| "Coyote" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Joni Mitchell | ||||
| from the album Hejira | ||||
| B-side | "Blue Motel Room" | |||
| Released | Feb 1977 [1] | |||
| Length | 5:01 | |||
| Label | Asylum | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Joni Mitchell | |||
| Joni Mitchell singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Official audio | ||||
| Coyote on YouTube | ||||
"Coyote" is a song by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell from her eighth album Hejira (1976). It was released as the album's lead single. [3]
"Coyote" was inspired by Sam Shepard, with whom Mitchell was briefly linked during Bob Dylan's 1975-76 Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Martin Scorsese's 2019 documentary film about the tour includes footage of Mitchell performing the song at Gordon Lightfoot's house, with Dylan and Roger McGuinn accompanying her on acoustic guitar. Prior to the performance McGuinn states that Mitchell "wrote this song about this tour and on this tour and for this tour." [4] [5] In biographer David Yaffe's 2017 book Reckless Daughter, Mitchell describes how she "had a flirtation" with Shepard. [6]
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". [7] In Chris O'Dell's 2009 autobiography Miss O'Dell she details an affair she had with a then-married Shepard and states that Shepard then cheated on her with Mitchell. [8]
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. [7] [9] 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. [10] Mitchell was raised in Maidstone, North Battleford, and Saskatoon in Saskatchewan. [11]
Rolling Stone included the song on an unranked list of Mitchell's essential 50 songs in 2021. In an article accompanying the list, critic Douglas Wolk noted that it possesses "long, tricky, rattling verses that chronicle a romance with a womanizing man whose life is very different from the narrator’s" and that it had been a "highlight" of her live repertoire for several years before she recorded it for Hejira. [12]
Bob Dylan played Mitchell's original 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". [13]
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.
| Chart (1977) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Canada Top Singles ( RPM ) [14] | 79 |
Roberta Joan "Joni" Mitchell is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitchell became known for her starkly personal lyrics and unconventional compositions which grew to incorporate pop and jazz elements. She has received many accolades, including ten Grammy Awards and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Rolling Stone called her "one of the greatest songwriters ever", and AllMusic has stated, "When the dust settles, Joni Mitchell may stand as the most important and influential female recording artist of the late 20th century".
John Francis "Jaco" Pastorius III was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. He recorded albums as a solo artist and band leader and was a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
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Joni wrote this song about this tour and on this tour and for this tour.
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