Joni Mitchell: "Hejira" Song by Song Thread

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

  1. Comet01

    Comet01 Forum Resident

    Larry Carlton is lucky to be alive. He was the victim of a 1988 gang shooting:

    GUITARIST LARRY CARLTON PUTS TRAGIC SHOOTING BEHIND HIM
    (article from June 30, 1989)
    Jazz fusion guitarist Larry Carlton remembers April 6, 1988, with startling clarity. He was working at his Hollywood Hills home when he saw a dog run past, followed by two teenagers. When Carlton went to close an open office door, one of the boys stopped and fired a gun, shooting him in the neck at point-blank range.

    ''I can tell you exactly what I was thinking,'' Carlton said recently.

    ''I didn`t lose consciousness. I walked about 10 steps and I laid down on the floor and I said, `Jesus forgive me my sins and let`s go home.` I honestly thought I was going to die.''

    Carlton was lucky to have survived, but he suffered severe nerve damage and lost one vocal cord. He was also left wondering whether the real fatality wouldn`t be his career.

    Carlton described his recovery as ''really painful. My left arm was paralyzed. There were no muscles in that arm. I had to start from scratch. There was a time when I could not squeeze toothpaste with that arm.'' It took more than six months before he could play more than a few notes at a time or speak above a whisper. Now, he says, in clear, strong, though slightly raspy tones, ''I am completely, 100 percent back.''
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2018
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  2. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    I remember that shocking story very well. His home was in a very quiet, safe neighborhood that I ride though on my bicycle at times. I think the shooting was about 3 years after my visit. I'm glad he recovered.
     
    Last edited: Oct 20, 2018
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  3. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    Damn! Listening to this song just now I was close to tears. It’s a masterpiece; as perfect as a piece of music could be.

    At the start of this thread I explained that I've been a lifelong traveler, and have listened to Hejira more than any of Joni's other albums because its themes meant so much to me. Through the course of this thread I’ve found that my feelings and thoughts about many of its songs have shifted some, but not this one. It’s devastatingly beautiful and poetic; by far the purest, most authentic ode to travel on this album. With one minuscule exception (the fade out at the end, which feels wrong to me) I love everything about it, so much that it’s hard to single out anything at all. But here are some thoughts and appreciations:

    Until this week I wouldn’t have guessed that a mad zen monk was her "friend of spirit”. Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche is a Tibetan name. I never saw Tibet (almost, still hope to) but encountered followers of other notoriously corrupt monks in India, especially the infamous Rajneesh. Their wealth, depravity, and popularity can reach astonishing heights, and some attract a lot of Western followers. On the Joni site there’s a footnote where she talks about him, which I’ve copied below.

    I love the beginning. I could listen to that first 20 seconds over and over again. It’s like a lullaby. The gentle, caressing guitar lines continue throughout and despite the lyrical conflicts in the song, give it a wonderful feeling of peacefulness.

    I like "Heart and humor and humility” / He said "Will lighten up your heavy load” / I left him for the refuge of the roads. Sometimes a solitary journey, and the people and experiences that one encounters on the road, offer better instruction than any teacher could.

    I fell in with some drifters / Cast upon a beachtown / Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs
    And I wound up fixing dinner / For them and Boston Jim
    I well up with affection / Thinking back down the roads to then
    . Perfect, beautiful! I think those those vignettes were real. On the road those little things often happen but cooped up alone, in some hotel or motel, it would be hard to write a scene like that from scratch. For some reason the name “Boston Jim” is one of my very favorite parts of the song. I’ve always pictured him dark-haired, scruffy, with a short beard and maybe in need of a shower, but with a good heart. (Boston Jim, where are you now?)

    It was all so light and easy / Till I started analyzing / And I brought on my old ways. Those are the lines I most relate to in the song, and every time I hear it they hit me hard. Those words contain an important lesson.

