Joni Mitchell - Hejira

[JSngry]

Wow, the American rock press crucified her for Hissing...it's still thought of here (the Rolling Stone review basically told her to fuck off and die) as one of those "self-indulgent career suicide" records like Pet Sounds or Journey Through The Secret Life Of Plants...of course, Brian went crazy, and Stevie retooled to be Somewhat Kinder & Gentler (Hotter Than July was a great record, but very much a mea culpa, and after that....), but Joni just said fuck it and forged ahead...although she did eventually get dropped (aka "contract not renewed") by the label a few years later (iirc, at roughly the same time the same thing happened to Van Morrison, who was just...getting weird, period. Not really better, just weird, although on different days, my opinion will differ as to how much and how bad that really was). She was on her way to being a bona-fide pop star, settled for being a high-visibility cult figure, and still made nice records after having to get a new deal (and she still go Wayne Shorter in on those Geffen records, which I still need to revisit, they didn't really grab me at the time, but some of that might have been me).

In the now-unfashionable parlance of a time done passed, Joni Mitchell had balls. Bless her for that.

[skeith]

Hissing wasn't a transition nearly as much as it was a wholesale destruction. Deep, dark, meaty music but...so long commercial success, right? It left a big pile of ashes for something to rise up from. Thankfully, What arose was Hejira, and not some commercial begging sorry, I'll not do that again, I promise, mea culpa. Too many pop people get a smackdown like that and are cowed forevermore. Not Joni. Oh HELL no not Joni.

Not until the 80s, at least!

'Hissing' was heralded as virtually the Second Coming when it came out in 1975 in the British rock press. I can remember reading the reviews in the late summer and being really anxious to hear the record that was being trumpeted as some sort of radical departure for rock music. For once the claims were born out by the listening. My favourite moment is the guiar playing and Joni's vocal phrasing on 'Don't Interrupt the Sorrow'.

The miracle of Hejira is that it goes somewhere else again - where Hissing seems to be Joni looking at the world around her, Hejira seems to return to her looking within herself, but with greater maturity. Hissing adopts different instrumental approaches from track to track; Hejira seems much more unified in sound.

I really like ' Miles of Aisles' - it has the feel of a real concert. The LA Express may not be groundbreaking musicians but I like the alternative arrangements of songs that were mainly quite spare on the original records. 'Clouds' has a lovely arrangement.

I really enjoy the run of Joni's records from the first to Mingus. I've never connected to any of the 80s/90s things but I did like the two heavily orchestrated things she did in the noughties (or was it earlier?). Haven't heard the last one.

Hey Lark

I enjoyed your insightful look into Hissing and Hejira and Miles of Aisles...really some great analysis on your part... the only point where I disagree (sorry but I have to say this) is on the LA Express arrangement for "Clouds" (actually the title is "Both Sides Now") - the riff that comes up through the song is a bit cliche and the coda at the end actually is so corny it is irritating... but that is just me and I suppose that is why I prefer the guys on the live album Shadows and Light and even more prefer to be hearing Herbie and Wayne on MIngus. I agree though that overall Miles of Aisles is a lovely album and an underrated work of hers.

Edited January 16, 2014 by skeith

[JSngry]

The LA Express (at that time...)...trace it all the way backward into the late-60s Don Ellis scene, but do so by making a left when you get to The Jazz Crusaders turning into The Crusaders and all that went into that, immediately before and after.

None of this music happened in a vacuum or at random, ya' know? It all happened in L.A., and it all involved a lot of naturally willful cross-pollination. Although it did happen away from the eyes and ears of the general public. On the one hand, Linda Ronstadt's scene virtually defined "L.A. Rock" for the decade, Joni proved that the if there is a front, there must be a back.

That's why, I think, Shadows & Light has a different flavor - not just is it more "overtly jazz", it's also overtly "less L.A."...perhaps even more defiant than the material it entails in that regard.

