Joni Mitchell - Harry's House-Centerpiece Lyrics

Joni is someone special, a poet no less.

"Like a dragonfly on a tomb..." Shakespeare himself would be wishing he wrote it.

If you can recognize genius in lyrical composition then proceed no further than this little gem..... and consider if you will.....that no one, which is to say NO ONE could create this wonderful description of the Urban Female as Joni has. What a gift we have all received.

Joe Sample Solo at 4:16 is like a religious experience. The rest is like watching a music video, word pictures, suburban cynicism, the rat race

Harry's house/Centerpiece go together like peanut butter and jelly. The critics posting their criticisms need to keep their opinions to themselves. The hissing of summer lawns is my favorite album by Joni with Court and Spark running second. BTW I have been into Joni since 1974 so I think my views and opinions carry more weight than commentators who were born after 1980.

ya'll should know that Larry Carlton had a very big part on this album....specially on Edith....OMFG!
intro and extro...never to be outdone.

The morons at Rolling Stone didn't like this album.

A perfect blend of poetry and jazz.Thank you Joni.

love it

Joni is a celestial constellation is the Goddess galaxy unseen by the most powerful telescopes known in the universe.

This was definitely my breakthrough album with jm. 1978. sick of 2 chord punk bands ripping up nothing much... found an intelligent musical & poetic life form that rose way above the snotty & the gripey. dignified & visionary. way to go...

Baby, you're my centerpiece.

Joni was an arbiter to the truth and beauty (and ugliness) of the world.

Im crying imaginary tears!

My love, my goddess for eternity on a pedestal.

Got this on cassette in 86

There are so many beautiful Joni songs but this might be my favourite

I think "Harry's House" is one of Joni Mitchell's greatest songs. I absolutely love it, and she is my favorite musical act, tied with the Beatles. However, I think "Centerpiece" is her worst song. I can't stand it. I really wish she hadn't combined them.

I agree. The chord movements and vocal phrasing in "Harry's House" are beautiful and timeless. "Centerpiece" is pure outdated bluesy cheese-whiz :)

@Dan Tyger Yeah but... is that not the point?  The contrast in the music parallels the change in gender relations and in the nature of marriage?

The discordant female trio (duet?) at 4:55 with the walking bass is breathtaking.

Bought this in early 75 and played it every day for a month! Edith and the Kingpin is my favorite!

Nice song'

My youth .nasty groping old men .We remember only now we're to old to nail you.

Too old? Uh-uh. Still have wood harder than Chinese algebra.

Bought this album right after it came out, spent that Spring of 76 driving back from Virginia to my alma mater in Charleston, West Virginia...Interstate 64. big yellow sun, bright blue skies, big cumulus clouds sailing by and that 6 note guitar poetry on Harry's house

nothing any good.

I long for the days before the Glass Steigle Act act was repealed. When middle class hipocrasy was a thing because there was still a middle class! No one could ever imagine it was all so very fragile.

This is my Favorite Joni Mitchell this whole album.

think this my fav song on hissing uh no. I mean Edith. uh no I mean Boho. Dance. make that Scarlett...love them all to much to pick one

i love your post! I pick Edith...no huh....

sweet bird

Joni Mitchell 's poetry should be studied at school

One example... http://www.jonimitchell.com/Library/view.cfm?id=1387

It would be wasted on them then as now!,!,

Heck, yes. She’s a genius.

Agreed. Even though it was never really brought up in class, I made sure that I myself brought it up and brought it to the attention of my professors. I've written at least three papers on Joni Mitchell and why her music is so important. One of my professors ended up really enjoying the fact that I loved her music and wrote a paper about it considering she herself was a fan of Joni and told me about how she remembered buying her albums when they first came out. It was such a treat. Joni's music has brought me closer to more people than I can even imagine. It's amazing how music does that to us humans.

Sublime.

