Joni Mitchell – Hejira

It's a kind of musical road movie, created during a long trip across the States, from Maine on the East Coast back to California. Joni Mitchell tells about staying in motels and fleeting acquaintances ("Coyote", "Blue Motel Room", "Furry Sings The Blues", "A Strange Boy"), ponders about soulmates, like the tragic pilot Amelia Earhart ("Amelia"), philosophizes about the inner conflict between the urge for freedom and rootedness ("Song For Sharon", "Refuge Of The Roads") up to the almost narcissistic self-search ("Hejira"). And somehow the album also captures the spirit of the fading flower power era, just when disillusionment entered pop music with punk

Musically, the legendary fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius stands out alongside Mitchell's characteristic guitar playing. With his inimitable style on fretless bass, he provides the melodic underpinnings on "Coyote", "Hejira", "Black Crow" and "Refuge Of The Roads". Among the eleven session musicians was lead guitarist Larry Carlton and Neil Young, who unpacked his harmonica for "Furry Sings The Blues"

The unusual length of most of the tracks is striking for Joni Mitchell's standards, which - as with "Song For Sharon" - sometimes reaches the eight and a half minute mark.

There are albums that create a distinctive feel. Joni Mitchell's "Hejira" (1976) is one of the rare complete works of art in pop music, those albums where everything fits - from the lyrics to the artwork. Probably Mitchell's most melancholic album, its nine rather sparsely instrumented, extremely introverted songs reflect exactly the mood suggested by the cover on the front: the endless expanse of a lonely highway, the wintry cold of a snow-covered field. Named after the historical flight of the Prophet Mohammed from Mecca to Medina in 622 A.D., it stands for retreat, inner contemplation and the search for meaning

It's a kind of musical road movie, created during a long trip across the States, from Maine on the East Coast back to California. Joni Mitchell tells about staying in motels and fleeting acquaintances ("Coyote", "Blue Motel Room", "Furry Sings The Blues", "A Strange Boy"), ponders about soulmates, like the tragic pilot Amelia Earhart ("Amelia"), philosophizes about the inner conflict between the urge for freedom and rootedness ("Song For Sharon", "Refuge Of The Roads") up to the almost narcissistic self-search ("Hejira"). And somehow the album also captures the spirit of the fading flower power era, just when disillusionment entered pop music with punk

Musically, the legendary fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius stands out alongside Mitchell's characteristic guitar playing. With his inimitable style on fretless bass, he provides the melodic underpinnings on "Coyote", "Hejira", "Black Crow" and "Refuge Of The Roads". Among the eleven session musicians was lead guitarist Larry Carlton and Neil Young, who unpacked his harmonica for "Furry Sings The Blues"

The unusual length of most of the tracks is striking for Joni Mitchell's standards, which - as with "Song For Sharon" - sometimes reaches the eight and a half minute mark.