Heavy Joni Period

I’m on vacation from my radio job at The Current this week and I’ve been taking a break from listening to the radio for the most part. That’s pushed me back into album’s and I decided to do some Joni work this morning. Why? Well, on the final episode of Season 1 of the Warming House I played the record The Last Waltz from The Band. I had never really taken in the majesty that is Joni’s background singing (from backstage no less) on Neil Young’s rendition of Helpless.

And then seeing her do Coyote, I think she’s the best guest of the whole show. It’s incredible.

Then of course I went to the wikipedia page for the tune and found this amazing comment about the tune for Ruth Charnock: "either the most flirtatious song about fucking or the most graphic song about flirting ever written." That line comes from Charnock’s book “Joni Mitchell: New Critical Readings”.

I love this song. But it comes from one of the album’s from Joni that I wasn’t as connected with. As a bass player I should love Joni’s work with Jaco and with all the great players in the late 70s. But I have always preferred Joni pre her connection with jazz players. But, I knew it was time to give Hejira a listen after reading this entry on Princevault.com about Prince’s amazing fretless bass work on So Blue.

(from Princevault.com)

According to André Cymone, So Blue was inspired by Joni Mitchell's album Hejira released in November 1976 while Prince was working on his first album, and specifically the song Blue Motel Room which Prince has covered during the Nude Tour in 1990. The cover of Hejira can also be seen briefly during a scene in Under The Cherry Moon. This album has also been mentioned as one of the six records bought during the 2016 edition of the Record Store Day at the Electric Fetus along with a volume of Swan Silvertones' Inspirational Gospel Classics, The Chambers Brothers' The Time Has Come (1967), Stevie Wonder's Talking Book (released in 1972), a 1987 Best Of Missing Persons and Santana's Santana IV (the latter being released on 15 April 2016, the day before the Record Store Day and a few days before Prince's passing).

So I gave Hejira two run throughs this morning and it’s stunning. The arrangements are incredible, I probably didn’t like it as much the first time I tried cause I thought the fretless bass was cheesy. I was just wrong. The guitar work, the floaty energy, the vibe of the record is wonderful. But since the last time I listened I’ve learned to listen more closely to the lyrics from a song. And no surprise here, Joni doesn’t disappoint.

Why not go listen to Joni Mitchell, Prince and other amazing music today?