This song gives me chills.

Joni wrote a LOT of great songs. . . But this one always has struck me as the most quintessential Joni Mitchell masterpiece. A song she and only she could ever come close to writing, let alone pull off with such flair and virtuosity. It's just perfect.

You can just tell by the way Rick and Robbie look over at Joni, she can capture the attention of the entire room, even the performers. Such a captivating and innovative performer.

Amazing, just amazing. She has always been the one who gets to the very core of it. There are no throw away lines

What an excellent performance by The Band, they played flawlessly on this incredibly complicated melody with glorious syncopated rhythms and Joni was... Joni.

280 people voted thumbs down? What does Joni owe them money? You can't name one person, man or woman, who could give such a performance today.

Peerless. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery but Joni is such a singular, unmatchable spirit that she stands apart and alone. I've never thought of "the next Joni Mitchell" because it's not possible.

Just when you think you can grab hold of the melody, it darts away from you; just an epic song from a superb story teller.

This song of quiet desperation, loneliness, and looking for love in the arms of strangers is Joni at the peak of her powers.

Don't underestimate her talent. It towers above most everyone else.

"their pills and powders to get them through this passion play" on that specific stage in those specific circumstances...man, Joni always comes in at a deeper level

So impressed by how The Band can play with anyone.

Her brilliance is staggering.

There is a whole movie in this one song. Love Joni.

That nose, those high cheek bones, such intensity and sensuality and intelligence. No female singer of country rock or folk can match her today.

"He picks up my scent on his fingers/ while he's watching the waitress' legs..." By far the most adult, witty and daring couplet to appear in a song lyric on Top 40 radio... I *still* can't believe she got away with that! Bob's autobiographically obscure and Whitmanesque image-lists are great, and he was a god between '65 and '76, but for direct-yet-complex poetry you can't beat Joni Mitchell (I defy anyone to find something from Bob that stands up to the bawdy frankness of the lines I cite here). If any lyric-writer *should* have gotten a Nobel, it should have been Mitchell. But this world is just not that kind of world, sadly.

Coyote is a very complicated song. The fact that The Band so tightly wedded to Jonies vocals just attests to their talents.that

I love how she giggles when she says "and lead me on that way". You can hear it even more clearly on the Last Waltz live recording. What an icon.

An artist to be remembered for all time. Pioneer, songstress, poet, artist, free thinker, musical ground breaker... independent soul......

This performance was beyond incredible. Some of the best musicians in the world were figuring it out on the fly how to keep up with Joni. Robbie Robertson figured it out and Rick Danko tagged along. Simply amazing.

I will not pretend to be eloquent enough to describe this beast of a talent. There is only one Joni Mitchell. She is timeless!

Brilliant Joni ... and I love how Danko concentrates on her every nuance and move. The best.

Best version of Coyote ever. Joni takes no prisoners, and the rhythm of the Band is incomparable

I've watched this 100 times. I still can't get over the way I'm mesmerised by this performance. And every time, I hear something different in the lyrics, an expression, a smile....

As close to perfect as a song can be,. Joni rolling it with the best backup band ever.

Joni Mitchell never lies!

the songwriting was so far ahead of its time

"No regrets coyote, I just get off up aways". YOU SLAY ME JONI!! Such a badass song written by an incredible songwriter. She gets into the nitty gritty of what a rock n roll relationship was really like. The good, the bad, AND the ugly

She is so beautiful in every way, it is staggering.

How many fell in love with Joni ?

Love the way Rick and Robbie are captured looking at her; excellent camera work camera person

This is probably the best performance of all time.

Massive Joni fan. Just replayed this on "Shadow and Light"........with Jaco Pastorius, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny in her backing band...for fuck's sake.... cannot get better!

Jesus Joni....her lyrics and voice cut straight through my soul. I don't know why her stuff (especially this period) just gets to me. Beautiful.