Just heard this for the first time since buying it in 1976 when I was 18. I was living in a little cow town in the midwest, in an upstairs apt of a house owned by the town postman. I always tried to avoid him because if I visited with him outside the post office, he would gesture with his hands going in round circles like he was going to grab my breasts as he stepped closer and closer. (Don't worry, I never gave him the chance.)

I had been rejected as a toddler by my cold, raging mother (schizophrenic dad living in VA hospitals and I was the scapegoat for my mom and two vicious sisters) and spewed out into the world 1 yr earlier without any skills to live a productive life. No relationship skills, job skills, money managing skills, no ability to function as a normal adult. I just knew that I couldn't function emotionally or in society and felt so very alone that I felt alien. Pretty on the outside, dead on the inside.

At that time, I was working for a dentist who I'm sure had Borderline Personality Disorder. As timid and fearful as I was, I called him out on his "moods" and he packed up his family and left town.

Joni's Court & Spark and Miles of Aisles albums had helped me get through the hell of high school and to survive my destructive family. A friend who loaned me her guitar would complain when I gave it back because the tuning was so messed up after I tried to play Joni's music on it.

Listening to this brand new LP back then, I could tell Joni's music was changing and evolving. I didn't like it. I remember feeling so abandoned and lost, feeling that even Joni Mitchell was leaving me. I wanted and needed another Court & Spark or Miles of Aisles.

So hearing this tonight for the first time in 42 years brought back these old memories. I'm very glad the horrible times are behind me and that I became a happy, content, emotionally well person who is loving life.

And I'm loving this song, playing it on loop, so epic, like everything else she does.

Thank you Joni Mitchell, wherever you are, for making some dark years bearable!!!

I wish you both well, and the better things in life for the rest of it. Same to anyone else who may wander in. We never know about someone else’s life as we’re sitting here behind our keyboards and iPhones/iPads, etc, pounding out whatever comes roaring out at too many instances, as if our opinions are the best, the right things we believe we say, and those that fall out like flaming volcanic rocks when our dander is past up in just plain ire. Should make us stop and think, often, what we say in our selfish, self-appointed cubicles and private hideouts.

Be well, then. All my best to you, truly!

ImNotMad ButUR So true, we don't really know what is going on with people behind their posts. Since I first posted this, been looping this whole album, so in love with it, and all her music. Thanks for the good wishes, and I send them back to you as well!

Thank you for sharing that. Ive just come back to this album. Stunning from start to finish.

I have depression issues too....but sometimes listening to Joni exacerbates them. When I'm down and listen to Joni, especially, for example, People's Parties/Same Situation, it just makes me feel worse. One of my favorite lines of hers: There's comfort in melancholy. (Hejira).

jfthome Yes it's good to be selective about music from those dark days. I can't listen to James Taylor, John Denver, Seals and Croft, America, too many to list here.

perfectly desc life on long island ny in the 70's

This song is a fine example of the brilliance that runs through all of Joni Mitchell's lyrics. (I am open to additions and correction on poetic element names.) There are always interesting. It astounding that she could use so many elements in each song. A pure master.

analogies - (comparison between two things, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification) fish and fishing: yellow schools of taxi fishes, caught up at the lights in the fishnet window, shining as she reeled him in

simile - (a involves a comparison between unlike things using like or as) "a helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof like a dragonfly on a tomb"
"People thirty stories down look like colored currents in the street."

Assonance (the repetition of similar internal vowel sounds) "we can really find release"

Alliteration (a repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words) "beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes"
Here with the same consonant and word: paper minded males, talking commodities and sales, while at home their paper wives and paper kids, paper the wall to keep their gut reactions hid."

Metaphor (comparison between essentially unlike things without a word such as like or as) "credit card eyes"

Imagery (the concrete representation of a sense impression, feeling, or idea that triggers our
imaginative ere-enactment of a sensory experience.) "heatwaves on the runway" There are so many examples of imagery...essentially the entire song.

Rhyme (repetition of identical or similar concluding syllables in different words, most
often at the ends of lines) ".....the way she looked in school, ....at the public swimming pool."

