“Hejira” by Joni Mitchell

"Hejira" is the title song of Joni Mitchell's eighth studio album, which Asylum released in 1976, and it sums up the record's restlessness. She wrote the album's songs while constantly on the move in late 1975 and early 1976, and they're steeped in life on the road: dense with words, sprawling, and backed by jazz-minded players. Here it's Mitchell's own guitar and voice with Jaco Pastorius, the fretless bassist who looms largest across the album, on bass, Bobbye Hall on percussion and Abe Most on clarinet. She produced it herself and mixed it with Henry Lewy, who recorded it with Steve Katz assisting.

The album didn't sell like the ones before it, but it has since come to be counted among the high points of her career.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.