The groooove of this tune is off the f-ing charts, man. She’s just a magically musical gift to us all.

she is braver than me, looser than me, Im a bloke. she has confidence from a world I never broke into. I cant help but admire her

Rest in Peace, "Coyote." Sam Shepard, 73. Great actor, but genius playwright. You will be sorely missed!

No regrets, coyote We just come from such different sets of circumstance I'm up all night in the studios And you're up early on your ranch You'll be brushing out a brood mare's tail While the sun is ascending And I'll just be getting home with my reel to reel There's no comprehending Just how close to the bone and the skin and the eyes And the lips you can get And still feel so alone And still feel related Like stations in some relay You're not a hit and run driver, no, no Racing away You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway We saw a farmhouse burning down In the middle of nowhere In the middle of the night And we rolled right past that tragedy 'Til we turned down to some road house lights Where a local band was playing Locals were up kicking and shaking on the floor And the next thing I know That coyote's at my door He pins me in a corner and he won't take no He drags me out on the dance floor And we're dancing close and slow Now he's got a woman at home He's got another woman down the hall He seems to want me anyway Why'd you have to get so drunk And lead me on that way You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway I looked a coyote right in the face On the road to Baljennie, near my old home town He went running thru the whisker wheat Chasing some prize down And a hawk was playing with him Coyote was jumping straight up and making passes He had those same eyes just like yours Under your dark glasses Privately probing the public rooms And peeking through keyholes in numbered doors Where the players lick their wounds And take their temporary lovers And their pills and powders To get them through this passion play No regrets, coyote I just get off up aways You just picked up a hitcher A prisoner of the white lines on the freeway Coyote's in the coffee shop He's staring a hole in his scrambled eggs He picks up my scent on his fingers While he's watching the waitresses' legs He's too far from the Bay of Fundy From appaloosas and eagles and tides And the air conditioned cubicles And the carbon ribbon rides Are spelling it out so clear Either he's going to have to stand and fight Or take off out of here I tried to run away myself To run away and wrestle with my ego With this, this flame You put here in this Eskimo In this hitcher In this prisoner Of the fine white lines Of the white lines on the free, freeway

There's something hypnotic about watching Ms Mitchell live

Joni Mitchell has always been way ahead of all her so called contemporaries.

The most singular songwriting talent of the 20th Century. Just to have shared a planet with her is a joy.

"you just picked up a hitcher" , nice memories too! Thank you!

Hejira is one of the greatest albums ever.

Not only is she on top form, but all musicians involved are peaking. Unreal. Such a musician: hard to understand how anyone can be this good.

She's a genius. Her music will live as long as there are people to listen.

Fabulous - RIP Robbie Robertson

Joni Mitchell was nothing short of brilliant.

She is the angel of our generation, channeling the cosmos right into our ears.

I've watched this video about 15 times recently after recently re-discovering Joni. Cant imagine anyone today creating lyrical content like this, or performing it as tightly within the song.. She says in interviews how "I always had good time"... well, I guess so, imagine trying to remember the lyrics, let alone fit them so gracefully and perfectly within a live band performance. I only wish she could watch this and feel the same way I do... Thanks Joni..

Pure, unadulterated brilliance. This woman never ceases to inspire.

Hejira is my favourite album of all times

Its more than beautiful, its legendary and irreplaceable.

Makes me feel privileged to be in the same generation and to have listened to her all my life from 67-68 till now.

What a wonderful wordsmith and vocal and instrumental talent she is. She's given the music world tons of astonishing melodies and lyrics. It's hard to fathom it all...

talk about songwriting, eh? she was really fucking good at it. one of the best. ever.

One of humanity's true bright lights. Joni is proof that nature is capable of magnificence when it can gift a being with such unearthly, staggeringly deep musical talent. Stuff like that doesn't come along but once every couple of generations--we are lucky to be around for this one.

I actually forgot how damn good she is . the best of the best.

Her Court and Spark Album along with Kate Bush's The Hounds of Love will always, and I mean always will be on my top 10 albums of all time, no matter how old I live to be. Those two women are the embodiment of what it means to have pure skill and talent where music is concerned. Their music will stand the test of time, where so much of what is being produced now will be long forgotten in less than a decade, maybe sooner.

