an A+.
     
  14. Fender Relic

    Fender Relic Forum Resident

    Location:
    PennsylBama
    Well, it got flipped and played many times during a bake session. Maybe that's why the grooves are dusty white from flour. ;)
     
  15. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany

    Well there was this song and album from 1972

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2018
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  16. Fender Relic

    Fender Relic Forum Resident

    Location:
    PennsylBama
    Maybe just like Joni loved her loving, just like her freedom,Amelia loved her flying. Maybe the false alarm was another affair that might take away her freedom or an affair that might have lead to a permanent life time coupling and it was just a false alarm as a relationship broke down....crashed...again.
     
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  17. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    I don't think Joni writes about Amelia because of her death. That was not the reason for Amelia's greatness or why we remember her. Joni is not comparing her pains to that kind of pain. She writes about Amelia because of her life and the achievements she made--especially her pioneering solo journey across the Atlantic. I think Joni was feeling a kinship with that pioneering spirit in another great woman who blazed her own trail.

    I've never thought of it as a conversation *with* Amelia Earhart either, simply a personal rumination in which Joni is thinking about her (perhaps after seeing the airplanes overhead above her). The issues she's speaking about aren't trivial. She is thinking deeply on her own capacity for love and how that relates to her own capacity for greatness. She had "a dream to fly" and she did it, crafting a career and legacy all her own. But is there a price?

    She writes of Amelia for their shared independence, their shared uniqueness and solitude in worlds dominated by men. She isn't asking someone who died a sad death for relationship advice. Amelia's death is mentioned, but as a metaphorical juxtaposition against Joni's own fear of failure/loss. She was at a personal crossroads and looking to another great woman for strength. In my opinion. :)
     
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  18. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    You have articulated very well why I find this song difficult to grok. The best I can come up with is that Joni relates to Amelia because they are/were both women and were both pioneers, though in very different fields. Perhaps Joni is just using Amelia as an example to assert that yes, women can do stuff, once they get past the belief that they are not as capable as men at these things.

    I'm still not convinced by any of the explanations put forward about the reference to a "false alarm". If it's something to do with pregnancy, or fear of unwanted pregnancy, what does that have to do with a female aviator?
     
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  19. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I agree almost completely with that, except by the reckoning of your last point
    it would have been entirely possible for Joni to write a song entitled 'Marie Curie' and still get something similarly magical out of it, but for me for a song to be as good as 'Amelia' the iconography of Earhart's media presence which has a trivialising element compared to the work of Marie Curie, is a vital ingredient. I'm reasonably happy with a degree of glamour in this song, and a mysterious plane crash death is far more glamorous than radium poisoning, to take a wildly random example to it's (il)logical conclusion.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2018
  20. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    It's not a song *about* Amelia Earhart. Amelia is an inspiration and guide within the song. It is a song about Joni. I personally don't think false alarm refers to pregnancy. I agree with @Fender Relic . It refers to the end of a love affair. She thought it was the real deal, but it wasn't and it has ended. I'd suspect John Guerin, as their breakup was at this time and it's a large part of why Joni left her tour and went traveling in the first place.

    She is afraid that the end of another relationship signals once again that she's incapable of loving in the way that she wants to or the way that her partners want. Must she sacrifice that ability to love for her ability to fly the solo journey of her career?

    I think Joni writing of Amelia to state that "women can do stuff" is ignoring the complexities here. I wrote more about what Joni saw in Amelia in my last post.

    It's cool if you don't like the song, but I'm just trying to articulate my own perspective here. :)
     
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  21. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    @PW: Your last appeared while I was still composing my own.

    I never said I don't like the song, only that (a) I find the repetition of the tag line renders it less than perfect, and (b) I find it difficult to make complete sense of the words. Your own interpretation makes a fair bit sense in this regard.

    I did say earlier that I gave the song an A-. I wouldn't do that for a song i don't like.
     
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  22. Socalguy

    Socalguy Forum Resident

    Location:
    CA
    The "false alarms" throughout "Amelia" are the core of the song, and at once the most powerful and most obscure parts of it. So much is said and not said in those two words.

    Someone suggested she's referring to a possible unwanted pregnancy. Interesting theory, but seems unlikely. And given the overt sadness with which the words are uttered, it would make more sense if it referred to a wanted pregnancy that turned out to not to be. But again, I doubt it.

    False alarms can be dangerous, disappointing, or bring relief depending on the circumstance. In “Amelia” they are all of these.

    Mitchell sees jet planes streaking across the sky. Are they responding to some crisis, or just a false alarm? The vapor trails remind her of her guitar - wait, she thinks. This is a sign. A hopeful relationship with a man she thought she loved just ended - another false alarm. She begins to wonder about Earhart... another brave and ambitious woman. Was she also lost pursuing a foolish dream she had? Was it a “false alarm” that caused her to crash? Or did she manage to land in some remote place and later imagine rescue planes coming for her that turned out to be heartbreakingly false alarms? People are giving Mitchell advice, telling her where to go, what to do - are these more false alarms? She sleeps but dreams of her wanderlust - yet can’t help thinking her dreams are yet more false alarms.

    The song is endlessly intriguing. Love this woman.
     
    Last edited: Oct 11, 2018
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  23. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I live in hope as yet unfulfilled that one day there'll be a beautiful woman with the name 'Amelia' out there waiting for my devastating spiel about my favourite song being her name etc etc etc. There are millions of Emilys & Amalies and even a few Emilias but alas...
     
  24. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    And then the smoke alarm went off... to the strains of "just a false alarm"... ;)
     
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  25. bob_32_116

    bob_32_116 Forum Flaneur

    Location:
    Perth Australia
    I wonder if the phrase "false alarm" is used in a different way in different countries. In Australia an alarm would generally be a warning of something dangerous or needing immediate attention (eg getting out of bed), and a false alarm is good news because the danger or the reason for agitation turned out to not in fact exist, hence we can relax again. We would not use "false alarm" for a potentially good occurrence that ended up not happening, such as expecting to fall in love and finding that it didn't work out; we would call it something else, "dashed hopes" or something. Maybe there is a bit of cross-cultural confusion here.
     
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