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Joni Mitchell : Hejira
1976

  1. Coyote
  2. Amelia
  3. Furry Sings The Blues
  4. A Strange Boy
  5. Hejira

  6. Song For Sharon
  7. Black Crow
  8. Blue Motel Room
  9. Refuge Of The Roads

Coyote

Tuning: CGDFCE
Dm11/c 000000 Am11/g 777777
Cadd2 002220 G 779977
Dm9/eb 350000 Gm11/f 555555
Fmaj9/g x03200 F 557755
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Dm9/eb
Fmaj9/g
Dm11/c
No regrets Coyote, we just come from such different sets of circumstance
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Am11/g
G
I'm up all night in the studio while you're up early on your ranch
Gm11/f
F
Gm11/f
F
You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail while the sun is ascending
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Dm9/eb
And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel, there's no comprehending
Fmaj9/g
Cadd2
Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes and the lips
Dm11/c
Am11/g
G
Gm11/f
F
You can get and still feel so alone, and still feel related
Gm11/f
F
Like stations in some relay, you're not a
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Dm9/eb
Hit and run driver no, no, racing away
Fmaj9/g
You just picked up a hitcher
Cadd2
Dm11/c
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
Cadd2
Dm11/c
We saw a farmhouse burning down In the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night And we rolled right past that tragedy Till we rolled into some roadhouse lights Where a local band was playin' Locals were kickin' and shakin' on the floor The next thing I know that Coyote's at my door He pins me in the corner and he won't take no He drags me out on the dance floor And we're dancin' close and slow Now they say he's got a woman at home He's got another woman down the hall And he seems to want me anyway Why'd you have to get so drunk and lead me on that way? You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway I looked the Coyote right in the face On the road to Baljennie near my old home town He went runnin' through the whisker wheat Chasin' some prize down And a hawk was playin' with him Coyote was jumpin' straight up and makin' passes He had those same eyes just like yours Under your dark glasses Privately probing the public rooms Peeking through keyholes in numbered doors Where the players lick their wounds And take their temporary lovers And their pills and powders To get them through this passion play No regrets Coyote, I just get off up aways You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway Coyote's in the coffee shop He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs He picks up my scent on his fingers While he's watching the waitress's legs He's too far from the Bay of Fundy From Appaloosas and eagles and tides And the air conditioned cubicles And the carbon ribbon rides Are spelling it out so clear Either he's gonna have to stand and fight Or take off out of here I tried to run away myself To run away and wrestle with my ego And with this flame, you put here in this Eskimo In this hitcher In this prisoner Of the fine white lines Of the white lines on the free, freeway

Amelia

Tuning: CGCEGC (Open D, two steps down)
F 555555 Am7 x20000
Bb/f 575655 Dsus4/b x42322
G 777777 C 050000
Cadd9/g 797877 Gadd9/e 442322
Bb AAAAAA Bm BB9A99
Ebadd9 ACABAA Am11 990700
Dm
C/e
F
Bb
F
Bb
F
C|-----------0-|-------5-----|----------------0-----|
G|---0---0---0-|-5-----5-----|-5----5-----5---0-----|
E|-1-----3-----|-5-----------|-6h5--6p5---5-----0---|
C|-0-------0---|-----5-------|-5----5-----------0---|
G|-------------|---5---------|-7p5--7p5-------------|
C|-2-----4-----|-5-------5---|----------5-------0---|
Dm
C/e
F
Bb
F
Bb
C|-----------0-|-------5-----|------------5---------|
G|---0---0---0-|-5-----5-----|-5----------5---------|
E|-1-----3-----|-5-----------|-6p5--6-------------6-|
C|-0-------0---|-----5-------|-5----5---5-------5---|
G|-------------|---5---------|-7p5--7---------7-----|
C|-2-----4-----|-5-------5---|--------------5-------|
G
Cadd9/g
G
I was driving across the burning desert
Bb
Ebadd9/bb
Bb
When I spotted six jet planes
Am7
Dsus4/b
G
Cadd9/g
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
C
Gadd9/e
It was the hexagram of the heavens
Bm
Am11
It was the strings of my guitar
G
F
Bbadd9/f
F
Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm The drone of flying engines Is a song so wild and blue It scrambles time and seasons if it gets through to you Then your life becomes a travelogue Of picture postcard charms Amelia, it was just a false alarm People will tell you where they've gone They'll tell you where to go But till you get there yourself you never really know Where some have found their paradise Other's just come to harm Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm I wish that he was here tonight It's so hard to obey His sad request of me to kindly stay away So this is how I hide the hurt As the road leads cursed and charmed I tell Amelia it was just a false alarm A ghost of aviation She was swallowed by the sky Or by the sea like me she had a dream to fly Like Icarus ascending On beautiful foolish arms Amelia, it was just a false alarm Maybe I've never really loved I guess that is the truth I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude And looking down on everything I crashed into his arms Amelia, it was just a false alarm I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel To shower off the dust And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust I dreamed of 747s Over geometric farms Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms

