Joni Mitchell - Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Lyrics

Lyrics? Mr.V. :)

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 a 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 in 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 makes
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!

Joni Mitchell was always one of those artists my mom grew up with (so I knew I'd probably enjoy) but never got around to listening to. Im in search of a song that came up on my local jazz radio station and came across many songs before this one and I still haven't found it. Let me just say that I never knew just HOW MUCH Joni did!! From this, to her work in the 80's, and her stuff in the 60's/early 70's... all so different but all so amazing. And that voice is just timeless!!! I'm so excited to see what else there is for me to find!

Brilliant liquid auditory bliss coupled with poignant heart shattering, unflinching, social commentary. FUCKING A CHARLIE AND JONI May the heavens adore you!

Tonight, summer night Manhattan, noir

What a great musicians at one place!

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 a 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 in 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 makes
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!

WOW..MY CHERRY IS POPPED IM TOTALLY TURN OUT AND HOOKED ON YOU MS.MITCHELL THANK YOU 😘

Timothy Moore same, this is my first time and Lawd I’m in love!

What a complete nonsense, ...

An honorable failure, and nothing to be ashamed of, but it's one of her "Hey, where'd you get the quaaludes, Joni?" albums.

Fucking brilliant!

Not since Holiday's "Strange Fruit" has anything so moved me

Ad libitum

The best band for a singer, Jaco, Pat, etc. all made after ..........

Such a beautiful ballad. Mingus originally composed it for Lester Young and Joni's lyrics and performance are just incredible. Jaco on the bass and it sounds like Wayne Shorter on the soprano.

Love Joni and Jaco, and goodbye pork pie hat, so I can't lose with this. All good.

Included on Mitchell's Mingus album, this Charles Mingus original ("Goodbye Pork Pie Hat") was part of Joni's 1979 Mingus album ...Actually, the Goodbye Pork Pie Hat we hear here is not a Charles Mingus original: it was written by Charles Mingus (music) and Joni Mitchell (lyrics)...

love this one really very very much

In my Joni playlist with his original version. Thanks for the upload!

Круто!!!

jjjjjjuicy!!!!

Ridiculous...

If midnight had a sound, it woul sound like this!

Alex Pfeiffer exactly

Alex Pfeiffer - exactly

WOOOOOOW!!! I WISH I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT IMAGERY!!!!!

'Ganges' "Schmanges" either way. a most beautiful comment.

Jaco played some of his best work with Joni.....

+walter scott No... Some of his later instructional video's are just painful to watch, sadly...

+Meaca not at all his chops were up there in that video

Amen - some artists are too good for this world

I think because he played the bass more melodically, which worked magic with her, but not as well when he needed to be the bottom.

Jaco and Joni were sympatico musically. Listen to his work on "Hejira," spectacular! On Mingus, he was tugging on Superman's cape, because Mingus was too ill to play, but Jaco wasn't intimidated at all.

el de la tapa esta tomando mate

I read Charlies book Mingus he sure lived through some tough times she has pointed us to a sound that unravels his last moments / she lived with him and his wife and his nurse before he died his ashes were thrown in the Gages River,,,,,,,,,,Did I spell that right

thank s I forgot the n

+Rae Zola 'Ganges' "Schmanges" either way. a most beautiful comment. -pardon my vanity-

So many lonely nights in the seventies in my bed...deep listening...headset.Love You Joni.

We came up from the subway
On the music midnight makes
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

Maravilloso, me dejó sin palabras

Lester and Mitchell in a way together...WOW !

Jaco rumbles on steadfastly. Nice.

Have to lie down to listen to this. Beautiful.

Believe it or not this is about my life. Well, the movements of the words are. Singing from club to clubs and being told you're good but we want you to not be that good. So we're going to put you in the background to make the ones who are not as good as you a star. LOL. Joni Mitchell was one of the few talents who got to show case her talent. In the words of Tim Rice I will say she was slap in the right place at the perfect time. Filled a gap, she was lucky.... But one thing I'll say for her... No one else can do it like she can.

Check out the singer P. P. Arnold. She was an Ikette, set in the background to sing and dance behind the great Tina Turner. But she went to England and there she got to sing out front. Check out her amazing hit If You Think You're Groovy. Then treat yourself to the rest of her songs and amazing covers.

@EmpressOfWyoming58 I will do just that and  I will let you know what I think.

@Robbert Copper She was beloved in England as a solo artist.

Sorry Robbert I don’t follow, why would they not make u a star?

Fell in love with Joni Mitchell for this album. Listen & Wonder.. Story Of Lester Young ,segregation & strange fruit..:) Some things are more powerful than cute cats :)

Listening to the original, the way she adapted this song and made it her own is outstanding.

Simply outstanding and total classwith superb arrangements 

j´aime ce CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Du grand Joni Mitchell,superbement entourée pour cet hommage magnifique au maitre!

Extraordinario...

Just awesome!