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Hejira (album)

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Hejira is a 1976 folk/rock/jazz album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell. The album title is a transliteration of the Arabic word hijra, which means "journey", referring specifically to the prophet Muhammad's and his followers' escape from Mecca to Medina in 622. The songs on the album were largely written by Mitchell on a trip by car from Maine back to Los Angeles, California, with prominent imagery including highways, small towns and snow. The photographs on the front and back cover were taken of Mitchell by Norman Seeff and appear against a backdrop of Lake Mendota, in Madison, Wisconsin, after an ice storm.[1]

Themes

Mitchell said of the album: "the whole 'Hejira' album was really inspired... I wrote the album while traveling cross-country by myself and there is this restless feeling throughout it... The sweet loneliness of solitary travel." [2]

Dominated by Mitchell's guitar and Jaco Pastorius's distinctive fretless bass, it drew on a range of influences but was more cohesive and accessible than some of her later more jazz-oriented work. "Coyote", "Amelia" and "Hejira" all became concert staples shortly after Hejira's release, especially after being featured on the live album Shadows and Light, alongside "Furry Sings the Blues" and "Black Crow".

Though "Coyote" and "Black Crow" are fast-strummed folksy numbers, the rest of Hejira is slow and often languid, notably the epic "Song for Sharon", which deals with the conflict between freedom and marriage faced by a woman and is interspersed with images of New York City including a trip to Mandolin Brothers in Staten Island. "Amelia" interweaves a story of a desert journey (the "hejira within the hejira"[3]) with the famous aviator Amelia Earhart who mysteriously vanished during a flight over the Pacific Ocean. Mitchell has commented on the origins of the song: "I was thinking of Amelia Earhart and addressing it from one solo pilot to another... sort of reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do." [2] The song repeatedly shifts between two keys, giving it a constant unsettled feeling.[4]

"Furry Sings the Blues" was inspired by a meeting that occurred between Mitchell and the blues guitarist and singer Furry Lewis in Memphis in 1975. Lewis was displeased with Mitchell's unauthorized use of his name and "hated" the song.[5][6] He told Rolling Stone in February 1977: "She shouldn't have used my name in no way, shape, form or faction without consultin' me 'bout it first. The woman came over here and I treated her right, just like I does everybody that comes over. She wanted to hear 'bout the old days, said it was for her own personal self, and I told it to her like it was, gave her straight oil from the can."[6]

Release

Commercially, the album did not do as well as its two predecessors, although it still reached #13 on the Billboard 200 pop album chart and was certified Gold, but failed to get significant airplay on commercial radio. Critically, the album was generally well received and has since been recognized as one of the high-water marks in Mitchell's career. In 2000, German Spex magazine critics voted it the 55th greatest album of the 20th century, calling it "a self-confident, coolly elegant design".[citation needed] Furthermore, its cover was chosen as the 11th greatest album cover by Rolling Stone in 1991.[7] Lyle Mays, the keyboardist of the Pat Metheny Group and co-composer of most of their music, has remarked that the album is a personal favorite of his.[citation needed]

Track listing

All tracks written & arranged by Joni Mitchell (Copyright Warner Bros. Music).

Side one

  1. "Coyote" – 5:01
  2. "Amelia" – 6:01
  3. "Furry Sings the Blues" – 5:07
  4. "A Strange Boy" – 4:15
  5. "Hejira" – 6:42

Side two

  1. "Song for Sharon" – 8:40
  2. "Black Crow" – 4:22
  3. "Blue Motel Room" – 5:04
  4. "Refuge of the Roads" – 6:42

Personnel

See also

(both sometimes transliterated as hijira or hejira)

References

  1. ^ Doug Moe, "Joni Mitchell and Lake Mendota", The Capital Times, March 31, 2006.
  2. ^ a b http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/12-96/12-07-96/b01ae065.htm
  3. ^ Rosenbaum, Ron (December 4, 2007), "The Best Joni Mitchell Song Ever", Slate.
  4. ^ Manoff, Tom, Joni Mitchell's Stylistic Journey, PBS.
  5. ^ http://blogsarchive.newsobserver.com/beat/index.php?p=11711&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1
  6. ^ a b Rolling Stone article: "Furry Lewis is Furious at Joni." February 24, 1977.
  7. ^ http://rateyourmusic.com/list/fedderedder/rolling_stones_100_greatest_album_covers
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