Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Abstract cover art of an album with swirling blue, orange, and white hues. The title "Joni Mitchell Mingus" is written in the top corners. — Mingus, Joni Mitchell, 1979

I have always detested the trope in television and film, of depicting soulfulness (or depression) with the image of a lone saxophone player holding forth on a fire escape or under a deserted bridge. The music that accompanies these scenes is always insipid and as far from soulful as one could get.

This Joni Mitchell lyric on the other hand, has always evoked a powerful response from me as I imagine myself coming up into the clamor of Manhattan streets.

In Goodbye Pork Pie Hat she sings,

"We came up from the subway
On the music midnight makes
To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone
In taxi horns and brakes"

I could die easily knowing I had been the author of such a beautiful line.
For the longest time, I thought the last line of the stanza was, "In taxi horn's embrace" and not for nothing Ms. Mitchell, I think that works pretty well too.

Thank you Charles Mingus. And thank you Joni Mitchell and Mark Murphy and Jeff Beck for taking such good care of this song.

(Joni Mitchell's version of Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is on her album Mingus, if you'd like to look it up and have a listen.)