Joni Mitchell plays “Coyote” at Gordon Lightfoot’s house with Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan

March 3, 2020 • 11:30 am

Here’s some music that I found by accident while perusing YouTube (they make good “suggestions” sometimes). I had no idea that this video existed, but it’s great.  (To see a longer performance of “Coyote”, watch the 5.5-minute video of Joni from the movie The Last Waltz.)

Apparently the song (according to McGuinn) was written about the Rolling Thunder Review, a multi-star show with Dylan as the header. And, in fact, I saw Joni with the Review when I was in graduate school (Allen Ginsberg also recited a poem).

Below the video, in the comments, one reader said this:

I’m here to tell you that that 50-foot threshold is bunk!

34 thoughts on “Joni Mitchell plays “Coyote” at Gordon Lightfoot’s house with Roger McGuinn and Bob Dylan”

  2. I hadn’t seen this either–thank you. Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tour.
    I think she changed the lyrics for the better.

    2. And speaking of documentaries about music of that era, there’s one out now about The Band and Robbie Robertson titled Once Were Brothers. It’s playing at my local theater this week.

      1. My wife and I went to see Once Were Brothers on Sunday. It was great. If you can, go see it.

  5. Yeah this is a great one. I have been repeatedly watching House of the Rising Sun by the Animals. Like this one, hypnotizing stuff.

  8. I’m just going to come out and say it, I’ve never liked the song Woodstock, in fact I usual prefer her songs when covered by other artists.

  9. I had her album Hejira on cassette tape, which features this song and other great songs. I fairly wore it out playing it over and over. I should get it on my computer.

    1. I’ve never had a relationship with a woman didn’t own the Blue album. Hell, as far as I can tell, there may never have been a woman of my generation who didn’t have a copy of Blue — two copies, when it comes to women I’ve lived with.

      My favorite album of hers, though, is the side she cut with the great jazz bassist Charles Mingus, shortly before Mingus shuffled off this mortal coil.

      2. She has a few with bassist Jaco Pastorius as well….he was stellar extraordinare. He played a few on Hejira. God rest his soul.
        I hope Joni is doing well. I cant quit listening!

        1. Yeah, Pastorius and some of the other guys from Weather Report played on the Mingus album sessions, too.

          Great musicians, all.

  11. Joni was a spectacular unique talent. Another one is Kate Bush. I just watched, on YouTube, a documentary about Kate Bush that I had never heard. I had no idea how many people were so influenced by her unique style. Strange that I had the same experience on the same day finding a video I had no idea about.

    1. I just checked out some Kate Bush videos. Her version of Rocket Man is a good one. She’s unique. Curiously, the video version of her songs are done in a tongue-in-cheek style. She’s also very athletic.

      1. The documentary actually talked about her vision of the videos. It also mentioned she took dancing lessons with a well known choreographer… who learned later that she was a singer. She started writing songs at 11 and was discovered by David Gilmore, iirc, at 17.

        1. That’s really, really, interesting. We listen to songs like this many times over many years, unaware (as a non-musician) of all the nuance involved. I have a new appreciation for the song and those who produced it. Thanks for that link. Something to ponder.

  12. Imagine this song played live by her and a band made up of some of the best progressive jazz artists of the late 20th century.
    Pat Metheny, Don Elias, Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker…
    It’s called Shadows and Light, released on Vinyl and VHS back in the day, it used to be hard to find but thanks to youtube, you can watch and hear it now.
    It’s Joni at the height of her powers with one of the best backing bands in history,

  13. Sorry, Joni’s so so with me.
    That poor leopard, it appears the hyena had a young one there to feed. Perhaps that was why it was so diligent

  14. I’ve always been looking for a Mitchell song to really illustrate what everyone (meaning famous musicians) think is so great. I’ve heard nice stuff, of course.. But I think this performance shows me what is great. The singing is beautiful and – importantly – improvised. I also note the guitar is in an alternate tuning, with a low D (maybe even C?…), but additional strings as well (tech term :”scordatura”) and what THAT tells me is partly where Michael Hedges got ideas for his sound – strumming open strings making satiny, singing chords on top, that can be slid around smoothly, with stentorian low root and fifths and ninth, for a warm, powerful effect. It’s not clear if anyone but Mitchell is playing guitar. Dylan makes a couple chords initially but I think that’s it.

    TL;DR : check out Michael Hedges

    1. It’s Low D-flat

      If we simplify, The tuning might be interesting to figure out – I hear :

      DAEDF#A <- top three strings, I’ll have to work on…

      … then everything would be dropped a half-step, but the relationships are the same.

      I think Dylan is playing standard tuning, so there’s some harsh dissonances because if he just wails on the chords by habit without consideration for the notes Mitchell is just wailing on by habit on the scordatura guitar, it’s bound to happen.

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