Maps of Music

Hejira (1976)

Where the lyrics of Hejira take you, and where it was really made.

The album's title is an unusual transliteration of an Arabic word meaning departure, and its songs were written while Mitchell was constantly on the road.

Key places

Recorded at A&M Studios (1976)

Recording site A&M Recording Studios — The Discogs release notes say the album was recorded at A&M Studios in Hollywood, Los Angeles. The point uses the studio building coordinates. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Cover photographs at Lake Mendota (1976)

Album cover Lake Mendota — The cover photographs were taken at Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin, after an ice storm. The point marks the lake area. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

New York City, spring 1976 (1976)

In the lyrics Record Plant Studios — Song for Sharon refers to places Mitchell visited on her spring 1976 trip to New York City. The point marks only the city centre, not a specific spot. Google Maps · Apple Maps

Album story

Overview

• Hejira: eighth studio album by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell
• Released 21 November 1976 by Asylum Records
• Material written during ongoing travel in late 1975 and early 1976
• Dominated by Mitchell's guitar and Jaco Pastorius's fretless bass
• Sound: lyrically dense, sprawling songs with jazz-oriented backing
• Lead track Coyote released as a single

Background

• Written during or after three journeys in late 1975 and the first half of 1976
• First journey: a stint in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue in late 1975
• Mitchell became a frequent cocaine user during that period
• A February 1976 US tour for The Hissing of Summer Lawns, about six weeks long, was abandoned about halfway through
• Tension with boyfriend John Guerin, her drummer on that tour, had grown severe
• Third trip: across America with two men, from Los Angeles to Maine, then back to California via Florida and the Gulf of Mexico
• On the way home Mitchell met Tibetan Buddhist master Chogyam Trungpa in Colorado

Recording

• Mitchell had grown frustrated with the rock session musicians hired for Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns
• Her relationship with drummer John Guerin pushed her toward experimental jazz and away from folk and pop roots
• After recording the basic tracks, she met bassist Jaco Pastorius and they formed an immediate musical connection
• Pastorius's bass parts were overdubbed on four of the tracks

Cover

• Front cover portrait taken by Norman Seeff
• Other photographs taken by Joel Bernstein at Lake Mendota, Madison, Wisconsin, after an ice storm

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

• Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter, born Roberta Joan Anderson in 1943 in Fort Macleod, Alberta.

Formation

• Began singing in Saskatoon nightclubs, then performed in Calgary and Toronto before moving to the United States in 1965.
• Her songs were first recorded by other singers, which helped her sign with Reprise Records.
• Debut album Song to a Seagull was released in 1968.

Career

• Blue (1971) is often cited as one of the greatest albums of all time.
• Court and Spark (1974) moved toward jazz influences and became her best-selling album.
• Collaborated with jazz musicians including Jaco Pastorius, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and Charles Mingus.
• Won eleven Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.
• Returned to live performance in 2022 at the Newport Folk Festival after a 2015 brain aneurysm.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Reviewing for Rolling Stone, Ariel Swartley observed that Mitchell had abandoned memorable tunes in favor of new seductive rhythms, lush guitars and spare instrumentation
• Swartley described the result as sophisticated and arresting, and praised the lyrics as incisive and humorous
• Swartley credited Mitchell's voice with a new warmth
• Village Voice critic Robert Christgau was impressed by the way Mitchell subjugates melody to the natural music of language
• Christgau wondered whether the reflections of a female traveler were substantially more interesting than those of male counterparts, especially the third or fourth time around
• In his five star review for Sounds magazine, Tim Lott wrote that it was the most non-instant album she had ever produced on a commercial level
• Nick Kent wrote in the New Musical Express that Hejira is Mitchell's soul-to-soul statement circa 1976, and praised the Pastorius and Carlton duo
• Kent also wrote that it was no worthy successor to Summer Lawns, because most of its sentiments had been presented before

Reappraisal

• In a 2022 review for Pitchfork, Jenn Pelly described the album as restless music of road and sky
• Pelly wrote that the fretless bass, spare percussion and unusual harmonics depict Mitchell's wintry lucidity
• Musicians such as Björk, Danielle Haim, Weyes Blood and St. Vincent have named the album a favorite
• Rolling Stone placed the cover at No. 11 on its list of best album covers in 1991
• Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums (third edition, 2000) voted it number 776

Records

• Peaked at No. 22 in Canada
• No. 13 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, RIAA gold certification
• No. 11 in the UK, silver certification
• Did not garner significant radio airplay
• Ranked No. 133 in Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (2020 edition)

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• During some solo journeys Mitchell donned a red wig and sunglasses and told strangers she met that her name was something else
• The album title is an unusual transliteration of the Arabic word usually rendered as Hijrah or Hegira, meaning departure or exodus
• The figure skater Toller Cranston appears on the back cover
• Mitchell overdubbed Pastorius's bass parts on four of the tracks, and released the album on 21 November 1976

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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