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Joni Mitchell - Hejira
What can I say about this album. I have never met Joni Mitchell (although I did see her play live at Wembley around 1982 - not her best period), and I have no real personal experiences relating to this album. All I can say is that I first bought it in 1978 (my first ever Joni album - I've since bought everything that she has ever made) and I played it until it became almost smooth over the next 10 years. In 1988 I got my first CD player & Hejira was of course one of my first CDs - it was my first CD to replace a vinyl album, and in the subsequent 12 years it has probably been played more than any other CD.
When listening to Hejira, the first thing that you notice is the purity & simplicity of the sound. This album was not created in the studio, nor were studio overdubs & embellishments allowed to interfere with a sound that is essentially lead, rhythm & bass guitars + vocals & drums. Only on the occasional track will you hear sparing use of harmonica, clarinet or horns. Hejira was written on the road, about the road, about travel, moving on (In fact Hejira is an Arabic word meaning "to take flight (honorably), to move on in order to find oneself"). The feel that permeates this album is one of searching, one of travelling even into space- this only suffices to show insignificant you are
The lyrics do not conform to the verse chorus verse standard, but are more poetic prose, and any of them stand up in their own right as poetry. They find Joni in an impossible situation where she has made a career out of writing songs that people could relate to their own lives, but due to the success & travelling in her life, normal relationships are impossible
Musically as well, this is an astonishing record. For me, in many respects, the bass guitar playing on "Coyote", "Hejira", "Black Crow" & "Refuge Of The Roads" is just about the best playing of any instrument on any album of any style. Jaco Pastorius was a jazz fretless bass guitarist, achieving fame & prominence with the excellent "Weather Report". It was only by chance that he appears on this album at all, as it had already been finished without him, but Joni was not happy with the bottom end of the sound, and by chance they were introduced. His bass playing was then recorded & overdubbed on these four tracks, giving them a wonderfully liquid & freeform feel, quite unlike anything that anyone else could possibly play. The musical relationship was to last for several albums - "Don Juans's Reckless Daughter", "Mingus", & "Shadows & Light", only coming to an end when she married Larry Klein, another bass player. Jaco Pastorius was shot dead outside a bar a few years later.
Ultimately, this is an album that needs to be listened to over & over again. I must have played it at least 500 times - it still sounds as fresh as the first time - indeed it sounds a whole lot better (CD notwithstanding) - every time that I play it, I hear something new, something fresh to add to the overall canvas - a beautiful portrait of life on the road.
"Refuge Of The Roads"
"In a highway service station Over The month of June Was 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 You couldn't see these cold water rest rooms Or this baggage overload Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads"
"Coyote"
"No regrets Coyote We just come from such different sets of circumstance I'm up all night in the studios And you're up early on your ranch You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail While the sun is ascending And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel... There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone & the skin & the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit & run driver no no Racing away You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines of the freeway" 