Coyote is the playwright Sam Shepard, they had a brief fling. In Canadian First Nations mythology, coyotes are tricksters, and that's what I've always associated this with. One of my favourite songs of hers, thanks Harri!
@@lotsoffun4716 No, she didn't. First of all, she's not Hollywood. Not even close. She purchased her first home on the Coast of British Columbia when she was 27 and she still resides there. She did have musical relationships in the early days, because that's what people did, and what of it?
@@deborahhennessey I know she's Canadian. And yes, she lived with all three that I mentioned and a WHOLE lot more. I don't care, but I know for a fact she lived with those three on separate occasions. She lived in California, Canada, and Greece for YEARS! Are you just trying to be a bi*ch or what?????? Also lived in Florida for a while.
This is (in my opinion) one of the very best live versions of this song. Joni Mitchell joined The Band on stage while taping their performance for The Last Waltz. Artist after artist creating the near-perfect live concert performance. Still one of my favorite albums after 40 + years. Glad you found it!
The line “on the road to Baljennie, near my old home town” she’s talking about Battleford, Saskatchewan. Which is where I’m from. Joni Mitchell and I grew up in the same area and Baljennie (now a ghost town) is about 40 minutes south east of here.
I agree, this is a reference to the constant travel and the feeling of not having a permanent home. You get this in other Joni songs such as Free Man in Paris
It's a lovely paradox. Hitching was associated with the freedom of the beat generation poets such as Jack Kerouac. Here being 'on the road' is a prison, with the paradox reinforced by the use of the word freeway. I once wrote a similar line in a poem called In the Aviary. I still think of the phrase "it's time to fly beyond the prison of the open sky" as one of the best things I wrote.
If you watch the Dylan movie, "Rolling Thunder Review" you can see Joni playing this song for the first time in the house of Gordon Lightfoot while between gigs on the road. She wrote it during the tour, and most think it is about actor/playwright Sam Sheppard who was tagging along on Dylan's tour. He was doing that Guy Thing which was documented by this song. ruclips.net/video/zeaO5UZ5OcI/видео.html
Love how her lyrics seem to allude to other ideas within her songs. Poetry. "prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" So sly. She knows she is being played but is enjoying it. Coy but knowing. And her depiction of a coyote is so natural and accurate. Such a wonderful personification. She is one special woman.
I hope you can get around to reacting to every artist’s performance in this film. The Last Waltz is filled with performances considered to be the best live efforts of their lives.
I've been in love with Joni Mitchell since the 60's. 'Love her poetry, her musicianship... i never got what's the big deal about this song. I see it requested massively anytime someone reacts to any of her songs. Actually it seems out of character vis a vis the rest of her incredible catalog. Go fish. I hope you'll do more of her music. Thanks, Harri -
if you would to see very young Joni look up Joni Anderson that is her maiden name, there are some videos of her the talent even then was shinning through.
I love that she is unapologetic about using and enjoying him, is wise to him and that in the end it is her choice to move on. "this flame - you put her in this Eskimo", the fire of her passions, the ice/reality of who she is. Gotta love Joni. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire should be the next song from her. Or the live version of Amelia. with the Pat Metheney solo/outro.
Well, congratulations because on the first listen, you have caught the crux of the song. You are correct the white lines refer to a cocaine habit. Joni had after she had joined the Bob Dylan tour for many months when everybody was doing tons of coke. She acquired a deep and heavy habit and took to the road. Because of her stardom and influence, she met up with a lot of famous people, and this is an episodic about her meeting Sam Shepard, the mysterious and handsome playwright, who was married to the movie star Jessica Lange. In this poetic and musical exploration, Joni discusses the visceral and wild magnetism that occurs in sexual encounters. My favorite line is when she says “ he picks up my scent on his fingers while he’s watching the waitresses legs. This is beyond brilliant. She is incomparable.
Additionally, Joni is referring to our wild and unfettered nature when we are attracted and how our nature’s are so poised for fight or flight. So when she talks about him being attracted and wanting to get out of here, sure, that’s the fight or flight. She then goes on to say I tried to runaway myself to runaway and wrestle with my ego. She admits that she has a personal challenge there. Again, this song along with so many others of hers are just so brilliant.
She was and is such a beauty in every way, inside and outside. Btw, the live performance with Pat Metheney, Jaco Pastorious and Don Alias is so much better because they are the perfect wrap for the mood of the song.
This song is from the album, "Hejira", which basically means "journey" or "pilgrimage'. Thus the continued use of the "white lines on the freeway" refrain. Many of the songs on the album speak to the desire to keep moving - sort of as an end unto itself.
What a concert this must have been. The movie was great. As for her song, I love the way the beat has you ramlin' downa highway with telephone poles flyin' by along with those white lines.