That's what I was thinking when I suddenly got the urge to hear this again. I can imagine being in NYC out on the street and seeing all the yellow taxis looking like schools of fishes, and how the hero of this tale is like Jonah and the whale caught up in the lights of the fishnet windows ... of Bloomingdale's. "Yellow schools of taxi fishes, Jonah in a ticking whale, caught up at the lights in the fishnet windows ... of Bloomingdale's". So evocative. And how elegant, with just a word or two she's able to evoke an entire scene, "A helicopter lands on a Pan Am roof like a dragonfly on a tomb, and businessmen in button downs, press into conference rooms. Battalions of paper-minded males, talking commodities and sale, while at home their paper wives and their paper kids, paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid." Wow.
And it's a whole story, poor Harry reeled in by his shining wife so long ago was just today dumped for only achieving a "take-home pay". So sad. And the whole thing rhymes!

Brilliant...brings chills...

Probably one of my top 5 all time albu ms......luv you Joni ❤❤

Such albums as this glide through time effortlessly,yes another masterpiece from our multi faceted artist Joni.

If you take out the cheesy "jazz" section it's a pretty good song.

The cheesy "jazz" section is absolutely necessary to the completeness of the whole song. For God's sake... listen.

The only thing that’s cheesy is what’s where your brain is supposed to be. The tools in your shed need sharpening. Or rather replaced. Let’s make that just stocking the whole thing. But then someone would need to show you how to use them. Oh my. Some things can’t be fixed.

ImNotMad ButUR...how about teaching instead of taunting?

I always thought that pairing those two songs (her own "Harry's House" and the old jazz standard "Centerpiece") was brilliant, loved how she hypnotized us with the wide-eyed infatuation of "Centerpiece", only to skewer it the the banality of marriage ("What time are you going to be home, Harry?...Get down from there!...."), ultimately telling Happy what he could do with his house and his take-home pay.

And the dichotomy of the female character in the song happily singing "Nothing's any good without you" during Centerpiece and that quickly fading away to complaints of "nothing's any good" (period) is pure genius. Whenever I'm trying to explain to someone why I think Joni was a musical genius, this is one of the songs that I play. I play it uninterrupted first and ask for the listener's feedback. Then, I explain her use of metaphor throughout and explain the "story" of the song as I play it back a second time. Then, I have them listen to the song again. Every single person I've played this song for that third time has had a "mind blown" response. This has always been one of my favorite albums. It's a pure coincidence that it was released the year I was born. I discovered Joni after hearing Prince rave about her in a few interviews in the 80s. I bought Miles of Aisles on a whim (not knowing it was a live album when I bought it), and I've been a die-hard Joni fan ever since.

"ultimately telling Harry what he could do with his house and his take-home pay."

Ah....but sometimes she stays....it the lady's choice.

Heatwaves on the runway
As the wheels set down
He takes his baggage off the carousel
He takes a taxi into town
Yellow schools of taxi fishes
Jonah in a ticking whale
Caught up at the light in the fishnet windows
Of Bloomingdale's
Watching those high fashion girls
Skinny black models with raven curls
Beauty parlor blondes with credit card eyes
Looking for the chic and the fancy to buy

He opens up his suitcase
In the continental suite
And people twenty stories down
Colored currents in the street
A helicopter lands on the Pan Am roof
Like a dragonfly on a tomb
And business men in button downs
Press into conference rooms
Battalions of paper minded males
Talking commodities and sales
While at home their paper wives
And paper kids
Paper the walls to keep their gut reactions hid

Yellow checkers for the kitchen
Climbing ivy for the bath
She is lost in House and Gardens
He's caught up in Chief of Staff
He drifts off into the memory
Of the way she looked in school
With her body oiled and shining
At the public swimming pool ...

... Shining hair and shining skin
Shining as she reeled him in
To tell him like she did today
Just what he could do with Harry's House
And Harry's take home pay..

Bonita Tucker Clark A perfect slice of life.

Yeah, it's brilliant poetry. I've always thought this was a fabulous composition.

