This piece contains links to a number of musical performances. If you have limited time, it might be best to read first, then go back to the music later. However, if you have the luxury of 20 minutes or more to spend on Words & Music at one sitting, be my guest…
Traveling on the highway is a recurring theme in American culture and pop songs. Apparently you’ve been able to get your kicks on Route 66 since 1946
Let’s look at how 2 consummate masters of the craft of songwriting converge on the same subject
Joni Mitchell received a lot of attention in 2018 on the occasion of her 75th birthday. An all-star tribute concert led by Rufus Wainwright (the son of one of Mitchell’s contemporaries from the ‘70s) commemorated the innovative songstress whose back catalogue includes Blue, which sits in the upper echelons of Rolling Stones top 500 albums of all time. The renewed interest occasioned by her birthday celebrations drew me back to her 1976 album Hejira, with its experimental collaborations with jazz musicians
When I first heard Coyote I was grabbed by the highly unusual rhythmic counterpoint between the guitar chords and Jaco Pastorius’ haunting bass line with Mitchell’s voice floating over the top; but I never really paid attention to the lyrics. However, Glen Hansard’s faithful live rendition of the tune in the 2018 concert drew me into the words lurking behind that music
Coyote is about a predator but not one of the wolf-like variety you might think
Mitchell wrote the song during her time with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Review in 1976. It tells the story of a mildly predatory older man interacting with a younger woman in a bar. She’s traveling alone across the USA, always 1 step ahead of the people she meets and the situations she encounters
But what is so haunting in the tune for me are words in the chorus as our protagonist sings of being a prisoner of the white lines on the freeway
Mitchell mocks the Coyote lyrically as she observes him staring a hole in his scrambled eggs
And as the song closes, our traveler looks behind and moves on from the encounter with the Coyote, declaring she is a …hitcher…prisoner.. of the fine white lines…of the free freeway in the final iteration of the chorus
Listen to a few bars of the original recording of the song while reading the lyrics to truly appreciate the wonderful words which were for me hidden for so long behind a haunting mystical musical sound characteristic of Mitchell’s extensive body of work
The Last Waltz, Martin Scorcese’s 1976 movie of the final live performance by The Band, features a masterly live performance of Coyote beginning at 1:50 in this video clip from the film
In Hansard’s 2018 version, the emphasis is initially on the lyrics, with a bold vocal delivery from an artist with the privilege of performing the song in the presence of Joni at 75. The way he aggressively launches into the song seems almost like he’s saying “you didn’t think I could pull this tricky vocal piece off, did you?”… Well he certainly does
You could consider this essentially a vocal performance with a reimagined hint of country instrumental accompaniment. However, the performance retains the percussion and rhythm from Mitchell’s original arrangement, underpinning the drawl of the fiddle. This performance showcases the instrumental elements in an almost 2 minute close to the performance music after delivering the Coyote story in the lyrics
Listen to all 6 minutes and 36 seconds of Glen Hansard’s live recording…
The prose in Coyote would cause any self-respecting poet to glow with pride. The song is a masterpiece of creative words and innovative music from a massively talented artist
Lets now turn to a Bruce Springsteen song originally recorded in the studio in 2019
The Boss as he is affectionately known came to fame in the 1970s with his brand of music we have come to know as heartland rock - hard driving tunes with socially conscious poetic lyrics touching the heart of American blue collar culture. He has taken to adding commentary on his words and music and producing companion works in a documentary movie-like format
Two of Springsteen‘s films, Western Stars (2019) and Letters From You (2021), combine musical performances with his commentary to great effect
The Western Stars film is a live performance of a collection of songs previously recorded in the studio. It was filmed in the intimate setting of the converted barn of Springsteen’s New Jersey farm. Accompanied not by the East Street Band, the supporting musical cast includes a small string section which gives a wonderful broad musical perspective on this selection of poignant songs
The Wayfarer opens with a delicate hook played by the string section - a far cry from the crashing electric Fender guitar chords and Max Weinberg’s powerhouse drums we all love about Springsteen’s East Street brand of stadium rock
The song tells the story of a traveling man, roaming across the country. I get the image of a hitch hiker meeting truck drivers - creatures of the road who I’m sure are grateful for company in the cab as they pilot their 18-wheelers along the Interstate highways
We hear in the chorus that the wheels are hissin’ and the highways’s spinning round and round as Springsteen paints an evocative picture of his character wandering across the continent
There is a feeling of triumph in the instrumental interlude, then the tune comes down to the reality of life as the vocal chorus line repeats. Watch all 4 minutes and 42 seconds of the live performance…
Coyote and The Wayfarer, written almost 50 years apart share the same subject and quality of storytelling. They demonstrate the power of the pop song art form to transmit the mind to another place with words and music
Its easy to see why the Swedish Academy recognizes the contribution songwriters and pop music lyrics make to literature. To the surprise of many, Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Literature prize in 2016 “"for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition"
Joni Mitchell and Bruce Springsteen are not far behind