I LOVE this song! This is a good version but there is also a great version on RUclips where she plays with Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn that was taped at Gordon Lightfoot’s house. Must have been some party!
River A Case of You Help Me Raised On Robbery Big Yellow Taxi This song was written about actor Sam Shepard. He was the coyote. Joni is so talented and her album Blue would be great to tackle. So great to see her perform recently. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Stephen. Love Joni. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
I read the book "Girls Like Us", by Cristina Aiger. The book is about Carole King, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell. In the book, Joni said that the Coyote was the actor Sam Shepard. This is a tremendous song by Joni and The Band's playing absolutely enhances the vibe. I always took the line 'prisoners of the white lines' etc., to mean someone bound to life on the road. PS - you should watch "The Last Waltz" in it's entirety, non-stop. 😊
Sam Shepard was an actor, but he was better known as an award-winning playwright. Among his plays are "Fool for Love," "The Curse of the Starving Class," "True West," "A Lie of the Mind," and "Cowboy Mouth" (with Patti Smith--yes, THAT Patti Smith). He also wrote the screenplay for "Paris, Texas."
You are right Harri, Joni Mitchell is good with words. a poet and a wordsmith. I remember a radio interview with Joni where she said at the age of three years old while walking in a garden she had a lightbulb moment and understood the concept of a metaphor. Definitely advanced, a pioneer of word and song and Joni is one-of-a-kind.
The best version of this song is from her "Shadows and Light" tour. Jaco Pastorius is on Bass...you could do numerous videos just on him...or Weather Report...greatest fusion band that he was in.
This is one of my favorite songs and I love the whole album (Hejira) that this song was on. I think the prisoner of the white lines on the freeway refers to her never stopping to settle down, she is hitchhiking through life and she bumped into this Coyote who wanted to catch her and devour her. Though she is captivated by him, soon she will be on her way. She says he is not a hit and run driver so he would probably like to keep her around along with his other ladies but she can't stay, the road is calling her. Joni's life was indeed like this, she could just never settle down no matter how much she wanted to. She was always losing at love but I think it ultimately was by choice, she got bored with commitment. My guess is that the guy is a rancher who raises horses and drives a Ferrari. Definitely a big time operator who has so much going on that his wife has no idea that he is off with other women, or she doesn't care because he offers her the life she wants to live. So this is my reaction to this song, whether or not it is what the song is actually about, I don't know but it is what it is about to me.
Exactly, I think you nailed the meaning. Also her use of white lines and freeway in the refrain, "prisoner of the white lines on the Freeway", seems to be a double entendre for her life keeping (white lines) her in her free way(s) i.e., without commitments. Just another example of Joni's beautiful and sophisticated song writing ability.
I think the song is about a short relationship between a musician on tour ("I work all night on the studio...") with a country Casanova ("...and you wake early on your ranch") .It´s been a nice affair,so "No regrets",but she must be on the road because she´s "a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" and has to keep rolling.Joni Mitchell is one of the best songwriters of her generation,male or female.Not to many women those days could show this kind of freedom in a somg.If you have not heard the studio version from the Hejira LP with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Larry Carlton on guitar I highly rcommend it to you.
My husband and I met in 1988, we have been married 19 years and we had this played at our wedding because when we started dating we stayed up all night listening to Blue with wine and cigarettes fixing the world.
The brilliance is that she (the protagonist of the song) is not a victim or target. Yeah, she was led on but she made her choices and is fine with it. But she's going to get off up the road and not stick around. That sort of agency by a woman still isn't expressed in such a self-assured tone. You're the coyote, I know who you are. I choose to be with you and I choose to get out while the getting is good. Brilliant.
It's a song that feels like a second coming of age. I heard it in my later 30's, about the age she was when she wrote it, and there's this breezy wisdom and the freedom that comes from that. Knowing you are no longer an impressionable 20-something who will be left to cry by Coyote types. I love how she calls him out with detachment for having a woman at home, and another woman at the bar, and the way that he checks out the waitress even while sniffing out the evidence of their... recent dalliance. It's a brilliant song where she is the observer of all these people, and the way she weaves an actual coyote hunting and probing (I looked a coyote right in the face (...) And a hawk was playing with him, Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes" with the person in the song (also named Coyote, who was a writer who was "observing them") zigzags just like the melody. When she says "Where the players lick their wounds, And take their temporary lovers, And their pills and powders, To get them through this passion play" it brings shivers down my spine. It's such an honest line, but she calls the players "they", she is not including herself, although she IS one the players on the tour. it's THE best plot twist in all of songwriting. She is the one observing them all, even Coyote. She is the hawk. It was there in plain sight.
