Joni Mitchell - The Three Great Stimulants / Number One / Hejira (Live 1986)

0:01 The Three Great Stimulants
6:00 Number One
9:30 Hejira
all songs written by Joni Mitchell | unscheduled live set from 'A Conspiracy Of Hope' Amnesty benefit at Giants Stadium, New Jersey (1986)

[@sidsmiff]

I can never have enough Joni Mitchell.

[@davidespinosa1910]

Always give your best performance -- you never know who's watching. Maybe even people 38 years into the future.

[@jacksoncage1617]

I was there that day. Some of the crowd was disappointed because Pete Townshend was supposed to play, but his father was ill and he cancelled his appearance. So Joni filled the empty slot. I remember liking what she played and finding her records and becoming a HUGE fan afterwards, to this day. I absolutely treasure the fact that I saw her at least this one time. Thanks for posting this.

[@tedshutt56]

I was there also and it was my only time seeing Lou Reed, Carlos Santana, Yoko Ono, Miles Davis and Joni. Pretty overwhelming. It was also a very hot and humid day and folks had been there since the morning. If some idiot made an awful mistake I'm not sure that makes the whole audience "undeserving."

[@mrkennethj7232]

She is just so good here. and radiant.

[@beckjuly100]

I remember watching this live and waiting for Joni to come on.. A minute and a half into her performance some idiot throws a drink at her. It was such a shock, blasphemous really. Of course, she recovered beautifully, and went on to play a set filled with even more meaning and integrity. I have never forgotten it. Apparently you didn't either. Thank you for this. Into 'My Favorites' it goes!

[@laurentdubois2268]

I don't know why every time I watch her, I have tears in my eyes

[@patriciabarros9044]

same happens to me! always. she sings to my soul directly...

[@OneOfUsHere]

She has always affected me that way. Now I cry knowing she won't be here forever. Thank God we'll always have her music and art.

[@pattisteely4650]

Because she is amazing. So talented,so real and so deep. She has overcome so many things in life. Love Joni forever.

[@johnnysongdujour]

so much in her eyes here! the drink thrown early on seems to have ignited her, although you still see the hurt person sometimes, alternating with a quite scary defiance. Her belief in her material is very much there! What other artist could have thought that Hejira could serve as a nice, familiar balm after two difficult newer songs? This, to me, is a picture of Joni's personality - the empathy that art requires mixed with the ego that it takes to be "number one". Of particular interest is the lyric change in Hejira: "'I'm always bound and tied to someone" becomes "I need something from someone" - that may just be the intervening decade showing itself. The way she exited the stage was a good summation of what she must have considered a mug's gig; being Joni she didn't destroy her guitar as not-there Pete Townshend would once have done; but the care with which she laid it on the stage was a parody of manners, a fuck-you performance, a provocation in itself. She is the whole thing, people - she knows it and the crowd should know it. That is the truth and that is what she was communicating to the largely unappreciative that day in the ever-receding 80s. To think we - and Joni - used to consider that era a selfish, money-grabbing time...

[@sonicboy19]

Very well said. I agree. It's interesting to contrast this performance with her Isle Of Wight Festival gig from 1970. Her twenty-something self pleading for respect from the audience would have fallen on deaf ears at the 80's gig...she conveyed the same underlying message, just in a less obvious, more lyrical fashion. Each approach feels very strongly aligned to the social climate of the respective era.

[@jaimebarros9834]

Thanks for posting this! I'm absolutely flabbergasted with that acoustic version of "The 3 great stimulants". Hearing this, I can't help thinking just HOW MUCH I would love to hear unplugged/stripped down versions of her over-produced 80s albums. A real treat that would be!. Those albums were plagued with unnecessary overinstrumentation but the songs were so great. Thumbs down to the dunce who threw the drink.

[@garypeatling7927]

How could people ignore JM I'll bet they regret it now amazing woman

[@KobLobs]

one of many reasons Joni is an amazing artist and person: after the idiot throws a drink at her on 1:33, she sings the lyrics of the song: "I keep the hours and the company", adding "not you." to the people in front of her who threw the drink at her!