    Jaco Pastorius is just other-worldly on this track. In There was spring along the ditches / There were good times in the cities / Oh radiant happiness / It was all so light and easy his playing is light and easy. But then, listen to him while she sings A thunderhead of judgment was / Gathering in my gaze. His bass literally sounds like rolling thunder there. So perfect!

    And it made most people nervous / They just didn't want to know / What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads. Those lines are so telling, so true! When you travel, really travel, it does make some people nervous, and they don’t know what you see in it. Travelers and stay at home types are very different personalities, and can be almost incapable of understanding one another.

    Like a wheel of fortune / I heard my fate turn turn turn. I always wonder if this line and its mood it suggests were a nod to Pete Seeger, who inspired Joni when she was young. (More below.)

    And I went running down a white sand road / I was running like a white-assed deer. That image is phenomenal. We’ve all seen deer take off in front of us while hiking or driving. Each time I do, I think of that line.

    These are the clouds of Michelangelo / Muscular with gods and sungold. Again, fantastic imagery. With just 11 words she produces a vivid, indelible picture in your mind.

    ...a photograph of the earth / Taken coming back from the moon
    And you couldn't see a city / On that marbled bowling ball / Or a forest or a highway / Or me here least of all.
    Joni turned her back on the Zen master at the beginning of this song (without really making that clear to us) but now she turns turns turns around with the very Zen idea that we are all insignificant, and everything we know is impermanent.

    Finally, I love her phrase baggage overload, which I think has three meanings here. There’s the obvious idea of a cumbersome suitcase, the damage done by carrying around too much emotional baggage, and also a Zen warning—that we undermine ourselves by acquiring too many possessions.



    Friend of spirit: Joni discusses Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche in an interview:
    He was the bad boy of Zen. I wrote a song about a visit I made to him called "Refuge of the Road." I consider him one of my great teachers, even though I saw him only three times. Once I had a fifteen-minute audience with him in which we argued. He told me to quit analyzing. I told him I couldn't - I'm an artist, you know. Then he induced into me a temporary state where the concept of "I" was absent, which lasted for three days. [Later], at the very end of Trungpa's life I went to visit him. I wanted to thank him. He was not well. He was green and his eyes had no spirit in them at all, which sort of stunned me, because the previous times I'd seen him he was quite merry and puckish - you know, saying "****" a lot. I leaned over and looked into his eyes, and I said, "How is it in there? What do you see in there? And this voice came, like, out of a void, and it said, "Nothing." So, I want over and whispered in his ear, "I just came to tell you that when I left you that time, I had three whole days without self conscious-ness, and I wanted to thank you for the experience." And he looked up at me, and all the light came back into his face and he goes, "Really?" And then he sank back into this black void again.




    Both Sides Now, duet by Joni Mitchell and Pete Seeger with an added verse. He seems a little unfamiliar with the lyrics--was this really a live duet? If so, it must have been a dream come true for her:

     
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  4. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Thanks for that great post VU.

    By your description, I'd like to introduce you to someone:
    “Boston Jim” is one of my very favorite parts of the song. I’ve always pictured him dark-haired, scruffy, with a short beard and maybe in need of ashower, but with a good heart.(Boston Jim, where are you now?)
    You've got Stuttgart Jim aka Henry down to a tee there.
     
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  5. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    Thank you, glad you're still hanging on here. I was on a rooftop in Malta in the middle of checking it when I was told my taxi had come early so I needed to hurry and leave. It must have even more editing mistakes than I usually make. I still want to add a final wrap up post for the album.

    [​IMG]
     
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  6. mark winstanley

    mark winstanley Certified dinosaur, who likes physical product

    Any album that opens with two songs as strong as Coyote and Amelia is going to be a fine album and this one is no exception.
    The mood and feel of this album are pretty special. I think Joni had gotten to the stage where she was in fully mastery of her lyrics (always a good lyricist, but now more mature and able to paint pictures alluded to on previous albums. Perhaps some of the lyrics need a little research to fully grasp, but that isn't always the idea with lyrics, sometimes words just sound good together with no specific life changing agenda.
    The pictures painted here are vivid and warm, even if not always totally happy. Longing and searching and even in some instances finding, these songs and this album are worth investing some time in to feel where she was at.
     