Furry Sings The Blues

Tuning: CGDFBbD
Eb5 33xxxx Cadd9 002220
F5 55xxxx Cadd4add9 002020
Gm9 777000 Bb/eb 333000
F/c 0x7777
Eb5
F5
Gm9
Eb5
F5
F/c
Cadd9
Cadd4add9
Cadd9
Cadd4add9
F/c
Cadd9
Cadd4add9
Old Beale street is coming down
Bb/eb
Sweetie's snack bar boarded up now
Gm9
And there goes the tailor, and the shine boy's gone, faded out with ragtime blues
F/c
Cadd9
Handy's cast in bronze
Cadd4add9
Bb/eb
And he's standing in a little park with his trumpet in his hand
Gm9
Like he's listening back to the good old days, and the kick of high-heeled shoes
Cadd9
Furry sings the blues
Bb/eb
Propped up in his bed with his dentures and his leg removed
Gm9
Andy Ginny's there for her kindness and Furry's beer
F/c
Cadd9
She's the old man's angel overseer
Eb5
F5
Gm9
Eb5
F5
Pawn shops glitter like gold tooth caps in the grey decay They chew the last few dollars off old Beale Street's carcass Carrion and mercy Blue and silver sparkling drums Cheap guitars, eye shades and guns Aimed at the hot blood of being no one Down and out in Memphis Tennessee Old Furry sings the blues You bring him smoke and drink and he'll play for you It's mostly muttering now and sideshow spiel But there was one song he played I could really feel There's a double bill murder at the New Daisy The old girl's silent across the street She's silent, waiting for the wrecker's beat Silent, staring at her stolen name Diamond boys and satin dolls Bourbon laughter, ghosts, history falls to parking lots and shopping malls As they tear down old Beale Street Old Furry sings the blues He points a bony finger at you and says "I don't like you" Everybody laughs as if it's the old man's standard joke But it's true, we're only welcome for our drink and smoke WC Handy, I'm rich and I'm fey And I'm not familiar with what you played But I get such strong impressions of your heyday Looking up and down old Beale Street Ghosts of the darktown society come right out of the bricks at me Like it's a Saturday night They're in their finery, dancing it up and making deals Furry sings the blues Why should I expect that old guy to give it to me true Fallen to hard luck and time and other thieves While our limo is shining on his shanty street Old Furry sings the blues
Cadd9
Cadd4add9
Cadd9
Cadd4add9

