Coyote (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Coyote" was the opening song from Joni Mitchell's 1976 album Hejira and also the first single.

The song constituted a major departure from her previous work The Hissing of Summer Lawns, which had been quite ornate with pianos, layered vocals and percussion (although the song had been introduced in an embryonic form on the supporting tour). On "Coyote", her sound was stripped down to electric and acoustic guitars and a fretless bass guitar played by legendary virtuoso Jaco Pastorius. In a sense, this was similar to her early albums, but the sound was extremely spacious, even repetitive, with the verses made much longer and more like a long story. Thus, although this is one of the faster-tempo songs on Hejira, it still lasts for an even five minutes, whereas most songs on Mitchell's earliest albums were less than three minutes. Mitchell's guitar itself was in an unusual (low to high) C-G-D-F-C-E tuning - presumably a type of open tuning designed to play a seventh, ninth, or even eleventh chord.

Lyrically, "Coyote" is concerned with the difficulty of establishing any sort of connection with people who come from "different sets of circumstance" (as the song has it). In particular it describes an encounter (which turns into a one night stand) between the narrator (possibly meant to be Joni herself as there is a reference in the lyrics to her coming home from the studio) and "Coyote", a ranch worker. Coyote represents nature and the narrator's big city (presumably LA) life where "pills and powders" are necessary to "get us through this passion play". The aforementioned line is also a reference to Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, which Joni was a part of in the fall of 1975.

A version of "Coyote" was performed by Joni with The Band for the concert movie The Last Waltz and is included on the soundtrack. The song was also covered by Spirit of the West on the 1992 Mitchell tribute album Back to the Garden.