"Coyote" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Single by Joni Mitchell | ||||
from the album Hejira | ||||
B-side | "Blue Motel Room" | |||
Released | 1977 | |||
Genre | Folk jazz | |||
Length | 5:01 | |||
Label | Asylum | |||
Songwriter(s) | Joni Mitchell | |||
Joni Mitchell singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
Coyote on YouTube |
"Coyote" is the opening song from Joni Mitchell's 1976 album Hejira and also the album's first single.[1]
Background
"Coyote” was inspired by Sam Shepard, whom Mitchell was briefly linked to during Bob Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Review tour. She appears in a video where she performs “Coyote”, during a visit to Gordon Lightfoot’s house. This appears in Martin Scorsese’s documentary The Rolling Thunder Revue where Roger McGuinn states “Joni wrote this song about this tour and on this tour and for this tour”,[2] Dylan and McGuinn accompany Mitchell on acoustic guitar during the song, which was performed at Gordon Lightfoot's house.[3] In biographer David Yaffe’s book Reckless Daughter, Mitchel describes how she "had a flirtation” with Sam Shepard.[4]
In her 2019 book Joni Mitchell: New Critical Readings, Ruth Charnock described the song as "either the most flirtatious song about fucking or the most graphic song about flirting ever written".[5] In Chris O'Dell's 2009 autobiography Miss O'Dell she details an affair she had with married playwright Sam Shepard and states that Shepard then cheated on her with Joni Mitchell. O'Dell claims that "Coyote" is written about Sam Shepard.[6] The song describes Coyote as being "too far from the Bay of Fundy". In the summers of 1972 and 1973, Shepard resided in a waterside cottage in West Advocate, Nova Scotia, located on a strip of land which extends into the Bay of Fundy.[5][7] The narrator also mentions looking an actual coyote in the face while "on the road to Baljennie near my old home town", a reference to the former hamlet of Baljennie, Saskatchewan.[8] Mitchell was raised in Maidstone, North Battleford, and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan.[9]
Later versions
Dylan played Mitchell's studio-album version on the "Noah's Ark part 2" episode of the third season of his Theme Time Radio Hour show in 2009, introducing it as a song by a "strong-willed woman, and I mean that in the best possible way".[10]
A live version of "Coyote" was performed by Mitchell with the Band for the concert movie The Last Waltz, and is included on the film's soundtrack album. Another live version appears on Joni Mitchell's live album Shadows and Light. Like the original, it featured Jaco Pastorius on bass, but features Pat Metheny as a second guitarist and Don Alias replacing Bobbye Hall on percussion.
"Coyote" appeared on the 1992 Mitchell tribute album Back to the Garden, with Canadian band Spirit of the West covering the song.
Personnel
- Joni Mitchell – acoustic and electric guitars, vocals
- Jaco Pastorius – bass guitar
- Bobbye Hall – percussion
Charts
Chart (1977) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Singles (RPM)[11] | 79 |
References
- ^ AllMusic review: Hejira.
- ^ Martoccio, Angie (2021-05-05). "That Time Joni Mitchell Brought Gordon Lightfoot's House Down With 'Coyote'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
- ^ Scorsese, Martin (Director). Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (Motion picture). Netflix. 108 minutes in.
Joni wrote this song about this tour and on this tour and for this tour.
- ^ Yaffe, David (2017). Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell. Macmillan USA. ISBN 978-0374248130.
- ^ a b Ruth Charnock (January 24, 2019). Joni Mitchell: New Critical Readings. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 110. ISBN 978-1-5013-3211-1.
- ^ Chris O'Dell (October 6, 2009). Miss O'Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved. Simon and Schuster. p. 404. ISBN 978-1-4165-9675-2.
- ^ John J. Winters (March 15, 2017). Sam Shepard: A Life. Counterpoint. p. 217. ISBN 978-1-61902-984-2.
- ^ Lloyd Whitesell (August 4, 2008). The Music of Joni Mitchell. Oxford University Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-19-971909-9.
- ^ White, Timothy (December 9, 1995). "Joni Mitchell - A Portrait of the Artist". Billboard. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
- ^ "Episode 98: Noah's Ark part 2". Theme Time Radio Hour Archive. Retrieved 2021-04-10.
- ^ "Top RPM Singles: Issue 5274b." RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved April 28, 2021.
External links
- "Coyote" at Last.fm
- "Coyote" lyrics at Joni Mitchell's official site