MEDIUM Vinyl Record WEIGHT 2 x 180gr (schwarzes Vinyl) 45rpm Ultradisc one-step LP Box Halfspeed CONDITION sealed COVER Box CONDITION BOX M mint BOX DAMAGES No, we take care about that SERIALNUMBER Yes LIMITED Yes, to 3000 MISCELLANEOUS Stereo, SuperVinyl, the LPs are shipped in the inner sleeves outside the covers to avoid cover damage, the box is sealed MUSICIAN HOMEPAGE jonimitchell.com
Joni Mitchell – vocals (all tracks), rhythm guitar (1–7, 9), electric guitar (8)
Larry Carlton – lead guitar (1–2, 4, 7), acoustic guitar (8)
Bobbye Hall – percussion (1, 4–5)
Jaco Pastorius – fretless bass (1, 5, 7, 9)
Victor Feldman – vibes (2)
Max Bennett – bass guitar (3, 6)
John Guerin – drums (3, 6, 8–9)
Neil Young – harmonica (3)
Abe Most – clarinet (5)
Chuck Domanico – double bass (8) Chuck Findley - horns (9)
Tom Scott – horns (9)
coyote - 5:01
amelia - 6:01
furry sings the blues - 5:07
a strange boy - 4:15
hejira - 6:42
song for sharon - 8:40
black crow - 4:22
blue motel room - 5:04
refuge of the roads - 6:42
Joni Mitchell is the only artist who could've made Hejira
The legendary singer-songwriter said as much when discussing the album decades after its release
Yet that fact seemed obvious from the moment the gold-certified effort streeted in fall 1976
An adventurous travelogue, probing narrative, and offbeat homage to freedom, Hejira remains an inimitable entry in the catalog of recorded music — a spare, gorgeous, meditative series of sonic vignettes comprised of floating harmonic pop, cool jazz, soft rock, and sensitive vocal elements that beckon feelings of motion, discovery, and self-examination
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing
Strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, Mobile Fidelity's UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set presents the record ranked the 133rd Greatest of All Time by Rolling Stone with definitive detail, richness, accuracy, and directness
Marking the first time the revered LP has received audiophile treatment, it's one of six iconic 1970s Mitchell records Mobile Fidelity is reissuing on vinyl and SACD
Playing with a virtually nonexistent noise floor, dead-quiet surfaces, and superior groove definition, this collectible reissue reproduces in enveloping fashion the tones, textures, and craftsmanship that help Hejira function as the equivalent of a liberating trip down an open road with nothing but blue sky, natural landscape, and fresh air in the immediate vicinity
Passages bloom, carry, decay as they do amid an acoustically optimized environment
Soundstages extend far, wide, and deep, with black backgrounds and pinpoint images adding to the realism
The reference-grade immediacy, airiness, and presence put in transparent perspective Mitchell's dense strings of words, stream-of-conscious-like phrasing, and unhurried albeit forward momentum
Likewise, the instrumental contributions of her A-list support musicians — a cast that includes L.A. Express members John Guerin, Max Bennett and Tom Scott, plus Neil Young, Victor Feldman, and Abe Most — emerges with breathtaking clarity and dimensionality
While Mitchell, whose intimate vocals and abstract guitar parts center everything, Mobile Fidelity's restoration of Hejira further reveals the visionary breadth of guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Jaco Pastorius
Though heard on only four tracks, Pastorius' fretless bass epitomizes the fluid, subtle, flexible, roomy, and shape-shifting characteristics of songs that often appear to transpire out of nowhere akin to the formation of a puffy cumulus cloud overhead
In sync with Mitchell's voice, Pastorius' fusion hovers and floats, suspended in a fog you want to deeply inhale
The "grace notes" Mitchell desired on Hejira can now be heard in full. Ditto the luxurious tapestries of alinear lines, fills, and supplements unreeled on Carlton's six-string
Visually, the packaging of this UD1S set complements its identity as the copy to own
Housed in a deluxe slipcase, the LPs come in foil-stamped jackets with faithful-to-the-original graphics
This version is for listeners who desire to become immersed in everything about Hejira, including the unforgettable album cover — a pastiche of 14 different photos Mitchell used a Camera Lucida to assemble into one image that's anchored by a portrait of her in a stoic pose — and the interior shots of Mitchell skating on a frozen Wisconsin lake wearing a pair of black skates, black shirt, and fur cape
The notion of skating, feeling an awakening wind whipping against your face, and losing yourself to the surroundings are extremely apt for Hejira, which Mitchell wrote after a sequence of trips and relationships prompted her to reflect on the complicated conflicts between independence and marriage, success and satisfaction, duty and desire — and, more specifically, "the cost of being a woman"
The Canadian native delved into such themes before
But never as she does on Hejira, whose liberating, running-away aura doubles as another of Mitchell's rejections of tradition as well as a suggestion of a better alternative
At once observational and personal, expansive and insular, cheerful and poignant, Hejira spans a sea of human conditions, emotions, and circumstances
It addresses drifting, isolation, pleasure, place, time, and surroundings with strikingly poetic discourse matched with music that, save for the crooned ballad "Blue Motel Room," forgoes conventional structures and choruses
The jazz-based arrangements, marked by scaled-down percussion and all manner of bent, rounded, and unsettled notes, hint that Mitchell has no exact destination in mind
Excursions such as the moody "Furry Sings the Blues," funky "Coyote" and edgy "Black Crow" throw open previously locked doors to possibility and journey
They signal it's time for a welcome departure from norms and the past, one that leads to a heightened sense of clarity and perspective
Or, as Mitchell said upon choosing the album title, it's time for "leaving the dream, no blame"
RECORDING 1976 at A&M Studios, Hollywood ENGINEERING Henry Lewy LABEL Asylum RE MASTERING Krieg Wunderlich MASTER SOURCE 1/4" / 15 IPS Dolby A Analog Master to DSD 256 to Analog Console to Lathe RE RELEASED 2025 AVERAGE RATING 4.9 Stars out of 5 PRESSING by Fidelity Record Pressing MADE IN USA STYLE Folk Rock / Folk Jazz AVAILABLE as long as inventory stock
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