I love how she could name names without dropping any names. She could paint a word picture that left very few wondering who the song was about. In THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY no doubt it was about David Crosby as was much of the song CACTUS TREE. Loved that whole album, but my favorite cut is the title track Hejira.
The studio album that this song is on, Hejira, has songs that are all about traveling through life. The white lines on the freeway refer to that traveler. A great album.
This is one of my favorite tracks off my favorite album of hers (Hejira). 'The White Lines Of The Freeway' are NOT cocaine or drug related, but refer to the literal white lines that can lead to Highway Hypnosis. From this same album, try SONG FOR SHARON, AMELIA, BLUE MOTEL ROOM and REFUGE OF THE ROADS.
Fabulous song from the truly stellar album Hejira. I might be in the minority here, but I think the album version is by far the best of this song. It's very sparsely arranged - just Joni's rhythm guitar, Larry Carlton's lead, Jaco Pastorious's bass, and Bobbye Hall's percussion - yet despite the lack of a drummer, I find it has more rhythmic drive than this take. I also think the keyboards detract from rather than add to the overall effect.
Yes It is the concert, It had Joni, Neil, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins & several other big names in music. It's a movie that you really should watch, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.
There's a lovely RUclips video of Joni demonstrating this song which she had just written, at the home of Gordon Lightfoot. Bob Dylan and others are trying to jam along but struggle to have the chops to keep up with Joni's tuning and chord progressions. It reminds me why I spent so much time in my youth hanging around with genius musicians.
This is from "The Last Waltz" the Band's 1976 farewell concert that is a spectacular collection of performances from many of their musical peers. From Ronnie Hawkins (who put the band together as The Hawks in Canada) to Bob Dylan. And so many others. I recommend you watch "Such A Night" by Dr John aka Mac Rebennack from this show. (available on youtube) Love what you are doing, keep up the good work!
Joni’s song about her affair with Sam Shepard during Dylan’s 1974-75 Rolling Thunder tour. There’s an amazing scene in the Scorsese doc about that tour where they’re all partying at Gordon Lightfoot’s house in Canada, and Joni is teaching this brand new song to Dylan. And here it is a year later all fleshed out, with Bob’s old backing band playing behind her. Pretty cool. Yes, the white lines seem to have a double meaning: the painted lines on the highway that are such a part of her nonstop touring musician’s life, and the cocaine that was so omnipresent in the lives of most rock stars in those days (and especially so at The Last Waltz!). But who can say for sure. That’s part of what made the old music so great- the openness of the lyrics, lending themselves to whatever interpretation the listener wanted to make.
This song is from her Heijira album. The album’s theme is restlessness and seeking. She’s singing about the actual white lines on the freeway, but the freeway is a metaphor.
A prisoner of life on the road; ironically “The Freeway”. Coyote is Sam Shepard, the famous playwright and actor. Quite the player. He played her, but she let him.
Joni's work, like so many artists, is about the personal becoming universal in that magical alchemy whereby we find ourselves reflected and we are moved, sometimes on many levels at once. But it's an experience. We can over-analyze and miss it.
This vignette was cropped from the concert known as The Last Waltz. You should watch Dylan's song Forever Young in this same concert. Forever Young was written for his eldest son, it is memorable as is the whole concert is......
Joni Mitchell is a great Canadian-American singer-songwriter. She covers a lot of genres of music including folk, pop, rock, classical & jazz. She has had so many hits especially in the 60's-80's such as "Both Sides Now", "Chelsea Morning", "Help Me", "The Circle Game", "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock", "Raised On Robbery", "Free Man In Paris" etc.
And don't forget, she wrote and sang This Flight Tonight, although the Nazareth version is much better. She has 211 writing credits to her name. The Crosby, Stills, and Nash song - Our House was written about her when she lived with Graham Nash.
Listen more than twice. Very original work from Mitchell. I believe the song was a response to her affair with Sam Sheppard, the actor play write. Follow up is "Don Juan's Recklass daughter which feels alot like Coyote. Great stuff!
A ditty about ships passing in the night as told by a Woman In Full - entirely able to unflinchingly embrace personal accountability. Her smile @3:07 She's hardly a naïve victim. She sees, chuckles. No blame, no shame. No Regrets. Joni imbues the tale with her artistic and humane nature, I've been delighted by this performance soon to be a half century.
Coyote is supposedly the actor/playwright Sam Shepherd. That is all I know about the coyote. Sam S. played Chuck Yeager in the movie “The Right Stuff”. Very handsome fellow. ❤
Well Harri when you go to listen to this song again this is the BEST version, she recorded a concert where she assembled an all star JAzz musicians to back her up the result is stunning musically and I think fully implemented her vision of the song, here is the link: ruclips.net/video/DHQfIwyEVzY/видео.html
gifted song writer - after 50 years of playing - well more like 60 can't figure out her guitar - she tunes it differently almost every song said it was because she never felt confidence in her little finger. Neil Young learned the trick from her.
