It holds something special for me. There's just something about it that gets to me. It scratches some sort of weird itch and answers the questions I ask before I can even come up with the questions. The song is addictive to me. I love it. Always will. Thank-you Joni Mitchell. Thank-you very much. You've touched me!!!
It borderline pornography its so chilling....oh I was in love with Joni....in the early 70s.....and when I found out she was with Graham Nash I was heartbroken....fucken GN stealin my girl!!!!
Joni wrote a LOT of great songs. . . But this one always has struck me as the most quintessential Joni Mitchell masterpiece. A song she and only she could ever come close to writing, let alone pull off with such flair and virtuosity. It's just perfect.
Great song, but Jaco Pastorius lifted it (the entire album) into the stratosphere. Did you know it is about her fling with Sam Sheppard during The Rolling Thunder Review? Search for her singing it in Gordon Lightfoot’s house with Dylan and Roger McGuinn.
@@TheEleatic I have a theory that this song is very telling about the life women lived during this movement, and it wasn't great. White lines always refer to cocaine, and the rest explains itself, especially the communal living and the wolf.
@@gilharrison8696thought Joni was describing her musicians’ life always traveling, becoming a prisoner of the freeway, those white painted lines on the freeway🛣️ 🤍
You can just tell by the way Rick and Robbie look over at Joni, she can capture the attention of the entire room, even the performers. Such a captivating and innovative performer.
oh they ALL had a crush on Joni from Neil Young to Graham Nash to James Taylor to Leonard Cohen etcet..I think Joni crushes were endemic among the boys in the other bands.
@@charleybarley914Not just crushes. They all fucked her. You forgot to mention David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report’s Don Alias…amongst many others most likely including Bob Dylan as well. Hell, this song is about her affair with Sam Shepard. She had a reputation of being passed around. Rolling Stone once infamously dubbed her the “Queen of El Lay”.
What an excellent performance by The Band, they played flawlessly on this incredibly complicated melody with glorious syncopated rhythms and Joni was... Joni.
Yea they were an incredible "backing band" aside from being an incredible band in their own right. I like this version even more than her studio version. And her lyrics! So awesome on this song! It's like an abstraction above the normal mode of communication. If that makes sense? Anyway I love it!!!
I've watched this 100 times. I still can't get over the way I'm mesmerised by this performance. And every time, I hear something different in the lyrics, an expression, a smile....
"On the road to Baljennie near my old hometown." That line caught me the first time I heard this song on FM radio. My dad's mother was born in Baljennie, as one of the first non-native babies born out on the Saskatchewan prairie.
Peerless. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but Joni is such a singular, unmatchable spirit that she stands apart and alone. I've never thought of "the next Joni Mitchell" because it's not possible.
I've given up on figuring out who she drew inspiration from - the closest I've come was based on her collaboration with Charles Mingus, but that did not solve the mystery of her singularity in the least.
@@georgeingmire7258 listen to her Archives box sets. It's interesting how she starts off a folkie but keeps working on her own music and step by step starts adding her own twists and turns to her style until she no longer sounds like a folkie, she sounds like Joni Mitchell. She just kept growing, playing with other people, and trying to express herself. Plus the tunings she came up with kept her from getting stuck in the guitar rut that we all fall into, where we just default to the same patterns over and over. She could escape that and focus on the music
Her delivery is so fkn perfect! I mean she makes you get it ya know? Like it almost starts out inaccessible but right away the inflection and sharp rounded smoothness of her voice just pulls ya right in. Wow!
This performance was beyond incredible. Some of the best musicians in the world were figuring it out on the fly how to keep up with Joni. Robbie Robertson figured it out and Rick Danko tagged along. Simply amazing.
Sublime! Joni - Canadian. The Band - Canadian. This song is about her "fling" with Sam Shepard during the Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975-1976.
I remember seeing Joni when I was little in The Last Waltz and thinking she was impossibly cool. I _still_ think Joni Mitchell is impossibly cool and effortlessly skilled as well as talented PS I saw YOU scrolling this
There have been lots of talented musician/songrwriters. Some are even geniuses. But Joni is on a different spiritual plane. You can argue about the Beatles and the Stones, but Joni is incomparable to anybody else. Maybe Hendrix would be the closest to her, in terms of making the guitar their own and writing and singing lyrics on a different wavelength.
