The most difficult words Joni Mitchell ever wrote: “I had a block for three months”
Writer’s block is something that most musicians will face at some point during their careers. Joni Mitchell, on the other hand, is someone you might think would never encounter such struggles, considering her affinity for naturally poetic, introspective musings that detail her own personal experiences. Attempting to write from another’s perspective, however, exposed her to the trials of historic storytelling.
Months before Charles Mingus’ death in January 1979, Mitchell worked with him on her album Mingus, a work of art wholly dedicated to the jazz legend. The album itself became one of Mitchell’s most experimental works, incorporating various jazz elements and approaching songwriting in a way she had never attempted before.
Mingus wrote around six instrumental songs for Mitchell to set lyrics to, with only three of those making it onto the album. Taking on the challenge, Mitchell adopted various personas and put herself in different shoes in order to access varying elements of storytelling, no matter how difficult they may be. One song, ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’, required the singer to really get under its skin before she felt equipped to tell the story.
Mingus’ original score was written for his friend, sax player Lester Young. For Mitchell, expressing his experience with racism in New York felt like a powerful course of action, particularly considering the fact that Young married a white woman, which at the time was “just taboo”. Despite being a naturally skilled wordsmith, something about the historical element of the song felt extremely difficult to get past.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, the singer discussed how the track came together: “The real difficulty for me was that the only thing I can believe is what has happened to me firsthand, what I see and feel with my own eyes,” she said.
Adding: “I had a block for three months. It’s hard for me to take someone else’s story and tell only his story in a song.”
Recalling the moment she experienced a breakthrough, she said the song began to have “a life of its own” after following a gathered crowd with Don Alias in New York. “[It was] a group of black men surrounding two small black boys. It’s about midnight, and the two boys are dancing this very robotlike mime dance,” Mitchell explained. “One of the guys in the crowd slaps his leg and says, ‘Isn’t that something, I thought tap dancing was gone forever.'”
Something about this encounter immediately reminded her of Young. Soon enough, details of his story emerged in more conspicuous ways. “They were dancing under one of those cloth awnings that goes out to the curb of a bar,” Mitchell added. “I look up—and the name of the bar is the Pork Pie Hat. The music they were dancing to was jazz coming off the jukebox inside. There were big blown-up pictures of Lester Young all around the place. It was wild.”
As a result, ‘Goodbye Pork Pie Hat’ became one of her most important works and a testament to her prowess as a songwriter. Mitchell, of course, could never pretend to understand wholly what it was like to be Young, but by telling his story, she gave credence to all of his struggles and achievements as a world-class sax artist.