Interesting video and interesting comments by other followers. I know she is most well known as a folk artist, but I loved her little more pop sounding mainstream "Court and Spark" album in the 70s. Please consider reacting to Diane Burch "Nothing But A Miracle," or "Fools." Thanks!
Sam Shepard was a playwrite, author also actor a couple of movies I can remember The Right Stuff and Baby Boom Joni wrote the song after aromantic fling with him
This is from The Last Waltz movie/concert. You've reacted to other songs from this. She mentions The Bay of Fundy, which is where I live in Nova Scotia.
Same concert as your Neil review and if u have a good 5.1 sound system RUN and buy the blu-ray...absolute reference quality sound mix..its really stunning.
Harri, I suspect that it is pretty intense to carry off the complex sung and spoken lyrics of a song like this. A lot of concentration involved. Her serious demeanor at the end seems very appropriate to me.
Thank you - and another request for most, if not all, of The Last Waltz content. Haven't seen the film as a whole lately, but damn, it's quality. Couple of lasting memories are Papa Staples' smoooooth vocals, the image of Sesame Street's Big Bird I get in Neil Young's Helpless and just the gorgeousness of that overall sound with sexy singing drummer. Total musical yum.
The guy was Sam Shephard… American actor, playwright, author, director and screenwriter who Joni had a flirtation with during Dylan’s rolling thunder revue.
The man in question is Sam Shepard. A tellin' line that sticks out for me is..."He picks up my scent on his fingers while he's watchin' the waitresses legs..."
Her rhythm is so good, the Band just follows her, and it works. They had so little rehearsal.
Before the hippies Joni was a true folk jazz beatnik. That straight blonde hair and clever way she delivered her poetry was adorable and enchanting!
Hejira and Hissing of Summer Lawns are my top Joni albums from her stellar catalog. Been a fan since the 70s.
Coyote is the playwright Sam Shepard, they had a brief fling.
In Canadian First Nations mythology, coyotes are tricksters, and that's what I've always associated this with.
One of my favourite songs of hers, thanks Harri!
I think she had flings with MOST of Hollywood. Crosby, Stills, Jackson Browne, etc....
@@lotsoffun4716 No, she didn't. First of all, she's not Hollywood. Not even close. She purchased her first home on the Coast of British Columbia when she was 27 and she still resides there. She did have musical relationships in the early days, because that's what people did, and what of it?
@@deborahhennessey I know she's Canadian. And yes, she lived with all three that I mentioned and a WHOLE lot more. I don't care, but I know for a fact she lived with those three on separate occasions. She lived in California, Canada, and Greece for YEARS! Are you just trying to be a bi*ch or what?????? Also lived in Florida for a while.
Touring with Sam a month earlier with Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review.
This is (in my opinion) one of the very best live versions of this song. Joni Mitchell joined The Band on stage while taping their performance for The Last Waltz. Artist after artist creating the near-perfect live concert performance. Still one of my favorite albums after 40 + years. Glad you found it!
Another great performance from The Last Waltz is Van Morrison doing "Caravan"
The line “on the road to Baljennie, near my old home town” she’s talking about Battleford, Saskatchewan. Which is where I’m from. Joni Mitchell and I grew up in the same area and Baljennie (now a ghost town) is about 40 minutes south east of here.
As a musician I take the meaning of white lines on the freeway is living your life on the road where you don't look for permanence.
She was also trying to deal with a cocaine habit at the time.
@@sethleon2158 The massive pile of coke in the green room on the day probably wasn't helping.
I agree, this is a reference to the constant travel and the feeling of not having a permanent home. You get this in other Joni songs such as Free Man in Paris
It's a lovely paradox. Hitching was associated with the freedom of the beat generation poets such as Jack Kerouac. Here being 'on the road' is a prison, with the paradox reinforced by the use of the word freeway. I once wrote a similar line in a poem called In the Aviary. I still think of the phrase "it's time to fly beyond the prison of the open sky" as one of the best things I wrote.
Exactly
If you watch the Dylan movie, "Rolling Thunder Review" you can see Joni playing this song for the first time in the house of Gordon Lightfoot while between gigs on the road. She wrote it during the tour, and most think it is about actor/playwright Sam Sheppard who was tagging along on Dylan's tour. He was doing that Guy Thing which was documented by this song.
ruclips.net/video/zeaO5UZ5OcI/видео.html
I just watched the Rolling Thunder Review recently and it was amazing.
That was a magical performance💖
Geez she’s so extraordinarily smooth, and The Band backing her up.
