― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Tuesday, 17 February 2004 00:27 (twenty years ago) link
― justin (Justin M), Friday, 27 February 2004 09:26 (twenty years ago) link
I'm listening to it on headphones tonight, just for context.
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 8 April 2004 06:58 (twenty years ago) link
The guitar tone at the opening of Refuge of The Roads is perfect.
― derrick (derrick), Thursday, 8 April 2004 07:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Thursday, 8 April 2004 12:54 (twenty years ago) link
― mullygrubber (gaz), Thursday, 8 April 2004 13:26 (twenty years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Thursday, 8 April 2004 14:09 (twenty years ago) link
it paints such a vivid worldview, complete with ambivalence, which enables me to...not overlook, but perhaps appreciate the more self-serving parts in context.
what's most impressive is the evident respect joni has for her friend. surprisingly there's not a strong sense that joni is insisting that she took the right path... just her path. but there's just enough contempt in there to make it interesting.
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 7 May 2004 19:52 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 8 May 2004 08:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Saturday, 8 May 2004 08:35 (twenty years ago) link
it's not too early here, it's 11:30 AM
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 8 May 2004 08:38 (twenty years ago) link
On the whole, I see the lyrics of Hissing as always revolving around the same theme of free spirits of the 60ies trapped in the numbing dullness of 70ies suburban apathy. On Hejira, Joni would turn the mirror on herself and realize that she's also stuck in a dead-end.
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Saturday, 8 May 2004 09:15 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Saturday, 8 May 2004 10:41 (twenty years ago) link
I agree that it's not entirely successful in vindicating her; I suspect she knew that and that makes it even more involving.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 8 May 2004 12:21 (twenty years ago) link
Still and all, I like "For the Roses" the best; something about the sound of "Court and Spark" grates on me, it just seems awfully trebly or something, but the songs are classic. I have a problem with this kind of '70s production, I'm afraid--Tom Scott gets on my nerves in a major way. I'm not often in the mood to hear Joni Mitchell any more, I feel the same way about her I do about James Taylor, who I admit I enjoy for about two songs--then the self-involvement kicks in and I have to go listen to something else.
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Saturday, 8 May 2004 19:16 (twenty years ago) link
― amateur!st (amateurist), Sunday, 9 May 2004 23:36 (twenty years ago) link
― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Monday, 10 May 2004 02:49 (twenty years ago) link
I'm not so sure. To me it feels more like an offhand dismissal of hipsterism as a solution to the dullness she describes in the rest of the album ("Jungle Line" could also be seen as such), or at least as a universal one. Neither attitutes, street hipness or glamorous frivolity, would work, if they don't stem from the person inside (70's belief in self-development and all...). What's interesting in the song is that she doesn't really know herself what exactly would be the path for her. There's some doubt, and maybe some envy, when she dismisses her friend's obscurity as something for her.
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Monday, 10 May 2004 06:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Friday, 11 June 2004 06:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 11 June 2004 10:12 (nineteen years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 11 June 2004 10:25 (nineteen years ago) link
uh no way. the lyrics and the music are intertwined anyway. summerlawns works here to, ah, whats that when the sum is greater than the parts? hejira is all parts. and rhythmically? lawns has jungle line. and centrpiece. and shadows and light.
― mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:35 (nineteen years ago) link
― mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― mullygrubber (gaz), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:42 (nineteen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 11 June 2004 13:44 (nineteen years ago) link
― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 11 June 2004 16:15 (nineteen years ago) link
Having to choose between her two best albums, I will go for "Summer Lawns", for its more varied sound. On "Hejira" that chorus guitar becomes a bit weary on you after having been used on every single track.
-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...) (webmail), February 16th, 2004 4:27 PM. (GeirHong) (link)
vs.
I prefer "Summer Lawns" for its somewhat more varied production. "Hejira" has interesting songs too, but you do get tired of that chorus guitar after having listened to it for an entire album.
-- Geir Hongro (geirhon...) (webmail), June 11th, 2004 4:12 AM. (GeirHong) (later) (link)
― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 11 June 2004 17:10 (nineteen years ago) link
Stand by the lyrics bit - Summer Lawns has the rather enjoyable but trite morass of its title track to answer for. Hejira leads off with one of J.M.'s best lyrics EVAH. For me Hejira is second only to Blue.
NB I used to really represent hard for Summer Lawns but then I joined the Hejira cult
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 11 June 2004 18:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Friday, 11 June 2004 18:40 (nineteen years ago) link
I think the lyrics on Hissing are generally pretty great, and they're often very powerful because - under the sumptuous imagery - they're pretty pointed. But I think she was mainly working with tighter song structures on that album so there's nothing as, yeah, decadent as "Song For Sharon" or "Hejira" or "Amelia". I half-agree with Geir that the basic sound of Hejira is very repetitive (or, rather, consistent), but I happen to love its sound so I don't mind at all.
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 12 June 2004 00:12 (nineteen years ago) link
at the time it exerted a powerfully strange hold over me. and even now i cannot hear it any other way - it may be pretentious - certainly my love of it is grounded in mystery.
― mullygrubber (gaz), Saturday, 12 June 2004 04:55 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 12 June 2004 05:05 (nineteen years ago) link
court and spark passed me by somehow. have to rehear that.
― mullygrubber (gaz), Saturday, 12 June 2004 05:08 (nineteen years ago) link
― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Saturday, 12 June 2004 05:34 (nineteen years ago) link
(shameful middle class admission: joni was the first "intelligent" woman i ever heard say "fuck")
― mullygrubber (gaz), Saturday, 12 June 2004 05:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― mullygrubber (gaz), Saturday, 12 June 2004 05:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Tuesday, 12 October 2004 20:48 (nineteen years ago) link
Just listened to Hejira in the car driving to Kamloops; it still wins for me. One of my very favourite albums every released.
Joni's getting a little shameless with the repackaging, however; two new comps of old material out this fall, one an oddly-paced 'best-of' and the other a self-determined collection of 'political songs'. They're handsomely packaged with her paintings and all, but is this really necessary?
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 04:19 (nineteen years ago) link
― Helios Creed (orion), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 05:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― JaXoN (JasonD), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 05:43 (nineteen years ago) link
― Helios Creed (orion), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 05:44 (nineteen years ago) link
Perhaps Blue has to hit you all at once. It hit me when I was 14 or so, and I can't be objective about it.
― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 06:38 (nineteen years ago) link
― bulbs (bulbs), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 08:15 (nineteen years ago) link
― Baaderoni (Fabfunk), Wednesday, 13 October 2004 08:21 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Emancipation of Baaderonixx (KERERU 4 LIFE!) (Fabfunk), Thursday, 26 May 2005 14:30 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 26 May 2005 14:37 (nineteen years ago) link
― The Emancipation of Baaderonixx (KERERU 4 LIFE!) (Fabfunk), Thursday, 26 May 2005 14:40 (nineteen years ago) link
― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 26 May 2005 17:01 (nineteen years ago) link
If I needed a second I'd sooner look to Ladies of the Canyon or even Both Sides Now.
― The Mad Puffin, Thursday, 26 May 2005 17:04 (nineteen years ago) link
― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 26 May 2005 17:05 (nineteen years ago) link