[A Lark Ascending]

Sorry, Both Sides Now, of course. I suppose one of the things I like about the arrangement is the way it links from the acoustic section with a quiet opening to the more electric final songs. Just provides a nice transition for me.

I can hear that LA reference too - it's all over the Steely Dan records of the period too (often the same musicians, iirc).

My background with JM was a bit odd - I completely ignored her until '74, writing her off as wishy-washy singer-songwriter for 'girls'. Somehow I bought Court and Spark that year and was converted. Miles of Aisles was my first experience (apart from random radio hearings) of the pre-C&S music. I can see the record would sound very different coming at it after hearing the original albums.

I wonder if being immersed in John Martyn might have made weird Joni more palatable on first hearing. Although different in many ways, he also went for the strange chord choices, jazzy feel (he was actually much more prone to the improvisatory) and that way of sliding his voice over the music with unpredictable accenting. Maybe 'Solid Air ' was the real Joni Mitchell album before Hissing!

Edited January 16, 2014 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

I can hear that LA reference too - it's all over the Steely Dan records of the period too (often the same musicians, iirc).

Yes, and the generation that came after as well...who woulda thunk it would all end up in/with Toto? Not that there's anything wrong with that...

But really....follow those player backwards, and the trails eventually end up at Don Ellis in some form or fashion, directly or indirectly...so when looking at the late-60s/very early 70s albums of John Klemmer, Howard Roberts, etc, Don Ellis becomes at least as much a focal point/incubator for something that wouldn't include him, but was nevertheless fostered by his....spirit? Philosophy?

Not really sure, but people talk about Stan Kenton being a similar figure in the late 40s/early 50s, but if you ask me, Joni Mitchell matters a lot more than, say, Howard Rumsey. If you ask me, that is.

And the Jazz Crusaders playing "Elanor Rigby" and then becoming jsut The Crusaders, that begins to look like less a move made for commercial survival and instead people doing what feels right to them for reason both commercial and social.

That's the difference between "pop music" and Pop Music!

[A Lark Ascending]

I never cared for the Crusaders at the time, but have come to love them (and the JC) - I'm sure it's because the ground was laid listing to those Joni and SD records.

[JSngry]

Yes, no doubt. And I don't know about you, but that just really...really opens up the "landscape" for me as far as hearing all that music as not being unrelated and/or randomly occurring unrelated events.

At some point, all the dots will connect, and the last piece of the puzzle will be put into place. Until then, hey...dot by dot, piece by piece...

[A Lark Ascending]

Yes. Musical history...and history in general...tends to get written in linear form. Those lines can quickly become orthodoxies that miss the lateral connections.

[fent99]

I've a vague memory that some of the Hejira material debuted live on the Rolling Thunder Review tours with Dylan, is that right? Guessing these were solo acoustic slots? Thats not a chronology or scene I'd place that material with and it always surprised me that this material would be on that bill.

[A Lark Ascending]

Some good news amidst the all too frequent announcements of musicians passing on:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/aug/22/joni-mitchell-gig-recovery-aneurysm-la-chick-corea-concert

Edited August 23, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

[medjuck]

On 1/16/2014 at 0:08 AM, fent99 said:

I've a vague memory that some of the Hejira material debuted live on the Rolling Thunder Review tours with Dylan, is that right? Guessing these were solo acoustic slots? Thats not a chronology or scene I'd place that material with and it always surprised me that this material would be on that bill.

I saw that tour but can't remember what she sang.  She supposedly wrote Coyote about Sam Shepherd who was n the tour with her.  BTW Is  Hejira the one that has a photo of the skater Toller Crantston on the back or inside over? And is the video of Miles of Aisles the one that begins with the film of The Teenagers singing "I'm Not a Juvenile Delinquent". (I may have  misremembered both.  Had "Miles" on a Lazer disc and I no longer have the disc of a machine to play it on.) 

Edited August 25, 2017 by medjuck

[sonnymax]