"their pills and powders to get them through this passion play" on that specific stage in those specific circumstances...man, Joni always comes in at a deeper level
And the alliteration! Along with" "You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail"; "He went running thru the whisker wheat" "Privately probing the public rooms"; "While he's watching the waitresses' legs / He's too far from the Bay of Fundy"; "And the air conditioned cubicles / And the carbon ribbon rides"; & " To run away and wrestle with my ego"!
@@cvarga Man, I've heard this song a million times, and never put that together intellectually (though of course it's a big part of how and why I've responded to the lyrics that feel so - rhythmic!)
Having read some of these comments, I couldn’t agree more with all of them . Joni Mitchell is , and always was , a genius , totally unique talent in so many ways. Her songwriting, meaningful lyrics and delivery are second to none. When she came to Australia in the 80’s , her record company rang our florist shop to order flowers to be sent to her hotel to welcome her. And I was the lucky florist who was honoured to make the floral arrangement which was sent to the Sebel Townhouse for her to enjoy. I still consider it a privilege to have created a floral tribute for this amazing artist.
"No regrets coyote, I just get off up aways". YOU SLAY ME JONI!! Such a badass song written by an incredible songwriter. She gets into the nitty gritty of what a rock n roll relationship was really like. The good, the bad, AND the ugly
Neil Young brought me here. So I started looking for more and more folk music for helping me in the farm works, and there are some brazilian folk to (modão de viola etc.) and I see it has no end. Thank God Almighty
Her Court and Spark Album along with Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love will always, and I mean always will be on my top 10 albums of all time, no matter how old I live to be. Those two women are the embodiment of what it means to have pure skill and talent where music is concerned. Their music will stand the test of time, where so much of what is being produced now will be long forgotten in less than a decade, maybe sooner.
Joni and Kate are two of my favorite songwriters and musicians of all time. Both incredibly gifted with words and great storytellers. For me Joni's 'Hejira' and Kate's 'The Dreaming' are in my favorite albums of all time.
No regrets, coyote We just come from such different sets of circumstance I'm up all night in the studios And you're up early on your ranch You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail While the sun is ascending And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit and run driver, no, no Racing away You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway We saw a farmhouse burning down In the middle of nowhere In the middle of the night And we rolled right past that tragedy 'Til we turned down to some road house lights Where a local band was playing Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor And the next thing I know That coyote's at my door He pins me in a corner and he won't take no He drags me out on the dance floor And we're dancing close and slow Now he's got a woman at home He's got another woman down the hall 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 a coyote right in the face On the road to Baljennie, near my old home town He went running thru the whisker wheat Chasing some prize down And a hawk was playing with him Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes He had those same eyes just like yours Under your dark glasses Privately probing the public rooms And 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 waitresses' 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 going to 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 With this, 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
Massive Joni fan. Just replayed this on "Shadow and Light"........with Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny in her backing band...for fuck's sake.... cannot get better!
The Band! Smashing a classic! The BASS!! Joni is just f'kin Delicious-o-rama! What a song! What a version! "Prisoner of the fine white lines on the free way!" phuckme! That is a line!
This is one of the very few songs that the first time I heard it on the radio, I LOVED IT. And now, decades later, I still do. Even more so. Joni is a true virtuoso
What a wonderful wordsmith and vocal and instrumental talent she is. She's given the music world tons of astonishing melodies and lyrics. It's hard to fathom it all...
One of humanity's true bright lights. Joni is proof that nature is capable of magnificence when it can gift a being with such unearthly, staggeringly deep musical talent. Stuff like that doesn't come along but once every couple of generations--we are lucky to be around for this one.
"He picks up my scent on his fingers/ while he's watching the waitress' legs..." By far the most adult, witty and daring couplet to appear in a song lyric on Top 40 radio... I *still* can't believe she got away with that! Bob's autobiographically obscure and Whitmanesque image-lists are great, and he was a god between '65 and '76, but for direct-yet-complex poetry you can't beat Joni Mitchell (I defy anyone to find something from Bob that stands up to the bawdy frankness of the lines I cite here). If any lyric-writer *should* have gotten a Nobel, it should have been Mitchell. But this world is just not that kind of world, sadly.
I spent so many weekend nights at Winterland, so many amazing shows. I simply cannot fathom why I chose to not go to The Last Waltz. I should kick myself after all these years, but I am too old and no longer have the flexibility to do so.