  7. DrJ

    DrJ Senior Member

    Location:
    Davis, CA, USA
    Yep, and the whole of the BOTH SIDES NOW album, really, very much in the vein of the Ella Songbooks, that type of approach.
     
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  8. VU Master

    VU Master Senior Member

    I've really enjoyed this thread. Hejira was always huge for me, and in a very personal way. As I've said before, after enjoying and thinking about privately for many years, finally having a chance to discuss it with smart, like minded fans has been like a great joy. Heartfelt thanks to everyone one for that, especially PW.

    For many of us it seems that the process of listening to these albums closely again, analyzing each song, and discussing with others has led to perceiving them differently. The Hissing Of Summer Lawns and Hejira were especially interesting to me in that way. Both are albums that I’d listened to intently and often over the years--there wasn’t much I’d forgotten about, or many surprises. A month ago I’d have called Hejira my unequivocal hands down favorite, with Hissing a close second, but now it might be the other way around. When we did the Hissing thread I found that my thoughts and feelings about those songs had hardly changed versus day one. But this album, which was always my “rock”, feels a little different now.

    Learning the circumstances around Furry made it harder for to enjoy that one. If I seem sensitive about that it might have to do with my own career in recording. I was fortunate to work with a lot talented, acclaimed artists. Most were kind, considerate of others, and great to be around. A few were super-creeps, to quote Holly Golightly, and on coke they were worse. I was guilty of too sometimes, and I'm not saying that Joni was one of the bad ones, not at all. But very fine people are accountable, too. And for us fans, I think worship of an artist’s ouevre can turn into hero worship, which is romantic and therefore blind sometimes.

    Amelia I somewhat enjoyed before; Hejira I never gave much thought to. But after listening to them much more closely this week, some lyrics in each rub me the wrong way. It’s really odd, because I can hardly think of any other songs by Great Artists that affect me that way. And to many people on this thread, those were among the most meaningful songs. When we discussed Hejira (the song) I stifled my harshest criticisms for fear of upsetting people, and still have that concern, so I'll leave it there.

    That leaves Coyote, A Strange Boy, Song For Sharon, Black Crow, Blue Motel Room, and Refuge Of The Roads. I adore those nine songs as much as ever, maybe even more now. I had never really embraced Black Crow musically before, but now I connect with it more. I called Sharon one of my top 3 Joni songs, but after thinking and writing about Refuge the other day, I need to include that one now and say that I actually have 4 favorite Joni songs.

    The travel themes on Hejira, though sometimes indirect, are still deeply meaningful and personal to me. This album was my friend in a sense, and more than any other record from my adulthood, I associate it with life-changing events, transitions, and periods of growth. I think Joni's songwriting attained new heights on Hejira, and that her bold move from the more accessible pop on Court And Spark and Hissing towards more inventive jazz-based sounds were a great triumph for her. Despite my little personal reservations and preferences, I think this is one of the greatest singer-songwriter albums ever recorded. And though there were many fine, much bolder albums to come from her, I think she attained an artistic plateau with Hejira, and that it is her finest album.
     
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  9. groundharp

    groundharp Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger

    Location:
    California Day
    Here's a page from a story that appeared in the "ground level" comic book Star*Reach. The story was clearly inspired by both the music (and beauty) of Joni Mitchell, and ideas that were popularized by Carlos Castaneda. The story follows a young Shaman named "Black Crow" who meets a young woman who looks very much like JM (named "Joni Roxtarr") and after having a short romance with her, decides he hasn't gotten enough of her, and subsequently continues to romance her in various guises/identities (including that of her first record producer -- an obvious David Crosby-type).
    This page quotes from some of the lyrics to "Black Crow".
    [​IMG]
    The art is quite good, don't you agree? The story was written by female comics writer/artist named Lee Marrs, although she didn't do the artwork for this story.
     