A Strange Boy

Tuning: DACGAD
D|--------------0-----------0-------|-------------------0-0-0----------|
A|--------------0-----------0-------|-------------------0-0-0----------|
G|----2---5---7----7----------------|----2---5---7---9--9-9-9----------|
C|----2---5---7----7------7---------|----2---5---7---9-----------------|
A|----------------------0-----------|--0-------------------------------|
D|-0------------------0-------------|-0----0---------------------------|
D|--------------0-----------0-------|----------------------------------|
A|--------------0-----------0-------|----------------------------0---0-|
G|----2---5---7----7----------------|----2---5---7---9--10--12--12--12-|
C|----2---5---7----7------7---------|----2---5---7---9--10--12--12--12-|
A|----------------------0-----------|--0-------------------------------|
D|-0------------------0-------------|-0--------------------------------|
1st verse
099990 999900 777777 555555
A strange boy is weaving a course of grace and havoc
557755 555555 002200 005500 007700
On a yellow skateboard through midday sidewalk traffic
099990 999900 777777 555555
Just when I think he's foolish and childish and I want him to be manly
557755 555555 002200 005500 007700
I catch my fool and my child needing love and understanding
555555 557755
What a strange, strange boy
555555 557755 333333
He still lives with his family, even the war
335533 0CCA00 099700 077500
And the Navy couldn't bring him to maturity He keeps referring back to school days And clinging to his child Fidgeting and bullied His crazy wisdom holding onto something wild He asked me to be patient Well I failed "Grow up!" I cried And as the smoke was clearing, he said "Give me one good reason why!" What a strange, strange boy He sees the cars as sets of waves Sequences of mass and space He sees the damage in my face We got high on travel And we got drunk on alcohol And on love the strongest poison and medicine of all See how that feeling comes and goes Like the pull of moon on tides Now I am surf rising Now parched ribs of sand at his side What a strange, strange boy I gave him clothes and jewelry I gave him my warm body I gave him power over me A thousand glass eyes were staring In a cellar full of antique dolls I found an old piano And sweet chords rose up in waxed New England halls While the borders were snoring Under crisp white sheets of curfew
557755
We were newly lovers then
555555 099990
We were fire in the stiff blue-haired house rules
999900 777777 557755 555555

Hejira

Tuning: CGDFGC
Dm11 222000 C 002200
Eb6/9 333000 Fadd9 555400
C6/9 002222 Gadd4add9 777600
Fsus4add9 555555 G9sus4 777000
F 557755
Dm11
Eb6/9
C|----------------0---|----------------0----|
G|----------------0---|----------------0----| x2
F|----0----0----0---0-|----0----0----0----0-|
D|---2-2--2-2--2-2-2--|---3-3--3-3--3-3-3---|
G|--2----2----2-------|--3----3----3--------|
C|-2----2----2--------|-3----3----3---------|
C6/9
I'm travelling on some vehicle
Fsus4add9
F
Sitting in some cafe
Fsus4add9
F
A defector from the petty wars
C
That shell-shock love away There's comfort in melancholy When there's no need to explain It's just as natural as the weather In this moody sky today
Fadd9
In our possessive coupling
C
So much could not be expressed
Fadd9
So now I am returning to myself
Gadd4add9
G9sus4
These things that you and I suppressed
Gadd4add9
Fadd9
I see something of myself in everyone
C
Just at this moment of the world
Gadd4add9
As snow gathers like bolts of lace
Fadd9
Waltzing on a ballroom girl You know it never has been easy Whether you do or you do not resign Whether you travel the breadth of extremities Or stick to some straighter line Now here's a man and a woman sitting on a rock They're either going to thaw out or freeze Listen, strains of Benny Goodman Coming through the snow and the pinewood trees I'm porous with travel fever But you know I'm so glad to be on my own Still somehow the slightest touch of a stranger Can set up trembling in my bones I know, no one's going to show me everything We all come and go unknown Each so deep and superficial Between the forceps and the stone Well, I looked at the granite markers Those tributes to finality, to eternity And then I looked at myself here Chicken scratching for my immortality In the church, they light the candles And the wax rolls down like tears There is the hope and the hopelessness I've witnessed thirty years We're only particles of change I know, I know Orbiting around the sun But how can I have that point of view When I'm always bound and tied to someone White flags of winter chimneys Wave truce against the moon In the mirrors of a modern bank From the window of a hotel room I'm traveling in some vehicle I'm sitting in some cafe A defector from the petty wars Until love sucks me back that way