+Clive Richardson She show infinitely more artist talent and merit than virtually 100 percent of the so called musicians today! Let's see them get up without a teleprompter and sing a song as complex as this all the way through.
+Clive Richardson I think I've always been in love with her... yep, I'm sure of it. I've always been in love with all that is majestic, female and creative.
I was 13 years when this movie came out. My mom was a huge "The Band" fan and took me to see it. The whole movie blew me away (remember Eric Clapton's piece?)
I don't know how anyone could have written this. it is the most personal honest poetry I have heard, it blows me away every time I hear it. While some of us try to put down in paint as indeed she did too, it feels pointless she had already done it with words, wish I could tell her.
+la la Liz And Robert Plant had An Aching In His Heart..to be Goin' To California to meet her. Oh Joni! What do you do to these men? You know the same rowdy crowd that was here last night is back again!
That's what I love about The Band. they are constantly watching each other staying in sync. look at Levon and Richard Manuel all throughout the last waltz. guys were such pros. left everything out there on the stage.
I read a Led Zeppelin bio, and it was hilarious reading how Page and Plant - two "rock gods" were shaking in their boots as they were about to meet Joni. LOL!
I used to be a truck driver. The white line was called the fog line. Sometimes that was all you could see to stay in your lane. I wonder if that was what she was singing about.
I remember watching this in the mid-80s on a VHS, just hanging with friends, while in college. I'd heard Joni before for sure. But I heard and saw this, and had one of those musical moments, those epiphanies when the music shows you a whole new world. I will never forget it, and it's with me still. And as an aside, amazing to see her exhaling smoke and stamping out her cigarette as she goes on stage.
definitive ,beautiful , timeless grace, JM's words can be so direct and poignant and elusive at the same time , brilliance captured. cheers forever to all on stage
![Joni Mitchell - Blue (Full Album) [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MvR7Dkg4NQU/mqdefault.jpg)
This song gives me chills.
Well put.
It holds something special for me. There's just something about it that gets to me. It scratches some sort of weird itch and answers the questions I ask before I can even come up with the questions. The song is addictive to me. I love it. Always will. Thank-you Joni Mitchell. Thank-you very much. You've touched me!!!
Joni gives me chills!
@@ashleyjudecollie completely. always.
It borderline pornography its so chilling....oh I was in love with Joni....in the early 70s.....and when I found out she was with Graham Nash I was heartbroken....fucken GN stealin my girl!!!!
Joni wrote a LOT of great songs. . . But this one always has struck me as the most quintessential Joni Mitchell masterpiece. A song she and only she could ever come close to writing, let alone pull off with such flair and virtuosity. It's just perfect.
Great song, but Jaco Pastorius lifted it (the entire album) into the stratosphere. Did you know it is about her fling with Sam Sheppard during The Rolling Thunder Review? Search for her singing it in Gordon Lightfoot’s house with Dylan and Roger McGuinn.
It’s about Sam Shepherd…that sexy Scorpio
Love Jaco…modifying his bass guitar. Love love love!
@@TheEleatic I have a theory that this song is very telling about the life women lived during this movement, and it wasn't great. White lines always refer to cocaine, and the rest explains itself, especially the communal living and the wolf.
@@gilharrison8696thought Joni was describing her musicians’ life always traveling, becoming a prisoner of the freeway, those white painted lines on the freeway🛣️ 🤍
You can just tell by the way Rick and Robbie look over at Joni, she can capture the attention of the entire room, even the performers. Such a captivating and innovative performer.
oh they ALL had a crush on Joni from Neil Young to Graham Nash to James Taylor to Leonard Cohen etcet..I think Joni crushes were endemic among the boys in the other bands.
@@charleybarley914Not just crushes. They all fucked her. You forgot to mention David Crosby, Jackson Browne, Jaco Pastorius, Weather Report’s Don Alias…amongst many others most likely including Bob Dylan as well. Hell, this song is about her affair with Sam Shepard. She had a reputation of being passed around. Rolling Stone once infamously dubbed her the “Queen of El Lay”.
@@charleybarley914why wouldn’t you? She’s the total package.
JONI
AM AN OLD BLACK VET i BELEVE IN YOUR MUSIC ITS MY LIFE MY BIBLE.
74 WISE YET YOUNG.
THANK YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE.
bob
goddamn what a song ... brutality honest...she never fails
So impressed by how The Band can play with anyone.
