This woman gave me my voice...I was born in 1960 and watched my brothers, all older than me in '69 take off for the Woodstock festival only a couple of hours from our home in Brooklyn, NY. I was 9 then and very shy. One of my bothers, who was a musician, heard me in my room singing along with my Joni Mitchell album .. (I'd eventually collected all of her LP's....and taught myself the guitar chords to each of her songs so I could sing to myself when I was blue).and he told me..."You sound just like her..". In later years, when I became a mother, I sang to my first baby, a preemie born at my 24th wk of pregnancy, while she was in the n.i.c.u for 4 months to comfort her in her struggle to live. After she'd passed away, 7 1/2 months later, Joni Mitchell's voice comforted me as I would sit alone in my grief. When my other children were bourn to me, again I was blessed and would softly sing Joni's tunes as I'd cradled each one in the carrier every day, over my heart, on our journey to the market, nursing them or just doing my chores around the apartment, lulling them to a peaceful sleep. I, myself was adopted as a child, so parenting is nothing I take lightly. I never knew my birth mother, but I thank heaven I was finally taken in to a permanent family. To this day, when I feel grief and the blues coming on, I sing to myself while going about my day. My heart broke when I had heard Joni was rushed to the hospital. I cried and prayed...There is no one, absolutely no one who compares to this lovely Angel on Earth. She is radiant!

The best of all singer/songwriters ever. She is the Shakespeare of our times.

Anyone who could write one song like this would rightfully be considered a genius. Joni Mitchell wrote tons of songs like this. Add the guitar mastery and her voice and you have a brilliance beyond this world.

The best lyrics, arrangements, words and phrasing I would never think to use. I've listened to her for almost 50 years. She touches my soul!

She said once that she valued intuition over intellect. Ironically, of all her peers, her intellect shines brightest. This is most apparent here, for me her best song.

This makes a grown man cry just from the beauty and perfection of it.

She is singing her heart out on this one. She is one of the giants of our lifetime.

My husband and I met as students in 1982. Hejira was the album of our courtship, and Amelia was my favourite song, this one, my husband’s Amelia and Amy Johnson were my heroines. Although we are no longer married, after 38 years we are still together in a manner of speaking, parents and grandparents, we raised a family together, all the things we dreamed, our hopes and plans, the first time we made love, it was this album. We were soooo young. And so in love. So, thank you Joni. This is the record that built a family xxx

Joni Mitchell, tired, starts off weak, gives herself to the audience, gives herself to the music, gives 110%, gives more than she has, finishes, puts down her guitar, walks off by herself, without a bow, without a word. A singularly great performance.

she has more balls than a stadium full of hooligans, she has more voice than the entire chorus of nowadays singer, she writes music like marble columns , you'll find hundred years later in the middle of the gravel the music-industry left . Here ist the difference of music which has something to say (music+words) and the bum-bum-bum on the radio-stations.....

We all get old and run out of time, we don't all get the chance to leave what Joni has left us, she has been blowing me away for decades

a masterpiece by a genius

i have no idea how she could do a whole show when she gives her entire soul in this one song alone, Joni is literally incomparable

I will always be grateful for her accompaniment of my life between the forceps and the stone. Since age 15, now 63, getting closer to the stone...

The vocal by Joni on this is heart stopping, it's pure beauty. The playing also makes the old ticker miss a few beats, amazing and so special.

The greatest songwriter ever.

I'm sitting here listening to Joni's music all alone. Just sobbing. She as always left me speechless and teary eyed.

It does not get any better than Joni Mitchell.

When I finally met Joni in '96, it was her Hejira cd cover that I asked her to sign. Oh, my sweet Joni who traveled with me throughout my 20s and now forty decades onward. Her music and lyrics ooze out into the atmosphere and seep into my veins. I love music, but no other musician can create that feeling. Of awe, of intimacy, of universality. (My son currently lives in an old Victorian house that she rented in her early days... and that single thought, and to stand in that space... thrills me to no ends.)

She scares me shitless, she sets a standard that leaves me totally inadequate, of course I love it, nobody quite gets to me like Joni. I know she is an artist, don't look just listen

She makes me good-cry.

The gods have Vermeer, Schubert and Shakespeare so they gave us Joni.

Joni Mitchell is still the very best singer and songwriter. Superb.

This piece is SO prolific, so full of things everyone has felt. Being able to artfully put this into words blows me away. l never get tired of hearing it and each time it sounds new. She just reaches in and grabs my emotions. What a gift! Thank you Joni with all my heart. ;)

If anyone asked me to exemplify the music and genius of Joni Mitchell in one song, I guess this would be it. This absolutely kills me. She did it as an encore in a later concert I attended which included nothing from this era of her career. It was so unexpected that out of her enormous repertoire, she would pick my favorite. It was an emotional moment, saying the least. Thank you, Joni!