Incredible lyricist.. she’s def next level

i"ve sent her at least a dozen marriage proposals. still no word.

One of my favs from Joni Mitchell, she's an amazing song writer/singer/performer.

I remember watching this in the mid-80s on a VHS, just hanging with friends, while in college. I'd heard Joni before for sure. But I heard and saw this, and had one of those musical moments, those epiphanies when the music shows you a whole new world. I will never forget it, and it's with me still. And as an aside, amazing to see her exhaling smoke and stamping out her cigarette as she goes on stage.

Goddess Joni and her timeless creations. Love Danko.

One of the most uncompromising artists of all time.

The face at 4:20 - 4:22 is the pure joy of the creative artist captured for eternity..

"On the road to Baljennie near my old hometown." That line caught me the first time I heard this song on FM radio. My dad's mother was born in Baljennie, as one of the first non-native babies born out on the Saskatchewan prairie.

Her mouth.. and the way words form and tumble out of it.. is beautiful, incredible and mesmerizing. 💋😘

Joni is a genius

Brilliantly smart, with a taut unique sense of rhythm.. so sly and witty, so damn knowing, in deeply original, complex but elegant music and lyrics.. sounds great 40 years later.

A true artist! Don't get any better than this!

As a Prince fan, I hear so much of the influence she had on him

this performance was the first time I had heard Joni. I was spellbound by her. still am. music got bigger for me. her songs are big.

I swear I only blinked once and thought this was yesterday.

maybe my favorite song of the great Joni Mitchell. I can't recall the number of times I listen the Hejira album

November 7, 2021 Happy Birthday your Majesty! Take care & be well - love from Brighton UK 🙏🏻🌹🙏🏽

genius..she's got everything going on...nuanced vocals, guitar, facial expressions, dancing. Combined in one exquisite presentation....

Wishing you wellness, Joni. You have always created the most poignant art.

Don’t you just love the respect The Band give Joni 🙏🏽

There are some artistes of the live performance who can be watched over and over again and Joni is one of them, and for me this one is a weekly fix. So beautiful, such a voice, such cheekbones, love ya Joni.

I can never, ever watch this video just once...she's a singer, songwriter and an actress all together. Wonderful woman.

She was way ahead of all the others. What a delight to hear her amazing journey through her songs.

So many great tracks in this set but this is one of the best.

this woman. wow. she stretches the definitions into godness.

This song makes things so clear. Her pace and phrasing are perfect.

Joni Mitchell is an artist in everything she does. to describe this person as phenomenal doesn't say it at all.

One of my ALLTIME favourites! It was love at first sight/listen! I have carried this track - proudly! - in my "backpack" for more than four decades!

JONI AM AN OLD BLACK VET i BELEVE IN YOUR MUSIC ITS MY LIFE MY BIBLE. 74 WISE YET YOUNG. THANK YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE. bob

simply amazing

I adore this performance.

Best performance of the lot. I am a Bowie/Roxy and Led Zep fan - well Zep loved her of course (Plant's cry of "Joni" on 'How the West Was Won' version of 'Goin' To California') - but along with Lou Reed I'd say she is one of rock's two true poets. Even Dylan not quite her equal as that I think. Great accompaniment by The Band btw.

HAPPY Belated BIRTHDAY Joni!!🎉 Sitting here watching The Last Waltz on this early Sunday morning.

"Untouchable" is the word that keeps popping into my mind as I watch this.

Love the scene in Rolling Thunder when Joni is introducing and playing this to Roger McGuinn and Dylan, great scene !

I always loved this song. One of the FM radio best back in the day.

woman's a legend and genius.

La letra, genial, pero la música de esta canción es una maravilla! Qué calidad y con qué gusto canta❤

Caution, genius at work....

I can’t believe this was from 1976 . Where does the time go ? Joni, is so beautiful…

Never saw Joni look and sound more beautiful.

Greatest living songwriter. Bar none.