Love how her lyrics seem to allude to other ideas within her songs. Poetry. "prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" So sly. She knows she is being played but is enjoying it. Coy but knowing. And her depiction of a coyote is so natural and accurate. Such a wonderful personification. She is one special woman.
Simply Brilliant
I hope you can get around to reacting to every artist’s performance in this film. The Last Waltz is filled with performances considered to be the best live efforts of their lives.
I love Joni Mitchell and don't know this song ... until now.
I can relate and love her attitude in the song.
I've been in love with Joni Mitchell since the 60's. 'Love her poetry, her musicianship... i never got what's the big deal about this song. I see it requested massively anytime someone reacts to any of her songs.
Actually it seems out of character vis a vis the rest of her incredible catalog. Go fish.
I hope you'll do more of her music.
Thanks, Harri -
I think this one gets all the requests mainly because it’s in The Last Waltz, and pretty much every frame of that film is pure gold.
if you would to see very young Joni look up Joni Anderson that is her maiden name, there are some videos of her the talent even then was shinning through.
I love that she is unapologetic about using and enjoying him, is wise to him and that in the end it is her choice to move on. "this flame - you put her in this Eskimo", the fire of her passions, the ice/reality of who she is. Gotta love Joni. Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire should be the next song from her. Or the live version of Amelia. with the Pat Metheney solo/outro.
I still like The Video Version with( Jaco"Bass G>O>A>T> Pastorius) on Fretless Bass, and Pat Metheny on Lead guitar!
Please watch / listen to the Shadows and Light version of this song with Jaco and Pat. Different level altogether.
Fantastic review of this hauntingly beautiful performance. Interesting take on the meaning. Thanks 👍
Well, congratulations because on the first listen, you have caught the crux of the song. You are correct the white lines refer to a cocaine habit. Joni had after she had joined the Bob Dylan tour for many months when everybody was doing tons of coke. She acquired a deep and heavy habit and took to the road. Because of her stardom and influence, she met up with a lot of famous people, and this is an episodic about her meeting Sam Shepard, the mysterious and handsome playwright, who was married to the movie star Jessica Lange. In this poetic and musical exploration, Joni discusses the visceral and wild magnetism that occurs in sexual encounters. My favorite line is when she says “ he picks up my scent on his fingers while he’s watching the waitresses legs. This is beyond brilliant. She is incomparable.
Additionally, Joni is referring to our wild and unfettered nature when we are attracted and how our nature’s are so poised for fight or flight. So when she talks about him being attracted and wanting to get out of here, sure, that’s the fight or flight. She then goes on to say I tried to runaway myself to runaway and wrestle with my ego. She admits that she has a personal challenge there. Again, this song along with so many others of hers are just so brilliant.
She is brilliant and one of my favorites. I used to try to imitate her. Thank you.
She was and is such a beauty in every way, inside and outside. Btw, the live performance with Pat Metheney, Jaco Pastorious and Don Alias is so much better because they are the perfect wrap for the mood of the song.
Agreed, my friend in music!
This song is from the album, "Hejira", which basically means "journey" or "pilgrimage'. Thus the continued use of the "white lines on the freeway" refrain. Many of the songs on the album speak to the desire to keep moving - sort of as an end unto itself.
What a concert this must have been. The movie was great. As for her song, I love the way the beat has you ramlin' downa highway with telephone poles flyin' by along with those white lines.
I LOVE this song! This is a good version but there is also a great version on RUclips where she plays with Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn that was taped at Gordon Lightfoot’s house. Must have been some party!
Here's the link to the clip: ruclips.net/video/zeaO5UZ5OcI/видео.html
@@juliethompson5160 Thanks! Will watch this.
I always think Bob Dylan looks at her with such respect and awe when she’s singing in that clip.
@@lgpsan He’s pretty inscrutable, but I think the fact that he’s there, playing her song along with her shows how much he respects her.
Joni Mitchell is another great singer songwriter in this generation
River
A Case of You
Help Me
Raised On Robbery
Big Yellow Taxi
This song was written about actor Sam Shepard. He was the coyote. Joni is so talented and her album Blue would be great to tackle. So great to see her perform recently. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Stephen. Love Joni.
Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
I read the book "Girls Like Us", by Cristina Aiger. The book is about Carole King, Carly Simon and Joni Mitchell. In the book, Joni said that the Coyote was the actor Sam Shepard. This is a tremendous song by Joni and The Band's playing absolutely enhances the vibe.
I always took the line 'prisoners of the white lines' etc., to mean someone bound to life on the road.
PS - you should watch "The Last Waltz" in it's entirety, non-stop. 😊
Sam Shepard was an actor, but he was better known as an award-winning playwright. Among his plays are "Fool for Love," "The Curse of the Starving Class," "True West," "A Lie of the Mind," and "Cowboy Mouth" (with Patti Smith--yes, THAT Patti Smith). He also wrote the screenplay for "Paris, Texas."
