Joni Mitchell : Hejira

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

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 post card 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

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

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

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

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

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----|

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

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

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

Joni Mitchell : Hejira
1976

Coyote

Amelia

Furry Sings The Blues

A Strange Boy

Hejira

Song For Sharon

Black Crow

Blue Motel Room

Refuge Of The Roads

Joni Mitchell : Hejira 1976

Coyote

Amelia

Furry Sings The Blues

A Strange Boy

Hejira

Song For Sharon

Black Crow

Blue Motel Room

Refuge Of The Roads

Joni Mitchell : Hejira
1976