They had Garth Hudson.
@@craigedwards2940 And Robbie!
It’s all in the rhythm.
I can’t believe this was from 1976 . Where does the time go ? Joni, is so beautiful…
What an excellent performance by The Band, they played flawlessly on this incredibly complicated melody with glorious syncopated rhythms and Joni was... Joni.
Yea they were an incredible "backing band" aside from being an incredible band in their own right. I like this version even more than her studio version. And her lyrics! So awesome on this song! It's like an abstraction above the normal mode of communication. If that makes sense? Anyway I love it!!!
Might be the most heartfelt performance on this show which was chock full of them! Good Lord that’s good.
I am sure Joni wandered if ROCK BAND was up to backing her in this song. Wonder no more Joni.
@@malcolmf1381 Joni was well aware that this band was NOT a rock band.
So true! But to be fair there were plenty of overdubs that happened in post ;)
Coyote is a very complicated song. The fact that The Band so tightly wedded to Jonies vocals just attests to their talents.that
280 people voted thumbs down? What does Joni owe them money? You can't name one person, man or woman, who could give such a performance today.
FOOLS who didn't even watch all of it!!
She’s good but she’s no cardi-b
Lol I nearly choked writing that LIE
Fuck them people
280 dead souls. 560 tin ears.
Coincidentally, there are 280 worldwide member of the He-Man Woman Hater's Club.
Just when you think you can grab hold of the melody, it darts away from you; just an epic song from a superb story teller.
Exactly. Changing keys back and forth. Only a true musician could sing it.
Exactly
Robbie Robertson, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell? Canadian friggin' assassins.
Try ‘Barangrill’. 🤨?
Maybe if it’s one of your first time listening to the songs. Surely you know it once you listen to the song a bunch?
had to run away and wrestle with my ego, and this flame you put in this eskimo...
The most singular songwriting talent of the 20th Century. Just to have shared a planet with her is a joy.
There is a whole movie in this one song. Love Joni.
There is a whole movie..... IN YOUR REAR-VIEW MIRROR
ScottOmatic
Oh no. :)
I've watched this 100 times. I still can't get over the way I'm mesmerised by this performance. And every time, I hear something different in the lyrics, an expression, a smile....
yes!! thats exactly it, it’s enchanting! always noticing something new about a song you love 💕⭐️💫
Coyote, yo.
"Coyote's in the coffee shop, staring a hole in his scrambled eggs."
I have fallen in love with this song.
That nose, those high cheek bones, such intensity and sensuality and intelligence. No female singer of country rock or folk can match her today.
Don’t close yourself off, art is art, a great to be sure, but it’s subjective to an extent. But.., probably right 😁
I love how she giggles when she says "and lead me on that way". You can hear it even more clearly on the Last Waltz live recording. What an icon.
I so agree! I am now seeing 30 year olds 🤍Joni
"On the road to Baljennie near my old hometown." That line caught me the first time I heard this song on FM radio. My dad's mother was born in Baljennie, as one of the first non-native babies born out on the Saskatchewan prairie.
The original supermodel, cheekbones, talent, style etc. That's all.
Peerless. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but Joni is such a singular, unmatchable spirit that she stands apart and alone. I've never thought of "the next Joni Mitchell" because it's not possible.
I've given up on figuring out who she drew inspiration from - the closest I've come was based on her collaboration with Charles Mingus, but that did not solve the mystery of her singularity in the least.
She is a precious gem forged purely by the times
@@georgeingmire7258 listen to her Archives box sets. It's interesting how she starts off a folkie but keeps working on her own music and step by step starts adding her own twists and turns to her style until she no longer sounds like a folkie, she sounds like Joni Mitchell. She just kept growing, playing with other people, and trying to express herself. Plus the tunings she came up with kept her from getting stuck in the guitar rut that we all fall into, where we just default to the same patterns over and over. She could escape that and focus on the music
I agree.
I agree wholeheartedly
Fabulous - RIP Robbie Robertson
When she finally leaves this earth, I’m gonna cry all day
HAPPY Belated BIRTHDAY Joni!!🎉
Sitting here watching The Last Waltz on this early Sunday morning.
Her mouth.. and the way words form and tumble out of it.. is beautiful, incredible and mesmerizing. 💋😘
This song of quiet desperation, loneliness, and looking for love in the arms of strangers is Joni at the peak of her powers.