My perception about the white lines is the same as yours. My favorite version of Coyote is this one: ruclips.net/video/DHQfIwyEVzY/видео.html
This is my favorite song of Joni's and my favorite performance of the song.
Excellent song. The female Bob Dylan of the time. Excellent vibe going on in the mid 70's with the changing of an era.
Great, great writing.
Absolute legend
You are right Harri, Joni Mitchell is good with words. a poet and a wordsmith. I remember a radio interview with Joni where she said at the age of three years old while walking in a garden she had a lightbulb moment and understood the concept of a metaphor. Definitely advanced, a pioneer of word and song and Joni is one-of-a-kind.
The best version of this song is from her "Shadows and Light" tour. Jaco Pastorius is on Bass...you could do numerous videos just on him...or Weather Report...greatest fusion band that he was in.
I'm with you there: Sublime it is.
This is what a former coworker-Laura-says of Joni Mitchell: ¨...she literally paints imagery w/ her words. She´s an absolute genius.¨
This song just mellows me out.
Rolling Stone magazine called The Last Waltz the best rock concert movie of all time. I agree 100%.
This is one of my favorite songs and I love the whole album (Hejira) that this song was on. I think the prisoner of the white lines on the freeway refers to her never stopping to settle down, she is hitchhiking through life and she bumped into this Coyote who wanted to catch her and devour her. Though she is captivated by him, soon she will be on her way. She says he is not a hit and run driver so he would probably like to keep her around along with his other ladies but she can't stay, the road is calling her. Joni's life was indeed like this, she could just never settle down no matter how much she wanted to. She was always losing at love but I think it ultimately was by choice, she got bored with commitment. My guess is that the guy is a rancher who raises horses and drives a Ferrari. Definitely a big time operator who has so much going on that his wife has no idea that he is off with other women, or she doesn't care because he offers her the life she wants to live. So this is my reaction to this song, whether or not it is what the song is actually about, I don't know but it is what it is about to me.
Exactly, I think you nailed the meaning. Also her use of white lines and freeway in the refrain, "prisoner of the white lines on the Freeway", seems to be a double entendre for her life keeping (white lines) her in her free way(s) i.e., without commitments. Just another example of Joni's beautiful and sophisticated song writing ability.
Heijira is my favorite of Joni's many masterful albums. Amelia and Song For Sharon are among the highlights, imo.
It's about Sam Shepar, a playwright, and he and Joni crossed paths on Dylan's tour, hence the song.
There was tension because Joni was pissed at Neil and Robbie because they got too stoned 😂
I think the song is about a short relationship between a musician on tour ("I work all night on the studio...") with a country Casanova ("...and you wake early on your ranch") .It´s been a nice affair,so "No regrets",but she must be on the road because she´s "a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway" and has to keep rolling.Joni Mitchell is one of the best songwriters of her generation,male or female.Not to many women those days could show this kind of freedom in a somg.If you have not heard the studio version from the Hejira LP with Jaco Pastorius on bass and Larry Carlton on guitar I highly rcommend it to you.
She is so great, it's ridiculous.
Her style of storytelling is to mix factual information with tons of metaphors. It’s real cerebral music.
From this concert you need to watch Dr John and Van Morrison and Paul Butterfield since you love the harmonica.
My husband and I met in 1988, we have been married 19 years and we had this played at our wedding because when we started dating we stayed up all night listening to Blue with wine and cigarettes fixing the world.
The brilliance is that she (the protagonist of the song) is not a victim or target. Yeah, she was led on but she made her choices and is fine with it. But she's going to get off up the road and not stick around. That sort of agency by a woman still isn't expressed in such a self-assured tone. You're the coyote, I know who you are. I choose to be with you and I choose to get out while the getting is good. Brilliant.
It's a song that feels like a second coming of age. I heard it in my later 30's, about the age she was when she wrote it, and there's this breezy wisdom and the freedom that comes from that. Knowing you are no longer an impressionable 20-something who will be left to cry by Coyote types. I love how she calls him out with detachment for having a woman at home, and another woman at the bar, and the way that he checks out the waitress even while sniffing out the evidence of their... recent dalliance. It's a brilliant song where she is the observer of all these people, and the way she weaves an actual coyote hunting and probing (I looked a coyote right in the face (...) And a hawk was playing with him, Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes" with the person in the song (also named Coyote, who was a writer who was "observing them") zigzags just like the melody. When she says "Where the players lick their wounds, And take their temporary lovers, And their pills and powders, To get them through this passion play" it brings shivers down my spine. It's such an honest line, but she calls the players "they", she is not including herself, although she IS one the players on the tour. it's THE best plot twist in all of songwriting. She is the one observing them all, even Coyote. She is the hawk. It was there in plain sight.
thanks Harri
As in depth as ever
The songs for this album, Hejira, she wrote while travelling across the country.
