#Hejira (1976)

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

Asylum Records billboard promoting Joni Mitchell’s “Hejira” Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA.

[krispyweiss]

Remastered “Coyote” Announces the Asylum Albums (1976-1980)

- Four-album reissue arrives June 21

In its 2024 remaster, 1976’s “Coyote” sounds brighter than ever; however, the percussion is shoved down lower in the mix as a result.

It’s a subtle difference and what it means for the other songs on ’76’s Hejira, ’77’s Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, ’79’s Mingus and 1980’s live Shadows and Light will become evident when the Asylum Albums (1976-1980) arrives June 21.

Bernie Grundman remastered the LPs from the original analog tapes. There’s no bonus material but with two double albums - Don Juan’s and Shadows and Light - in the mix, the set will not be short of music.

5/1/24

[almanaqua]

Hejira (1976), Joni Mitchell

SHM–CD, Japão, reedição de abril 2011

[nicealbumcovers]

Hejira by Joni Mitchell

[reckonslepoisson]

Hejira, Joni Mitchell (1976)

Joni Mitchell’s getaway record, Hejira is journeylike in its psychedelia. Its keys push out into the beyond and Jaco Pistorius’ fretless bass hums along; Mitchell herself is at her least bound by pop conventions, reeling off stories rather than attempting any sort of typical songwriting.

Pick: ‘Amelia’

[balladofsallyrose]

neil young & joni mitchell

Neil Young debut solo album (1969) artwork cover Roland Diehl / Neil Young Watercolour Portrait by Joni Mitchell, 1969 / Neil Young: The Rolling Stone Interview – Rolling Stone by Cameron Crowe, Aug 1975 / Joni Mitchell and Neil Young at the airport, 1969 / Sugar Mountain - Neil Young / Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell by David Yaffe / The Circle Game - Joni Mitchell / Neil Young excerpt from Waging Heavy Peace (2012), photo by Rich Zimmermann, 1973 @meadow-dusk / Joni Mitchell with Neil Young & The Santa Monica Flyers, August 26, 1973 / Review: Neil Young’s ‘Archives II’ Is a Stunning Look Back at His Peak – Rolling Stone, Nov 2020 / Neil Young excerpt from Waging Heavy Peace (2012) / Warner Records’ launch party for Neil Young’s “Tonight’s the Night” ca. June 1975 / Neil being soft with Joni at The Last Waltz following “Furry Sings the Blues” @meadow-dusk /Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, The Last Waltz, Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, California, November 25, 1976./ The Making of The Last Waltz, the Band’s Concert-Film Masterpiece | Vanity Fair /The Last Waltz "Helpless" @joelmccrea / Joni quote / Credit on Hejira album (1976) / Neil Young photo in Rolling Stone, Dec 2021 / Joni Mitchell photo by Anton Corbijn, Chalk Mark in A Rainstorm album (1988) / 'I Stand With Neil Young!' Joni Mitchell, Jan 2022 / Neil Young Interview: Crazy Horse ‘Barn,’ Archives, ‘Harvest’ – Rolling Stone, Dec 2021 / Neil Young and Joni Mitchell at the Grammys, Feb 2012

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Hejira

by Joni Mitchell

I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars That shell shock love away There's comfort in melancholy When there's no need to explain It's just as natural as the weather In this moody sky today In our possessive coupling So much could not be expressed So now I'm returning to myself These things that you and I suppressed I see something of myself in everyone Just at this moment of the world As snow gathers like bolts of lace Waltzing on a ballroom girl You know it never has been easy Whether you do or you do not resign Whether you travel the breadth of extremities Or stick to some straighter line Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock They're either going to thaw out or freeze Listen Strains of Benny Goodman Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees I'm porous with travel fever But you know I'm so glad to be on my own Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger Can set up trembling in my bones I know no one's going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone Well I looked at the granite markers Those tribute to finality to eternity And then I looked at myself here Chicken scratching for my immortality In the church they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears There's the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years We're only particles of change I know I know Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I'm always bound and tied to someone White flags of winter chimneys Waving truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way

© March 19, 1976; Crazy Crow Music (as "Traveler"), renewed November 5, 1976 with additional lyrics (as "Hejira")

[mclennonlgbt]

Exactly 50 years ago - the most important album of my life was released: "Court and Spark" by Joni Mitchell.