It's supposedly about Sam Shepard
Her delivery is so fkn perfect! I mean she makes you get it ya know? Like it almost starts out inaccessible but right away the inflection and sharp rounded smoothness of her voice just pulls ya right in. Wow!
GET YOURSELF A DOG
She's consistently excellent since the first time I heard her I'm 76 years old.
Amazing, just amazing. She has always been the one who gets to the very core of it. There are no throw away lines
Miss her! I was only 9or ten but 5 older sibs. Good times!
That’s exactly right.
No throw away *syllables*, let alone lines
Fantastic guitar, as always, too!
One of all time great performances!
Her brilliance is staggering.
agreed a million percent. i’m in utter awe of her.
I will not pretend to be eloquent enough to describe this beast of a talent. There is only one Joni Mitchell. She is timeless!
"Untouchable" is the word that keeps popping into my mind as I watch this.
This is probably the best performance of all time.
Don’t you just love the respect The Band give Joni 🙏🏽
the songwriting was so far ahead of its time
Best version of Coyote ever. Joni takes no prisoners, and the rhythm of the Band is incomparable
Framing Danko was masterful!
As close to perfect as a song can be,. Joni rolling it with the best backup band ever.
Agree. An absolutely dazzling song.
Love the way Rick and Robbie are captured looking at her; excellent camera work camera person
This performance was beyond incredible. Some of the best musicians in the world were figuring it out on the fly how to keep up with Joni. Robbie Robertson figured it out and Rick Danko tagged along. Simply amazing.
Yes I noticed same, jazz players had easier time following her.
She has her own spot somewhere between jazz, folk and progressive rock.
No way this was on the fly, they definitely rehearsed it.
Danko was no Jaco
@@jukeboxfandango but Danko did very good with this number, well done
Nobody was Jaco@@jukeboxfandango
Sublime! Joni - Canadian. The Band - Canadian. This song is about her "fling" with Sam Shepard during the Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder Revue of 1975-1976.
The groooove of this tune is off the f-ing charts, man. She’s just a magically musical gift to us all.
I can never, ever watch this video just once...she's a singer, songwriter and an actress all together. Wonderful woman.
When I heard this the first time, I damn near fell over. Just a great performance that surprised me
I remember seeing Joni when I was little in The Last Waltz and thinking she was impossibly cool. I _still_ think Joni Mitchell is impossibly cool and effortlessly skilled as well as talented
PS I saw YOU scrolling this
Makes me feel privileged to be in the same generation and to have listened to her all my life from 67-68 till now.
Don't underestimate her talent. It towers above most everyone else.
she is a genius
nightridehome - put it perfectly
She was always a most awesome, precise rythmn guitarist, as well as a poet.
Ok
There have been lots of talented musician/songrwriters. Some are even geniuses. But Joni is on a different spiritual plane. You can argue about the Beatles and the Stones, but Joni is incomparable to anybody else. Maybe Hendrix would be the closest to her, in terms of making the guitar their own and writing and singing lyrics on a different wavelength.
Love you, Your songs feature prominately in my book which I hope becomes a movie..
maybe my favorite song of the great Joni Mitchell. I can't recall the number of times I listen the Hejira album
"their pills and powders to get them through this passion play" on that specific stage in those specific circumstances...man, Joni always comes in at a deeper level
@hello is it me youre looking for lots of coke is said to have been consumed on that tour
Agreed. Pretty sure Scorsese was rubbing it in to his bell end at that point
When she sang that lyric the guy to her left smiled and looked impressed .
And the alliteration! Along with" "You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail"; "He went running thru the whisker wheat" "Privately probing the public rooms"; "While he's watching the waitresses' legs / He's too far from the Bay of Fundy"; "And the air conditioned cubicles / And the carbon ribbon rides"; & " To run away and wrestle with my ego"!
@@cvarga Man, I've heard this song a million times, and never put that together intellectually (though of course it's a big part of how and why I've responded to the lyrics that feel so - rhythmic!)
Not only is she on top form, but all musicians involved are peaking. Unreal. Such a musician: hard to understand how anyone can be this good.