She’s a hitchhiker. The white lines refer to the highway markings.
I love how she could name names without dropping any names. She could paint a word picture that left very few wondering who the song was about.
In THAT SONG ABOUT THE MIDWAY no doubt it was about David Crosby as was much of the song CACTUS TREE.
Loved that whole album, but my favorite cut is the title track Hejira.
Joni Mitchell is an absolute fucking unadulterated genius. Coyote is about her affair with the playwright and actor Sam Shepard.
The studio album that this song is on, Hejira, has songs that are all about traveling through life. The white lines on the freeway refer to that traveler. A great album.
This is one of my favorite tracks off my favorite album of hers (Hejira). 'The White Lines Of The Freeway' are NOT cocaine or drug related, but refer to the literal white lines that can lead to Highway Hypnosis. From this same album, try SONG FOR SHARON, AMELIA, BLUE MOTEL ROOM and REFUGE OF THE ROADS.
I have read that actor Sam Shepard was the subject of this song
Check out Joni's "California" ruclips.net/video/Lm39YkGrHp8/видео.html
Fabulous song from the truly stellar album Hejira. I might be in the minority here, but I think the album version is by far the best of this song. It's very sparsely arranged - just Joni's rhythm guitar, Larry Carlton's lead, Jaco Pastorious's bass, and Bobbye Hall's percussion - yet despite the lack of a drummer, I find it has more rhythmic drive than this take. I also think the keyboards detract from rather than add to the overall effect.
Agree completely. Her vocal is wonderful, but the band behind her is something of a mess...
Yes It is the concert, It had Joni, Neil, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins & several other big names in music. It's a movie that you really should watch, I'm sure you'd enjoy it.
There's a lovely RUclips video of Joni demonstrating this song which she had just written, at the home of Gordon Lightfoot. Bob Dylan and others are trying to jam along but struggle to have the chops to keep up with Joni's tuning and chord progressions. It reminds me why I spent so much time in my youth hanging around with genius musicians.
This is from "The Last Waltz" the Band's 1976 farewell concert that is a spectacular collection of performances from many of their musical peers. From Ronnie Hawkins (who put the band together as The Hawks in Canada) to Bob Dylan. And so many others. I recommend you watch "Such A Night" by Dr John aka Mac Rebennack from this show. (available on youtube) Love what you are doing, keep up the good work!
My fav from her What a gift great stuff
The song is about a powerful woman who controls her world, just like she controls the stage.
Joni’s song about her affair with Sam Shepard during Dylan’s 1974-75 Rolling Thunder tour. There’s an amazing scene in the Scorsese doc about that tour where they’re all partying at Gordon Lightfoot’s house in Canada, and Joni is teaching this brand new song to Dylan. And here it is a year later all fleshed out, with Bob’s old backing band playing behind her. Pretty cool.
Yes, the white lines seem to have a double meaning: the painted lines on the highway that are such a part of her nonstop touring musician’s life, and the cocaine that was so omnipresent in the lives of most rock stars in those days (and especially so at The Last Waltz!). But who can say for sure. That’s part of what made the old music so great- the openness of the lyrics, lending themselves to whatever interpretation the listener wanted to make.
Good choice Stephen, Joni is a definite icon.
This song is from her Heijira album. The album’s theme is restlessness and seeking. She’s singing about the actual white lines on the freeway, but the freeway is a metaphor.
A bunch of fine Canadian talent on that stage. Joni Mitchell and the Band (other than Levon Helm).
The last waltz. Maybe the best concert vid/movie ever. Scorsese film. Brilliant in most every way.
A Canadian treasure.
A prisoner of life on the road; ironically “The Freeway”. Coyote is Sam Shepard, the famous playwright and actor. Quite the player. He played her, but she let him.
YOU DEFINITELYYYYYYY NEED TO DO MORE JONI MY FRIEND!!!😊 THIS IS FROM HER ALBUM ( HEJIRA )😊OTHER SONGS ON IT : AMELIA, SONG FOR SHARON, TAKE CARE HARRI
Joni's work, like so many artists, is about the personal becoming universal in that magical alchemy whereby we find ourselves reflected and we are moved, sometimes on many levels at once. But it's an experience. We can over-analyze and miss it.
Perfect comment for this amazing song.
Prisoner of the white lines - She was referring to hitch-hiking. The Coyote picked her up hitch-hiking on the hi-way
Love Joni! Just a great all around talent.I think this is from The Last Waltz?
It is.