Song For Sharon

I went to Staten Island, Sharon To buy myself a mandolin And I saw the long white dress of love On a storefront mannequin Big boat chuggin' back with a belly full of cars All for something lacy Some girl's going to see that dress And crave that day like crazy Little Indian kids on a bridge up in Canada They can balance and they can climb Like their fathers before them They'll walk the girders of the Manhattan skyline Shine your light on me Miss Liberty Because as soon as this ferry boat docks I'm headed to the church To play Bingo Fleece me with the gamblers' flocks I can keep my cool at poker But I'm a fool when love's at stake Because I can't conceal emotion What I'm feeling's always written on my face There's a gypsy down on Bleecker Street I went in to see her as a kind of joke And she lit a candle for my love luck And eighteen bucks went up in smoke Sharon I left my man At a North Dakota junction And I came out to the "Big Apple" here To face the dream's malfunction Love's a repetitious danger You'd think I'd be accustomed to Well I do accept the changes At least better than I used to do A woman I knew just drowned herself The well was deep and muddy She was just shaking off futility Or punishing somebody My friends were calling up all day yesterday All emotions and abstractions It seems we all live so close to that line And so far from satisfaction Dora says "Have children" Mama and Betsy say "Find yourself a charity Help the needy and the crippled or put some time into Ecology" Well there's a wide wide world of noble causes And lovely landscapes to discover But all I really want to do right now Is find another lover When we were kids in Maidstone, Sharon I went to every wedding in that little town To see the tears and the kisses And the pretty lady in the white lace wedding gown And walking home on the railroad tracks Or swinging on the playground swing Love stimulated my illusions More than anything And when I went skating after Golden Reggie You know it was white lace I was chasing Chasing dreams Mama's nylons underneath my cowgirl jeans He showed me first you get the kisses And then you get the tears But the ceremony of the bells and lace Still veils this reckless fool here Now there are twenty-nine skaters on Wollman Rink * Circling in singles and in pairs In this vigorous anonymity A blank face at the window stares and Stares and stares and stares and stares And the power of reason And the flowers of deep feeling Seem to serve me Only to deceive me Sharon you've got a husband And a family and a farm I've got the apple of temptation And a diamond snake around my arm But you still have your music And I've still got my eyes on the land and the sky You sing for your friends and your family I'll walk green pastures by and by

Black Crow

Tuning: DDFACD (actually BbBbDbFAbBb, but that is ridiculous)
Capo:
-IV
Bbm7 000000 Ebm7 555555
Db5 3300xx Gbm7 888888
Fm7/bb 007777 Dbm7 333333
Bbm7* 00CCCC Bm7 111111
Intro (the note on the F string is optional, but worth fretting to avoid the open F):
Ebm7
Db5
Bbm7
Bb|----------------------------|
Ab|----------------------------|
F-|--(3)-3-3--3-3---0--0--0----| x4 (also played a few times over
Db|---5--5-5--5-5---0--0--0----| the last line of the verses)
Bb|---5--5-5--5-5---3--0--0----|
Bb|---5--5-5--5-5---3--0--0----|
In the verses there are a lot of open strums in between the chords, so wherever you
see 555555 you can vary the sound by playing 555755 or 557755 from time to time.
Ebm7
There's a crow flying, black and ragged, tree to tree
Fm7/bb
Bbm7*
Bbm7
He's black as the highway that's leading me
Gbm7
Now he's diving down
Bm7
Bbm7
Bm7
Bbm7
Dbm7
To pick up on something shiny
Bm7
Dbm7
I feel like that black crow flying
Ebm7
Db5
Bbm7
In a blue sky There's a crow flying Black and ragged Tree to tree He's black as the highway that's leading me Now he's diving down To pick up on something shiny I feel like that black crow flying In a blue sky I took a ferry to the highway Then I drove to a pontoon plane I took a plane to a taxi And a taxi to a train I've been traveling so long How'm I ever going to know my home When I see it again I'm like a black crow flying In a blue blue sky In search of love and music My whole life has been Illumination Corruption And diving diving diving diving Diving down to pick up on every shiny thing Just like that black crow flying In a blue sky I looked at the morning After being up all night I looked at my haggard face in the bathroom light I looked out the window And I saw that ragged soul take flight I saw a back crow flying In a blue sky Oh I'm like a black crow flying In a blue sky

