Love Letter to a Joni Mitchell Road Song
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 12.19.07 | 11:46 AM ET
In Slate, Ron Rosenbaum celebrates binge-listening to Joni Mitchell’s “Amelia,” from her “Hejira” album. “It’s not just a love song: It’s a road song, it’s a motel song, it’s a Southwestern desert song, it’s a disappearance and death song,” he writes. It’s a lovely piece. I go through Joni Mitchell “Blue” jags from time to time—the song and the album of the same name—so I can relate. Lately, on runs in my neighborhood, I’ve been binge-listening to “Hard Sun” from Eddie Vedder’s “Into the Wild” soundtrack. I expect that to pass soon. Here’s a great YouTube video of Mitchell playing “Amelia” circa 1983:
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
TambourineMan 12.19.07 | 2:26 PM ET
Love Amelia and Coyote. But my favorite Joni road songs are “California” and “Night Ride Home.” The latter, I listen to over and over again, like a mental patient.
“I love the man beside me
We love the open road
No phones till Friday
Far from the overkill
Far from the overload”
Not Joni’s best lyric, by any stretch, but its got that something.
Jim Benning 12.19.07 | 2:44 PM ET
Good call, TambourineMan. “Night Ride Home” is a great song. It has that some ethereal sound as “Amelia,” I think.
By the way, did you see this passage from the Rosenbaum story:
“Bob Dylan once told me that he’d written ‘Tangled up in Blue,’ the opening song of the much-celebrated Blood on the Tracks, after spending a weekend immersed in JM’s Blue (although I think he may have been talking about the whole album, not just the song).”
Ever heard that before?
Kelsey 12.19.07 | 3:25 PM ET
Hard Sun was on when I read this post. Freaky.
tricia 12.20.07 | 1:45 AM ET
how about ‘refuge of the roads’? can’t say it clearer than that…
“westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads”.
TambourineMan 12.20.07 | 2:53 AM ET
Jim, I have heard the bit about Blue inspiring Tangled Up In Blue. If I remember correctly, Rosenbaum alleges Bob said something to that effect during a 70s interview, for Playboy, I believe. Still working on my masters in Dylanology.
Back to Joni. Yes, Tricia. “Refuge of the Roads,” absolutely.
Jim Benning 12.20.07 | 2:09 PM ET
Spooky, Kelsey.
From what I hear, TambourineMan, you’re well on your way to a Dylanology doctorate, no?