At 12:45 PM 1/22/2003 -0500, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In the This Month is History section of jmdl, it tells us that THOSL peaked at #4 on the U.S. charts, and HEJIRA peaked at #13. That's amazing, huh? With no hits on the radio? Wow.
The popularity of Hejira is itself remarkable, and should not be dimininished by comparison to THOSL. I'm sure her albums peak numbers never again were that high. She lost a huge number of casual fans with DJRD, and certainly Mingus. Hejira was as popular as it was because it was still accessible to the ears of her original loyal fans (who were more mainstream than all of us on this list).
I would argue that Hejira was the last album that Joni had complete control over musically. The musical structures were much simpler generally than all of hers since (and many before, for that matter), because they were composed and played exclusively BY HER ON GUITAR. I don't think it's a stretch to think of Hejira as a throwback to her considerably earlier work (at the time, STAS, Clouds, LOTC), with her on solo guitar. It's my understanding that Jaco's bass parts were overdubbed at a later date; in most cases, he's overdubbed at least twice, filling the sound with a haunting improvised melody complimenting Joni's singing, giving the impression of a larger and more jazz-oriented band than it was. (IMHO Hejira is Jaco's finest work in his brief and erratic career - he died in 1987). On all of Joni's albums subsequent to Hejira, she was collaborating in real time with other great musicians (Herbie, Mingus, Jaco, Wayne on every studio album since DJRD, and beginning with WTRF, Larry Klein), who no doubt exerted their influence.
Joni and Jaco both (and they alone) utilize open strings (although in completely different ways: Joni with her unique tunings, and Jaco, always tuning conventionally, but using harmonics) exploiting the characteristics that make guitars (and basses) unique. The song Hejira, for example, is in the key of BMajor, arguably among the most awkward for piano (or any horns); while somewhat awkward on guitar (tuned conventionally), it's perfect for Joni's tunings (and for open strings on conventionally tuned bass).
The structure of the song is so simple, that I can present it below. The chords are almost all straight major triads. The feel of the song is 4/4 all the way, with 4 beats per measure, 4x4 (16) measures per major section, except for the extra two bars in the bridge, that stretch out that part, building up tension, that is never resolved in the bridge. That is why the song has to end on the first part (with "I'm travelling in some vehicle, sitting in some cafe, a defector from these petty wars UNTIL LOVE SUCKS ME BACK THAT WAY") finally resolving on the BMajor chord.
intro:
C#m9 / D /
B / E /
Esus E B /
B / E /
Esus E B / :|repeat to intro last time
bridge:
E / B /
E / F# / / /
E / B /
F# / E / :|repeat to intro all but last
My favorite album of all time: Hejira
Joni's best album (IMHO): Hejira
My favorite songs: Hejira (off Hejira) and Hejira (T'Log)
