The Album Thing: Joni Mitchell, Hejira

I would share Joni Mitchell’s Hejira with you even if I wasn’t doing the Facebook album thing. I was nominated by a dear friend to post something like ten (ha ha ha) album covers of favorite or transformational albums, blah, blah, blah . . . who cares about the rules.

Hejira is the second Joni Mitchell album I ever got, and by then it was already about three or four years old. I bought it a few months after I’d gotten Mitchell’s Ladies of the Canyon, a folkie favorite. There’s only six years’ difference between the albums, but there’s a world of difference in the sound. Imagine my surprise when I set the needle down and heard this!

“Hejira,” the title track, is probably the best on the album. Every Joni Mitchell fan has a special spiritual place for this masterpiece of poetry, beat, and strings. Hear the lyrics.

Contributing in a big way to this album was Jaco Pastorius, who was Joni Mitchell’s bass player during this time. He was a brilliant, groundbreaking musician. Note his signature fretless sound.