  10. Fortysomething

    Fortysomething Forum Resident

    Location:
    Californ-i-a
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  11. Sherwood SST

    Sherwood SST Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells funny.

    Location:
    Ontario
    Absolutely love this album. I think it’s her masterpiece. The addition of Jaco on some of the tracks was a brilliant move. It’s amazing how his bass playing along with only her guitar and voice can make a song so full. Key tracks, coyote, Hejira, refuge of the roads.
     
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  12. Parachute Woman

    Parachute Woman Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    USA
    There is amazing new rare footage of Joni singing 'Coyote' at Gordon Lightfoot's house (Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan also in attendance) in the new Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder documentary.



    I have been aware of this being in the film since reviews first started coming out, but I've been waiting for someone to pull it out and post it by itself. I'm a Dylan fan, but I don't have much interest in watching this new film with all of the fake footage and storytelling in it. But I wanted to see magnificent Joni and here she is. She's extraordinary.

    I thought this belonged here in probably my favorite thread I've ever run.
     
  13. WilliamWes

    WilliamWes Likes to sing along but he knows not what it means

    Location:
    New York
    I started liking Joni when I saw Coyote in The Last Waltz. Picked up Hejira and I went from there. I'll check this out too. I should watch the doc but Im still annoyed at Scorsese for The Last Waltz and his George Harrison doc.
     
  14. Spin Doctor

    Spin Doctor Forum Resident

    Oh my god this is awesome. It's giving me goosebumps
     
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  15. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    Thanks for posting that, it was wonderful to see and hear. This is also one my favorite threads you've run... ;)
     
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  16. BrutandCharisma

    BrutandCharisma Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver, Colorado
    Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn and Gordon Lightfoot hanging out and watching Joni sing "Coyote".

    Damn, do I miss the '70's . ..
     
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  17. Sordel

    Sordel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Switzerland
    Sadly for Dylan fans, this is probably the best single live performance in the documentary.
     
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  18. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    Oh God yes. I gave up on the film yesterday five seconds into that awful Mr Tambourine Man at the start. So I'm immeasurably grateful that PW posted this.
     
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  19. maui jim

    maui jim Forum Resident

    Location:
    West of LA
    No it isn’t. It is a highlight. But there are others.
     
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  20. misteranderson

    misteranderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    englewood, nj
    Fantastic! Early version, I guess - minor tweaks in the lyrics.

    I'll probably watch it five more times. Is that her old Martin, or somebody else's guitar?
     
  21. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I was looking at her dirty brown left fingernails at certain points. She's never really been physically vain, has she?
     
  22. misteranderson

    misteranderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    englewood, nj
    If you chain smoke and play guitar a lot, you're bound to have dirty fingernails at some point.

    I don't know - Joni always seemed pretty put together to me - the clothes, hair, accessories. As to her vanity, who knows? She was a model for a brief while when she was young.
     
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  23. HenryFly

    HenryFly Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I meant no harm. It's just a weird observation of mine. She certainly stopped wearing any prominent make up in the 1969-1972 era. She knew how to model for Norman Seeff for sure.
     
  24. lschwart

    lschwart Senior Member

    Location:
    Richmond, VA
    The groove is a miracle in this performance, and it's so wonderful to see how the song--even without the full final lyric--was so fully formed at such an early point. It's so rare to get a glimpse at a masterpiece so near its point of of origin, and to get a glimpse of it emerging in that particular company is just amazing.

    L.
     
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  25. steviebee

    steviebee Always playing Ese and The Vooduu People

    Location:
    London, England
    What a great thread - I've always liked Hejira, but this discussion will send me back to listen anew...

    My thanks @Parachute Woman :)
     

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