Might be one of the best things I’ve ever heard.

Beyond genius. What privilege to listen to Joni!

Just so ---------- Joni Mitchell, variable, but always just so good ! Play on Lady !

There has never been anyone to match Joni.

I'm a man, a fan since my 20s...and I share your depth of feeling for her words and music..I'm constantly playing and replaying her poignant songs in my head, reading and seeking their meaning. Yeah, I'm a sensitive guy. Gifted, I feel, in that way

She is out of this world.😍

This is a stunning performance. In 1986, I was 20 years old, and I doubt I would have appreciated this if I’d been there. I probably would have been pissed that Townshend didn’t play. At 53 now, I get it. Joni is brilliant.

College, 1978 and introduced to Joni......Life hasn't been the same since! What an excellent Story teller! Joni Speaks My Language!

I miss Jaco on this one 😔 the guy on the fretted is trying his best but it’s just not as soul filled at Jac. Joni Is truly one of a kind 🤍

Not only is the performance incredible but duet between these two lovers is amazing. They worked really well together.

She is so deservedly famous. My love for her and her art is sheer anguish.

One of her best songs. How weird it must be to perform before such a huge audience where so many seem to be partying and ignoring what's happening onstage. Mitchell's rapport with brilliant bassist Jaco Pastorius was magical, but he was sadly very troubled, provoking bar fights for unknown reasons. The worst of these put him in the hospital where he died of his injuries just a year after this performance. A tragedy for popular music.

she is and will always be thee best

My deepest thanks for posting this. I hadn’t heard it in a long time. It brought me back to hearing the album when it came out, sitting on the floor and listening to every song without even pausing it. This video reminded me that Joni wrote some simply beautiful songs. I mean, who else could have written “white flags of winter chimneys call truce against the moon….In the mirrors of a modern bank through the windows of a hotel room.”

This song, in fact this whole album puts me into a trance. Unbelievably good.

Perhaps the most beautiful woman ever

Remarkable. Transcendent brilliance. What a song- unsurpassed. This period was my favourite and her peak I think. An artist without equal.

My favorite song of hers. Absolutely transcendent.

I apologise if this sounds weird, I'm a man from the 60,s but no one ever wrote about being a women better, I do know its not my place to say that. She gives me skin crawls and I keep going back

Joni is the greatest multi talented genius in the world. She's not just a voice or guitar player. Joni is infact her own category. She has mastered it all. All while dealing with physical challenges. Plus one of the nicest, inspiring, intelligent, honest people in the creative biz. ❤✌️❤

This is a lovely song by a brilliant and lovely woman. Thank you Joni for your music.

Even after 40 years I tear up in awe of the naked complex plaintive vocals meshed seamlessly into the flow of her journey.

Difficult to compute how brilliant this is. She has accompanied my life not long after the forceps to getting increasingly near to the stone. Lyrically and musically this song and this album tops the lot for me.

Just settling down to lose myself in Joni's singing when my guitar nerd jumped up and pointed at the headstock of her Strat that has 'Gibson' on it. Thanks, guitar nerd, now I can't thnk of anything else! It even gave me the moment when you can see it! 0:26

She was my guru! Thank you for giving us a whole different perspective in this crazy world! We love you Joni!

Got to hardest song for bass player... Jaco I believe is only , or few people she proudly gives credit for writing.. God bless Jaco and long live Joni

Wow! Damn I love Joni Mitchell's music so much. What a pure gem!

Hejira is incredible! Genius lyrics!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

She continues to amaze me. Genius is the only word one can use to describe her.

Her music saved me from myself

Ain't no yeah I like her. You either love her or you don't.And I love her.

I first heard Joni on a Kibbutz in isreal 1979. A young lady from Canada introduced me to the music. Joni is priceless with all the music memories she has given us..

I can quote many of her lyrics that blow me away, but one of them is definitely "each so deep and superficial between the forceps and the stone". Jesus! -ok the other is: "Maybe it's you Judas in the end when you just can no longer pretend that you're getting what you need Or you're giving out anything for them to grow and feed on." Talk about insight and finding the "exact" words. That's her gift. She says what people struggle to explain sometimes their whole lives.

Stunning performance in every way. She uses her mouth to twist and mold the words so that they fit the music and spit out her conviction. Her eyes look far away beyond the audience as if she is a soaring bird above the mundane. Then she just walks off at the end like she has spoken her mind and got energized and is off to some unknown.

Hejira more than any other Joni Mitchell album makes me cry too! She was such a major part of my childhood. I was a teenager trying to figure out all my mixed emotions about life and my place in it. Joni's ability to paint emotional pictures is incomparable! I had the privilege of meeting her in the 80s, and she was sweet. I will forever cherish Joni Mitchell ❤🎉

The one, the only, never to be repeated genius of Joni Mitchell.....mesmerizing.