This vignette was cropped from the concert known as The Last Waltz. You should watch Dylan's song Forever Young in this same concert. Forever Young was written for his eldest son, it is memorable as is the whole concert is......
I think what she means by lines on the freeway is she likes the road and cant be tied down Thats how i took it i could be wrong
Joni Mitchell is a great Canadian-American singer-songwriter. She covers a lot of genres of music including folk, pop, rock, classical & jazz. She has had so many hits especially in the 60's-80's such as "Both Sides Now", "Chelsea Morning", "Help Me", "The Circle Game", "Big Yellow Taxi", "Woodstock", "Raised On Robbery", "Free Man In Paris" etc.
And don't forget, she wrote and sang This Flight Tonight, although the Nazareth version is much better. She has 211 writing credits to her name. The Crosby, Stills, and Nash song - Our House was written about her when she lived with Graham Nash.
Listen more than twice. Very original work from Mitchell. I believe the song was a response to her affair with Sam Sheppard, the actor play write. Follow up is "Don Juan's Recklass daughter which feels alot like Coyote. Great stuff!
A ditty about ships passing in the night as told by a Woman In Full - entirely able to unflinchingly embrace personal accountability.
Her smile @3:07 She's hardly a naïve victim. She sees, chuckles.
No blame, no shame. No Regrets.
Joni imbues the tale with her artistic and humane nature,
I've been delighted by this performance soon to be a half century.
Coyote is supposedly the actor/playwright Sam Shepherd. That is all I know about the coyote. Sam S. played Chuck Yeager in the movie “The Right Stuff”. Very handsome fellow. ❤
Well Harri when you go to listen to this song again this is the BEST version, she recorded a concert where she assembled an all star JAzz musicians to back her up the result is stunning musically and I think fully implemented her vision of the song, here is the link: ruclips.net/video/DHQfIwyEVzY/видео.html
Joni, Canada's greatest female musical export.
This song was about Joni's brief relationship with Sam Shepard, who she met during a tour that she did with Bob Dylan and many other musicians.
There is no other song like this one
gifted song writer - after 50 years of playing - well more like 60 can't figure out her guitar - she tunes it differently almost every song said it was because she never felt confidence in her little finger. Neil Young learned the trick from her.
She once said in an interview that Keith Richards taught her the open string tuning she's been applying.
What?! - She didn't have more talent in her little finger than most...?😅
All those rock folk poet artist etcet guys had a Joni crush.
Interesting video and interesting comments by other followers. I know she is most well known as a folk artist, but I loved her little more pop sounding mainstream "Court and Spark" album in the 70s. Please consider reacting to Diane Burch "Nothing But A Miracle," or "Fools." Thanks!
Sam Shepard was a playwrite, author also actor a couple of movies I can remember The Right Stuff and Baby Boom Joni wrote the song after aromantic fling with him
This is from The Last Waltz movie/concert. You've reacted to other songs from this. She mentions The Bay of Fundy, which is where I live in Nova Scotia.
Joni's "Hegira" is a great album.
Same concert as your Neil review and if u have a good 5.1 sound system RUN and buy the blu-ray...absolute reference quality sound mix..its really stunning.
Wow! That's Rick Danko on Bass, and Robbie Robertson on Lead guitar, which mean's "The Band!" is her back-up band! Never seen this version!
And Richard Manuel on drums!
Harri, I suspect that it is pretty intense to carry off the complex sung and spoken lyrics of a song like this. A lot of concentration involved. Her serious demeanor at the end seems very appropriate to me.
Coyote was the opening song from the album Hejira.
She's referring to being a hitchhiker on the freeway and the white lines that are painted on the road are the prison.
Thank you - and another request for most, if not all, of The Last Waltz content. Haven't seen the film as a whole lately, but damn, it's quality. Couple of lasting memories are Papa Staples' smoooooth vocals, the image of Sesame Street's Big Bird I get in Neil Young's Helpless and just the gorgeousness of that overall sound with sexy singing drummer. Total musical yum.
Pops Staples delivery of "go down Miss Moses..." is like someone singing a solo in church - heavenly and humble at the same time.
Hej It is The band playing with Joni. The band was a band playing with Dylan for many years. ago. Look for and hear this song The Band and the Stapels
The guy was Sam Shephard… American actor, playwright, author, director and screenwriter who Joni had a flirtation with during Dylan’s rolling thunder revue.
YOU CAN SEE SOME OF THE STORY IN THE POSTS HARRI😊, THE SONGS ABOUT ACTOR ( SAM SHEPARD ) BUT THERES THINGS BEHIND THE STORY SO!😊
The man in question is Sam Shepard. A tellin' line that sticks out for me is..."He picks up my scent on his fingers while he's watchin' the waitresses legs..."
Joni.