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Artist/Band: Joni Mitchell
Lyrics for Song: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
Lyrics for Album: Shadows & Light [1990]



When Charlie speaks of Lester

You know someone great has gone

The sweetest swinging music man

Had a Porkie Pig hat on

A bright star in the dark age

When the bandstands had a thousand ways

Of refusing a black man admission, black musician

In those days they put him in an underdog position



Cellars and chittlins'

When Lester took him a wife

Arm and arm went black and white and some saw red

And drove them from their hotel bed

Love is never easy

It's short of the hope we have for happiness

Bright and sweet love is never easy street



Now we are black and white

Embracing out in the lunatic New York night

It's very unlikely we'll be driven out of town

Or be hung in a tree that's unlikely



Tonight these crowds are happy and loud

Children are up dancing into the streets

In the sticky middle of the night

Summer serenade of taxi horns and fun arcades

Where right or wrong under neon every feeling goes on

For you and me the sidewalk is a history book



And a circus dangerous clowns

Balancing dreadful and wonderful perceptions

They have been handed day by day

Generations on down



We came up from the subway on the music midnight mix

To Charlie's bass and Lester's saxophone in taxi horns and brakes

Now Charlie's down in Mexico with the healers

So the sidewalk leads us with music to two little dancers



Dancing outside a black bar

There's a sign up on the awning

It says, 'Pork Pie Hat Bar'

And there's black babies dancing tonight


Goodbye Pork Pie Hat

Joni Mitchell's rendition of "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" on the 1990 album Shadows & Light serves as a poignant tribute to jazz legend Lester Young. Originally composed by Charles Mingus as a eulogy for Young, the song captures the melancholic spirit of the jazz tradition through Mitchell's distinctive vocal phrasing. This recording highlights her deep engagement with jazz idioms, a stylistic shift that defined much of her later career. By interpreting this classic, Mitchell bridges the gap between folk introspection and the sophisticated harmonies of the jazz canon. The track stands as a testament to her ability to honor established works while infusing them with her own unique emotional resonance, showcasing her versatility across genres.


Album Lyrics: Shadows & Light [1990]


Joni Mitchell
"Shadows & Light [1990]"


1. Coyote
2. Goodbye Pork Pie Hat
3. The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines
4. Pat's Solo
5. Why Do Fools Fall In Love?
6. Black Crow
7. Shadows And Light