Having read some of these comments, I couldn’t agree more with all of them . Joni Mitchell is , and always was , a genius , totally unique talent in so many ways. Her songwriting, meaningful lyrics and delivery are second to none. When she came to Australia in the 80’s , her record company rang our florist shop to order flowers to be sent to her hotel to welcome her. And I was the lucky florist who was honoured to make the floral arrangement which was sent to the Sebel Townhouse for her to enjoy. I still consider it a privilege to have created a floral tribute for this amazing artist.
Joni is something special when she sings.
An artist to be remembered for all time. Pioneer, songstress, poet, artist, free thinker, musical ground breaker... independent soul......
.. genius!
U summed up exactly the way I feel about Joni, and that performance in particular
Incandescent Joni!
Facial structure, movement, vibe.
Every note in a perfect groove.
Pure genius.
Songstress?
A song that will live forever.
Never saw Joni look and sound more beautiful.
a prophet. We had Prince....and we had a Princess....Joni. Thank you for all the hits and REALITY in your music
"No regrets coyote, I just get off up aways". YOU SLAY ME JONI!! Such a badass song written by an incredible songwriter. She gets into the nitty gritty of what a rock n roll relationship was really like. The good, the bad, AND the ugly
The face at 4:20 - 4:22 is the pure joy of the creative artist captured for eternity..
She is iconic…love her! 💜
Neil Young brought me here. So I started looking for more and more folk music for helping me in the farm works, and there are some brazilian folk to (modão de viola etc.) and I see it has no end. Thank God Almighty
Her Court and Spark Album along with Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love will always, and I mean always will be on my top 10 albums of all time, no matter how old I live to be. Those two women are the embodiment of what it means to have pure skill and talent where music is concerned. Their music will stand the test of time, where so much of what is being produced now will be long forgotten in less than a decade, maybe sooner.
Joni and Kate are two of my favorite songwriters and musicians of all time. Both incredibly gifted with words and great storytellers. For me Joni's 'Hejira' and Kate's 'The Dreaming' are in my favorite albums of all time.
No regrets, coyote
We just come from such different sets of circumstance
I'm up all night in the studios
And you're up early on your ranch
You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail
While the sun is ascending
And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel
There's no comprehending
Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes
And the lips you can get
And still feel so alone
And still feel related
Like stations in some relay
You're not a hit and run driver, no, no
Racing away
You just picked up a hitcher
A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway
We saw a farmhouse burning down
In the middle of nowhere
In the middle of the night
And we rolled right past that tragedy
'Til we turned down to some road house lights
Where a local band was playing
Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor
And the next thing I know
That coyote's at my door
He pins me in a corner and he won't take no
He drags me out on the dance floor
And we're dancing close and slow
Now he's got a woman at home
He's got another woman down the hall
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 a coyote right in the face
On the road to Baljennie, near my old home town
He went running thru the whisker wheat
Chasing some prize down
And a hawk was playing with him
Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes
He had those same eyes just like yours
Under your dark glasses
Privately probing the public rooms
And 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 waitresses' 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 going to 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
With this, 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
Almost 50 years old and still gives goosebumps every time I hear or see this piece.
Like all of us, Rick and Robbie seem to be enjoying Joni’s performance
Great artists in this film but this is the highlight. She crushes it.
Massive Joni fan. Just replayed this on "Shadow and Light"........with Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny in her backing band...for fuck's sake.... cannot get better!
Greatest lyricist bar none.
The Band! Smashing a classic! The BASS!! Joni is just f'kin Delicious-o-rama! What a song! What a version! "Prisoner of the fine white lines on the free way!" phuckme! That is a line!
She's a genius. Her music will live as long as there are people to listen.
Joni Mitchell never lies!
This is one of the very few songs that the first time I heard it on the radio, I LOVED IT. And now, decades later, I still do. Even more so. Joni is a true virtuoso
What a wonderful wordsmith and vocal and instrumental talent she is. She's given the music world tons of astonishing melodies and lyrics. It's hard to fathom it all...
Prisoner of the white lines of the freeway .. yes
This song makes things so clear. Her pace and phrasing are perfect.
Could anyone imagine such an intelligent, provocative song written today? This woman put pen to paper and thought about it.
❤Joni righting a scoundrel encounter by writing about it. Touché Joni❤️
One of humanity's true bright lights. Joni is proof that nature is capable of magnificence when it can gift a being with such unearthly, staggeringly deep musical talent. Stuff like that doesn't come along but once every couple of generations--we are lucky to be around for this one.