I wondered for a long time which of Joni's albums from her so-called the golden era (i.e. a series of albums from 1971 to 1976) is my favorite. Currently, "Blue" or "Hejira" are more popular, but today I can definitely say that I choose "Court and Spark".

Everything is perfect here: melodies, lyrics, arrangements, performance, production… And of course Joni's vocal. Someone might say that these exact elements are present in all Joni's albums, or at least in all those released in the 1970s. It's true. However, the thing about "Court and Spark" is that it is also very optimistic. Yes, you can hear melancholy in many places, but the overall tone of the album is positive.

(by the way, my second favorite Mitchell's album is "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter", also more optimistic than most of her discography)

I could go on, but words cannot express how connected I am with "Court and Spark". In 2022, I probably played it 2,137 times (greetings to Polish people). And it always moves me. A fantastic mosaic of sounds. I highly recommend listening to the "Joni Mitchell Archives vol. 3" boxing, the demos and other versions of songs from "Court and Spark" are simply amazing!

[mogwai-movie-house]

The 50 Best Albums of the 1970s

Blood On The Tracks (1974) - Bob Dylan

Imagine (1971) - John Lennon

Horses (1975) - Patti Smith

Exile On Main Street (1972) - The Rolling Stones

Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970) - Simon & Garfunkel

Plastic Ono Band (1970) - John Lennon

Blue (1971) - Joni Mitchell

Music For Airports (1978) - Brian Eno

Low (1977) - David Bowie

Transformer (1972) - Lou Reed

Unknown Pleasures (1979) - Joy Division

New Boots & Panties (1977) - Ian Dury

Discover America (1972) - Van Dyke Parks

Clear Spot (1972) - Captain Beefheart

This Year's Model (1978) - Elvis Costello

Ege Bam Yasi (1972) - Can

Moondog 2 (1971) - Moondog

Raw Power (1973) - Iggy And The Stooges

Third (Sister Lovers) (1978) - Big Star

It's Too Late To Stop Now (1974) - Van Morrison

Marquee Moon (1977) - Television

Velvet Donkey (1975) - Ivor Cutler

What's Goin' On (1971) - Marvin Gaye

Sticky Fingers (1971) - The Rolling Stones

Into The Music (1979) - Van Morrison

Moondance (1970) - Van Morrison

Sheik Yerbouti (1979) - Frank Zappa

Pink Moon (1972) - Nick Drake

L.A. Woman (1971) - The Doors

Hunky Dory (1971) - David Bowie

More Songs About Music & Food (1978) - Talking Heads

Rust Never Sleeps (1979) - Neil Young

Meddle (1971) - Pink Floyd

Discreet Music (1975) - Brian Eno

Talking Heads 77 (1977) - Talking Heads

Fear of Music (1979) - Talking Heads

Loaded (1970) - The Velvet Underground

The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) - Joni Mitchell

Wish You Were Here (1975) - Pink Floyd

Closing Time (1973) - Tom Waits

Trans-Europe Express - Kraftwerk

There's A Riot Goin' On (1971) - Sly Stone

Let It Be (1970) - The Beatles

The Ramones (1976) - The Ramones

Meet The Residents (1974) - The Residents

Never Mind The Bollocks (1977) - The Sex Pistols

Rumours (1977) - Fleetwood Mac

American Beauty (1970) - The Grateful Dead

Radio City (1974) - Big Star

Baltimore (1978) - Nina Simone

(Also Rans: Lorca (1970) - Tim Buckley / Paul Simon (1972) /There Goes Rhymin' Simon (1973) - Paul Simon / Ziggy Stardust (1972) - David Bowie / Future Days (1973) / Soundtracks (1970) - Can Judee Sill (1971) - Judee Sill/ #1 Record (1972) - Big Star / Veedon Fleece (1974) - Van Morrison / Hejira (1976) - Joni Mitchell / Heroes (1977) - David Bowie)

[rastronomicals]