Harry's House/Masterpiece

There is something very wrong when this has 22k views and ariana grande 220mil!

Quite possibly the sound issue, unless it’s just me. Funny though, this is the only one . . . Oh well, I’m off, anyway. Have fun, kids! Lock up when you leave.

Sex is a stronger impulse than music everything still okay ☺

@Armin Hanik lol

stop putting the women against each other.Thats old fashioned and who cares

Angie Martinez Women pit themselves against each other all the time. Piss off with this misplaced, tone deaf lecturing. And OP is right.

Excellent

The great Chuck Findlay on flugelhorn

What a masterpiece.

bob tucker or centrepiece ?:)

one of my favorites court and spark runs a close 2nd

im still crying n mournin my misbegotten youth, o joni!

Genius Joni.

Is Harry Jack Nicholson?

I have always loved this. The first time I went to NYC, I had to go see the Pan Am Building to connect with this song. Too bad Pan American Airways is no more. That era in modern America was magical -- a time when it seemed anything was possible.
In some ways "Harry's House" is an thematic extension of "The Arrangement." IMHO.

How prescient of Joni to write Pan Am's epitaph more than 15 years before its worldwide demise. I worked at Pan Am and as a child, my father, a retired Pan Am captain, took me on many of those helicopter rides that landed on the Pan Am roof.

How lucky I was to be part of that rarified world of privilege, and the gorgeous panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline, high above the tallest office towers of girders and steel, and feeling like a pre-teen rock star! What I wouldn't give to relive those days all over just one more time...All of my possessions for a moment of time...

@Richard Iritano I remember dressing in my Sunday best when we flew. Nowadays they let emotional support chickens ride.

all time fave xx

AND that's Robben Ford on guitar, if I'm not mistaken.

Bbbumpy Larry corral on gtr

Correal

Yes, and he put out some fine, fine work of his own, with brilliant players too. Most excellent.

He also was with her on Mikes of Aisles. John Guerrin as well, on drums.

I know that there's a musical term for this, but I don't know what it is. I LOVE how the time signature morphs freely. Or does it? It could be a sonic illusion.

I agree with all of the comments made so far. This is one of my favourite songs of all time. But I must add one comment of my own. Combining Joni's Harry's House with Annie Ross's jazz-inspired Centrepiece is pure genius.

Asked for the album f pi r Christmas when I was 15 from my 31 yr old sister. Been listening to it daily, weekly, monthly since.

A truly brilliant song

This song haunted my late teens - a warning somehow. Still haunting Joni

The entire body of work itself was a prescient glimpse into a world of corporate dominance, grinding commerce and the 'Illusion of Progress' that has been FOISTED upon us all—compliments of the 'Land of the FEE—and, Home of the SLAVE!'

It is a haunting tune...agreed...A nice kinda haunting though..if that's possible..:)

Then check out "That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" by Carly Simon.

Sarah Prax man how did all that time pass .

From Dan Castro in, of all places, The Brutalism Appreciation Society

She describes the perfect suburban hypocrisy played out every day In our first world paradise.

First world paradise that quickly devolved into a lifeless 'concrete jungle' of indentured, Fourth World oligarchy that owns 93% of the entire world's wealth (that now determines worth). How prescient of Joni to write Pan Am's epitaph more than 15 years before its worldwide demise.

Alas, slavery is still very much alive since ancient Babylonia more than 5,000 years ago in THIS 21st century age of modern day, corporate sweatshops of grinding commerce, vapid consumerism and epic, humanitarian (and ecological) fail.

And, the public be eternally duped, bilked, scammed, SCARRED FOR LIFE, and damned!

And many people of means also hiring illegal aliens to avoid paying proper wages for skilled tradesmen, etc.

Erik Cortez I believe Richard Iritano there already included that in his diatribe describing our demises, final fall, and the bitter end.

Copy that citizen. Isn't that what makes America the envy world over?

Goddess and inspiration.

Better than ultimate……. lady's in the Ain Sof, a perfect artist, with flowers on her piano.

The ultimate artist.