"He picks up my scent on his fingers/ while he's watching the waitress' legs..."
By far the most adult, witty and daring couplet to appear in a song lyric on Top 40 radio... I *still* can't believe she got away with that! Bob's autobiographically obscure and Whitmanesque image-lists are great, and he was a god between '65 and '76, but for direct-yet-complex poetry you can't beat Joni Mitchell (I defy anyone to find something from Bob that stands up to the bawdy frankness of the lines I cite here). If any lyric-writer *should* have gotten a Nobel, it should have been Mitchell. But this world is just not that kind of world, sadly.
Agree 100%
The river you can skate away on...
Leonard Cohen , too. We Canadians are poetic as Hell aren't we?
Are you single by any chance LOL
travelogue -it is poetry
+aliceislooking throughtheglass get oot!
"We Canadians are poetic as Hell aren't we?"
Not to forget: Rufus Wainwright and the late-'70s cast of SCTV....
This song would raise you from the dead
I spent so many weekend nights at Winterland, so many amazing shows. I simply cannot fathom why I chose to not go to The Last Waltz. I should kick myself after all these years, but I am too old and no longer have the flexibility to do so.
How many fell in love with Joni ?
+Clive Richardson Everyone with taste!
+Clive Richardson At least two members of Led Zep for starters
+Clive Richardson She show infinitely more artist talent and merit than virtually 100 percent of the so called musicians today! Let's see them get up without a teleprompter and sing a song as complex as this all the way through.
+Clive Richardson I think I've always been in love with her... yep, I'm sure of it. I've always been in love with all that is majestic, female and creative.
Nope. Buck-toothed pretentious cow.
I was 13 years when this movie came out. My mom was a huge "The Band" fan and took me to see it. The whole movie blew me away (remember Eric Clapton's piece?)
I don't know how anyone could have written this. it is the most personal honest poetry I have heard, it blows me away every time I hear it. While some of us try to put down in paint as indeed she did too, it feels pointless she had already done it with words, wish I could tell her.
A Prisoner... of the white lines... on the freeway... 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Greatest living songwriter. Bar none.
Brilliant Joni ... and I love how Danko concentrates on her every nuance and move. The best.
I'd watch her every nuance and move, too (and did, in '78, when I first saw this ... OMG)
+la la Liz
And Robert Plant had An Aching In His Heart..to be Goin' To California to meet her.
Oh Joni! What do you do to these men? You know the same rowdy crowd that was here last night is back again!
That's what I love about The Band. they are constantly watching each other staying in sync. look at Levon and Richard Manuel all throughout the last waltz. guys were such pros. left everything out there on the stage.
I read a Led Zeppelin bio, and it was hilarious reading how Page and Plant - two "rock gods" were shaking in their boots as they were about to meet Joni. LOL!
Madeleine Hague as they should!
She is the angel of our generation, channeling the cosmos right into our ears.
November 7, 2021
Happy Birthday your Majesty!
Take care & be well - love from
Brighton UK 🙏🏻🌹🙏🏽
Wow it’s so amazing 🤩 to hear this from you Barbara, thanks a lot
she steals this whole show IMO
As a Prince fan, I hear so much of the influence she had on him
Joni was Prince's favorite songwriter.
Hejira is one of the greatest albums ever.
I used to be a truck driver. The white line was called the fog line. Sometimes that was all you could see to stay in your lane. I wonder if that was what she was singing about.
Almost 50 years and I still get goosebumps hearing or seeing this piece.
I remember watching this in the mid-80s on a VHS, just hanging with friends, while in college. I'd heard Joni before for sure. But I heard and saw this, and had one of those musical moments, those epiphanies when the music shows you a whole new world. I will never forget it, and it's with me still. And as an aside, amazing to see her exhaling smoke and stamping out her cigarette as she goes on stage.
definitive ,beautiful , timeless grace, JM's words can be so direct and poignant and elusive at the same time , brilliance captured. cheers forever to all on stage
Any definition of the word "artist" should have a picture of Joni next to it. She even paints a picture with her words. Her art is timeless.
Happy 73rd, Joni. 'Hope you are doing well, after your health troubles. A musical goddess.
I totally agree with you, she’s amazing 🎸
Where are you from?
woman's a legend and genius.
She was fabulous
Unforgettable. RIP Robbie.
Moments like this a "Priceless" - Joni the finest Singer / Songwriter period.