Friends of mine bought dead center seats, for my birthday, about 5 rows back, for a Joni Mitchell Concert in Vancouver in the late 70's or so, she was by then playing with some of the best jazz rock fusion musicians in the world, Pat Methany, Jaco Pastorious, Don Elias etc etc. It was simply the greatest Concert I have ever seen, transforming, brilliant, almost spiritual, and Joni from 30 feet away was simply one of the most beautiful women I've ever set my eyes on. I was swept away. She is a musical genius without parallel.

Literally the light of my 61 old life .

What fool would have the nerve to hit the dislike button. One of my regrets in life is never having seen her perform live.

the philosophers will always look back and wonder how one drop of reality touched down and put out so much truth and beauty

simply amazing, so deep and superficial (yeah) i love it! to have one favorite joni mitchell song or even album is impossible, her body of work is my favorite. im very partial to hejira and its tapestry of songs. it was the year she spent traveling the US when we crossed paths at LAX. she was wearing that beret and her long blonde tresses flowed behind her as she made her way through the throngs of travelers, blue jeans and boots and bag in hand.

"from the forceps to the stone". Who else writes with such eloquence. She makes me proud to be Canadian.

She shook my out of sleep and set me on my own road, really. Forever grateful to this wonderful artist and woman.

Love you Joni. Glad you are feeling better ❤️

Joni is head and shoulder's above all but her fellow genius's. Count them on one hand.

Joni is a global treasure. It's so sad that she ruined her voice by smoking. Her music will live forever.

I coul listen to this singer sing this song over and over

she is right up there with the absolute best ever. thanks for the video, will always love joni mitchell. her lyrics are so deep.

That was 7 minutes of total genius and pure joy.

Brilliant, beautiful, and blessed.

Wonderful interpretation of Joni but Jaco we miss you La creme de la creme: Joni, Jaco, Pat… shadows and light

From the first time I heard Joni's music in 1972 until now, no artist has touched me more.

That vocal is so great I could cry. What a performance!

I have not seen this performance. Man she is all there, soul standing in her life. Love this.

Her confidence is stellar, took her a long way, congrats Joni on a job well done~

I first started listening to her around 17 years old. In late 60's. Made love to her music many times. Love her sweet soul. Love her

Everything about this is stunning.....

What an extraordinaire woman! Beautiful.

poète, peintre musicienne, chanteuse, guitariste hors pair, belle, géniale : telle est Joni Mitchell

The music of Faso is an inexhaustible source of sweetness. It allows us to plunge deep inside ourselves and at the same time resonate with our fellow man, Yé Lassina Coulibaly❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

Always a crazy voice ! all my love Joni ( from France)

The cigarettes are starting to take their toll here. A life long heavy smoker since the age of 16 she refuses to acknowledge that they ever affected her voice. In spite of a million cigarettes she still casts a spell and weaves her magic. She truly has no peers. A one off magnificent woman. My idol and my hero.

Wow. Glad I got to see her live

Tell em Joni. Not an easy audience here (and that’s being polite) but she stood her ground here and like the true artist and genius she is she worked her craft. WOW! what a great rendition. She hits them with:- ‘There's your hope. There’s your hopelessness I’ve seen it all these years’ . Looking at their behaviour on mass as an audience that gave goosebumps.

just beautiful

Gorgeous. Joni inspires me every day.

Musical ecstasy!......not much more to say... There is a look of 100 Centuries in her eyes as she sings...I think she knew she hit her Zenith here and walked away knowing nobody would top this live performance finger picking, caressing and noodling a Strat like it was the most majestic Classical Guitar on the planet 🌠 Just wow! Thank you Mr. Marshall for sharing this :)

Joni’s a class act, always has been, always will be. Nice to see Jaco Pastorius (RIP) playing his unique style of bass guitar.

What can I say? I know, I feei There's love. There's pain, so much love and pain.. I feel so deeply love and pain, I feel liberty. Thanks Joni, I love you so much.

Most of her songs (since I was just a kid) I never knew what she was singing about. But I still felt every haunting emotion of hers that touched me deep inside my soul as no one else's music ever did. I'm now 64 years old and she still makes me tremble.

I never noticed that she changed the line, 'when I'm always bound and tied to someone' to: "when I need something from someone...." That stanza is my favorite in the song....and it just got better.... 'When I need something from someone' means she is craving connection, validation, and her ideals to become reality. There's a slight variation in the final stanza too: Just a defector from your petty wars that shell shocked love away.' she puts the emphasis on 'your petty wars; she stands alone.... It's so sad.

“Just a defector from your petty wars That shell-shock love away” . Like Van and Dylan, Joni continues to re work and improve her poetry over the years by changing a word or a line.

Timeless music. Symphony of our life. Love you. Thank you for your thoughts in music. My most favorite. Performer.

Just incredible.