Blue Motel Room

Tuning: CGDFAD
C6
Em7
D|-------0--------------------------2--2--2----------------------
A|---------0------------------------2--2--2-----(0)--------------
F|-----2---------0----7---0---------2--2--2-----(0)--------------
D|---2-------2/3----7---9-----------2--2--2---2------2--5--7-----
G|--------------------------------0------------------2--5----7---
C|-0------------------------7/--0-----------------------5------7-
002222
I've got a blue motel room
777777 555755
With a blue bedspread
555555 557755 555755 333333
I've got the blues inside and outside my head
335533
Will you still love me
xxx000 0x20xx
When I call you up when I'm down Here in Savannah it's pouring rain Palm trees in the porch light like slick black cellophane Will you still love me When I call you up when I get back to town
AAA900
I know that you've got all those pretty girls coming on
777777 779977
Hanging on your boom-boom pachyderm
555555 557755
Will you tell those girls that you've got German Measles
0x2000
Honey, tell them you've got germs
777777
I hope you'll be thinking of me
779977 AAAAAA
Because I'll be thinking of you
AACCAA
While I'm traveling home alone
333333 335533 333333
Tell those girls that you've got Joni
002200
She's coming back home I've got road maps From two dozen states I've got coast to coast just to contemplate Will you still love me When I get back to town It's funny how these old feelings hang around You think they're gone, no, no They just go underground Will you still love me When I get back to LA town You and me, we're like America and Russia We're always keeping score We're always balancing the power And that can get to be a cold cold war We're going to have to hold ourselves a peace talk In some neutral cafe You lay down your sneaking round the town honey And I'll lay down the highway I've got a blue motel room With a blue bedspread I've got the blues inside and outside my head Will you still love me When I get back to town

Refuge Of The Roads

Tuning: CACFAC
Am9/g 777600 Bb/f 555555
C/g 777777 ??? 555775
??? 777997 Dm7/f 555400
??? AAA900 C 077770
777600 AAA900 777777 777997
555555 555775 555555 555775
555400 777600
I met a friend of spirit
AAA900 777777
He drank and womanized
AAA900 777777
And I sat before his sanity
55555 555775
I was holding back from crying
555400 777600
He saw my complications
AAA900 777777
And he mirrored me back simplified
AAA900 777777
And we laughed how our perfection
555555 555775 555555 555775
Would always be denied
077770
"Heart and humor and humility"
0CCCC0 077770
He said "Will lighten up your heavy load"
777600 AAA900 777777
I left him for the refuge of the roads
777600 AAA900
I fell in with some drifters Cast upon a beachtown Winn Dixie cold cuts and highway hand me downs And I wound up fixing dinner For them and Boston Jim I well up with affection Thinking back down the roads to then The nets were overflowing In the Gulf of Mexico They were overflowing in the refuge of the roads There was spring along the ditches There were good times in the cities Oh radiant happiness It was all so light and easy Till I started analyzing And I brought on my old ways A thunderhead of judgement was Gathering in my gaze And it made most people nervous They just didn't want to know What I was seeing in the refuge of the roads I pulled off into a forest Crickets clicking in the ferns Like a wheel of fortune I heard my fate turn, turn, turn And I went running down a white sand road I was running like a white-assed deer Running to lose the blues To the innocence in here These are the clouds of Michelangelo Muscular with gods and sungold Shine on your witness in the refuge of the roads In a highway service station Over the month of June Was a photograph of the earth Taken coming back from the moon And you couldn't see a city On that marbled bowling ball Or a forest or a highway Or me here least of all You couldn't see these cold water restrooms Or this baggage overload Westbound and rolling taking refuge in the roads