6:07 AM EST December 7, 2023:

Joni Mitchell - "Hejira" From the album Hejira (November 1976)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Wonderful fretless bass guitar work from Jaco Pastorius

[jonismitchell]

Top 5 albums from the 60s/70s/80s

60s: the freewheelin' bob dylan (1963), highway 61 revisited by bob dylan (1965), blonde on blonde by bob dylan (1966), songs of leonard cohen (1967), bookends by simon and garfunkel (1968) honourable mention: song to a seagull by joni mitchell

70s: blue by joni mitchell (1971), for the roses by joni mitchell (1972), court and spark by joni mitchell (1974), blood on the tracks by bob dylan (1975), hejira by joni mitchell (1976) honourable mentions: the stranger by billy joel, tapestry by carole king, darkness on the edge of town by bruce springsteen, songs of love and hate by leonard cohen

80s: born in the u.s.a by bruce springsteen (1984), various positions by leonard cohen (1984), hounds of love by kate bush (1985), storm front by billy joel (1989), bleach by nirvana (1989)

[bobdylan-n-jonimitchell]

Joni Mitchell performing “Furry Sings The Blues” accompanied by Neil Young & Robbie Robertson—The Last Waltz, November 25, 1976.

[dk-thrive]

Love, the strongest poison and medicine of all.

Joni Mitchell, from “Strange Boy” in the album Hejira (1976)

[aphid]

alone, wine drunk, and pacing around my apartment blasting hejira (1976) by joni mitchell

[nathanlafraneer]

1980: Joni Mitchell and Toller Cranston make some deeply Canadian art

I came across a video today that I haven't seen or thought about since high school; someone was kind enough to post Joni Mitchell's "music video" (I'm sure she'd like me to call it a short film) for the song "Hejira." It was shot in 1979 to be inserted into the ill-begotten live concert film Shadows and Light and features Canadian figure skater Toller Cranston skating over the live recording of "Hejira." I wondered immediately if fs people knew about this pre-MTV camp masterpiece.

I'll come right out and say it: this video is fucking fabulous. It's experimental reach, aesthetic simplicity, and Canadian earnestness more than makes up for how silly it is. Are Mitchell and Cranston supposed to be lovers in this film? Is he some sort of athletic manifestation of her? The two had collaborated before: he posed for photographs for the Hejira album packaging back in 1976.

It all starts with Joan in her "Black Crow" getup (and black skates!) skating around Cranston who appears to be asleep or dead on the ice. He seems to be stirred by her birdlike sexual mysticism and comes alive again as she scuttles away. His body caves again, he exalts her flapping footwork. They do not reunite.

Then it's showtime. Cranston pulls out some seriously beautiful spins and spirals with positions I know I've never seen before. No jumps here, just the fundamentals done exquisitely. The scene is cut with a "bridal girl" spinning in slow-motion in the snow and shots of Mitchell singing with the track, the only real "music video" element in the film. I particularly like his rolling collapse towards the end of the song, followed immediately by a high kick. I'll bet you anything this kind of Swan Lake pose was a Joni Mitchell direction.

The video is quite effective in interpreting or evoking the ideas percolating around "Hejira," a song Mitchell wrote following a long cross-country drive, all alone. It reflects on love and connection from that isolated position, about what it means to be "bound and tied to someone" (she sings "hung up on someone" in the live version). Cranston's performance is solitary, powerful, vulnerable, filmed from start to finish in spotlight amid total blackness. It's a vibe!

Of course a collaboration this Canadian couldn't stay out of the Toronto Star! She apparently nabbed him while he was touring with Ice Capades. They shot the video once the crowd left. I'm sure many cigarettes were had as Cranston skated until "the very wee hours of the morning." Woof.

If you need more Toller (and who doesn't?) please watch his ice shows, like Strawberry Ice, which would come just a few years after the Hejira video. There is literally nothing like them. I'm also partial to his '81 World Pro skate to "La Rondine."

[worldsandemanations]

Joel Bernstein

Joni Mitchell ice skating on Lake Mendota, WI was chosen by her for the Hejira LP gatefold, March, 1976.