Could I bring in something slightly unsavoury, speculative and medical? An ectopic pregnancy (I think we all know what this is) can create big problems down the line but would seem like a false alarm at first if the misplaced embryo was 'tackled' by the woman's own immune system (unstuck from the fallopian tube and then miscarried in effect). The serious problem we know Joni had in 1976-77 with ovarian cysts and with her medical treatment that hospitalised her may have been compounded by this form of pregnancy??? Just me joining dots that might not even be there. I know I would hate to have my medical history speculated about, but Joni has opened up about her polio and Morgellen's disorder.
Yes. You're right about Amelia and I'm right about Song for Sharon. Everything's good and perfectly balanced.
Sorry to hear that. The guy I was thinking of broke his neck in a bike crash too - but his was in Inverted Commas, NY
There's not much that I can add to what's already been said here. Amelia is an exquisite track, one of Joni's (heck, one of Western music's) finest accomplishments. The lyrics are just perfect, easily as musical as the gorgeous melody and guitar lines (love, love, love that little guitar figure behind "the ghost of aviation"). "I dreamed of 747s over geometric farms"...what a way of describing the way the world looks from a plane! "I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitudes" is a great line, self-referential and more poetic, more mature than her earlier songs about clouds. I have no idea what the last line means ("Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms"), but it's unspeakably sad. Musically, it's a thing of such beauty that I almost can't comprehend it. It speaks to the quality of the rest of the songs on Hejira that they're strong enough to sit beside this masterpiece and not seem completely forgettable.
Ah, yes. The song I've been waiting for - Amelia. Can anyone say, Stewart & Gaskin ? That's all. I'll now go back to listening to this thread.
Thanks for posting that video. The illustrations are lovely and well-done. I’ll have to check out his channel. We do in Texas as well although sometimes I do hear it with the silent ‘e.’
“Amelia” is simply a stunning piece. In my very humble opinion, it may be the finest composition + performance in Mitchell’s entire catalogue. I could write a dissertation about it, but I don’t think my words alone can even begin to describe the aching loneliness and beauty of this song. Musically, it’s essentially Joni alone on guitar, with textures added by Carlton and Feldman. She’s using a slack C tuning (CGCEGC) which gives it a deep drone (“... of flying engines”). There’s no percussion - she supplies the rhythm with steady, but slightly elusive, strum. Her playing is sublimely gentle... more of a caressing of the strings. You guitar players out there know what I’m talking about. It’s one of those rare cases where the tone mirrors the requiem-like feel of the song perfectly. And, good lord, has she ever sung with so much emotion? Listen to the way she says “Amelia...” at the end of each verse, slightly different each time. And the way she drags out “falllllllse alarm”. There’s a sadness, exasperation, resignation, and sense of utter defeat in her voice that’s absolutely chilling. A crowning achievement. Thank you Joni.
That's very interesting--and of course it's a subject for biographical study. I will say that I don't think the song needs this as a referent to make the sort of sense that a more ordinary "false alarm" pregnancy scare would suggest. If you imagine it into the song it does ratchet up the possible emotional intensity of the experience, but it doesn't add anything that seems specific to the songs images. I also think that the song's quiet, contemplative intensity does feel to me like it can really support this sort of medical reality. L.
Thank you for this. I'll add that the most piercing moment for me is the way she sings "beautiful, foolish arms." That's also a hell of a bit of writing in the way it makes those two long vowels available to a singer. L.
I love Amelia. If music lyrics can be poetry, this is a perfect example. I love how at times (perhaps, most of the time), the refrain of "false alarms" seems to refer to some disappointment, some broken dream that didn't come true, but it feels like there's also a hint at times of it being a narrow escape from something unpleasant; there's something reassuring about the phrase, which seems appropriate if you take its literal meaning. There's an ambiguity about how the singer feels about her experiences that is very relatable, in terms of modern relationships or just modern life. Another line that always hits me is "others just come to harm". This feels to me like, as in certain poetic references in the previous song, about the potential toll of drugs and drink, and considering what would happen to Jaco years later, it's especially poignant in its context (though I know he's not on this specific track.) We all know people who have "come to harm" in some way relatable here, there's not a sense of a random accident, as much as it is some self-destructive tendency. It might be just my taste, and hopefully not to ruin it, but I might not have minded if Larry Carlton had opened up a little more on the tune. I do love how Metheny's live solo comes out of this song so naturally on Shadows and Light.
I used to LIVE near that lake, right above it! Not sure exactly on the lake it was taken, but I think it was taken relatively near where I lived, as there was a park nearby which would have made for easy access. EDITED TO ADD: Since someone else on the thread also had the 45 center as their icon, I had to think quick and pick a new one, so I picked something from this photo session!
Amelia! I don't think I have much more to add that hasn't been said, and I'm not usually a list-y type of person who needs to rank things, but Amelia would land somewhere in a top ten of my favorite Joni songs, if there was one.
I just listened to the Hejira album in full. It's a long time since I have done so. To my slight surprise I found the album as a whole a bit less overwhelming than I remembered. Quite the reverse was true when I revisited The Hissing of Summer Lawns, which I now consider to be her best album, with For The roses, Court & Spark, and Hejira battling it out for the second spot. The individual songs are good - as good as the ones on Hissing - but I think my issue with the album is that it's too even. I had to consult the listing a couple of times to be sure which song was playing. There are two songs (both with creatures in the title) that stand out as stylistically different from the rest. Apart from those two, there is a kind of uniformity to the album that I don't hear on most of her albums, certainly not from FTR onwards.