[@akgypsy54]

Surprisingly she didn't stop and refuse to go any further...cementing her professional demeanor. No one comes closer to this than Joni.

[@laurentdubois2268]

Thank you I didn't notice that

[@BrianKelleyNJ]

I was 14 when I attended this concert. The guy threw an ice cube from his cooler because he was pissed he wasn’t seeing Pete Townshend (Joni filled in). I know because the guy was right in front of us on the field, about 40-50 yards away from the stage near one of the light/camera towers. That was the second or third one he threw toward the stage, and he was grabbing for another when the people he was with told him he hit her (it actually exploded upon hitting her guitar). The guy was pretty drunk and obnoxious all day (he also threw ice during Yoko Ono’s performance of “Imagine” but didn’t come close), so I was surprised by his reaction…he not only felt bad about hitting Joni, but he was on his best behavior the rest of the night.

[@OneOfUsHere]

Thanks for bringing that to our attention. Now I understand what she meant when she made the comment about bombs. After they calmed down many people were into her and cheering for real.

[@cidcreative]

Thanks for sharing this! I haven't seen it before. Joni's performance is sublime. I cant believe how rude and unruly the crowd was!

[@lhunt480]

If Pete HAD been there he’d have told ‘em to SHUT UP AND LISTEN!!

[@pattisteely4650]

Awesome Joni! I love you!

[@nuthineatholl6434]

Whoah. Eye-opening. [ 1:33 ] Some serious lèse-majesté going on here! Not exactly showering her with flowers, eh? Wow. Just imagine: throwing a damn drink (whichever one of the lesser stimulants it was)-- at [pause while one shakes one's head in wonder] Joni... fucking... Mitchell. Onstage. As she's performing. Big venue, tons of audience. Ordinarily, one doesn't SEE very much of this sort of behavior, vis-à-vis Mme M.-- to understate the bloody obvious by about a lightyear-length or so. Wonder what the response of those immediately near the culprit was? I fear if I had been one of them, the South would have risen again, Suh! The Little-League-pitcher-manqué would have suddenly felt he was transported to a sort of personal Altamonte. Wow. Nice recovery, though: "I keep the hours and the company that I please (not you!)" and [ 5:02 ][as stagehand mops up in front of her] "Hey, look-- ah, save the bombs for later-- I'm not that bad, you dig? [laughs] Quit pitchin' shit up here, O.K.?" Love this chick, young or old. She and her art just keep renewing.

[@47barolo]

Three of my favorite Joni numbers.

[@elizabethhawkins2415]

I love the way she just snaps her guitar strap off as she’s walking away and doesn’t look back.

[@sweetjane5033]

Joni is a great artist, expert lyricist!!❤

[@joesadowski835]

This is fucking amazing.

[@mikeannese4012]

"Other people are hell."

[@gregkearney3537]

Tossing a drink at Joni Mitchell? The 80s were such a fucked time.

[@sonicboy19]

Yes. Much like now.

[@historyremembers7274]

Dubbed the worst concert of the year by Rolling Stones, I watch this to feel some unique sense of self from three beautiful songs in her greatest talent….minimalism.

[@dugdoll3295]

This crowd is Barbaric 🗣 stfu . Joni is performing for You

[@lincolnanderson8130]

This is a great song. I hope that jerk who threw the drink got kicked out. Doesn't reflect well on the crowd, which also sounds like they were pretty rowdy. Sure, Joni Mitchell isn't The Who, but The Who is isn't Joni Mitchell. Different styles, but a music fan should be able to appreciate it all.

[@christiangonzalez-xl4cq]

An Angel!

[@48crash]

In a situation like this, huge international event, tens of thousands of people in the crowd, live TV broadcast, it probably would have been smart for Joni to have played at least one hit song. Even Yoko Ono, a woman who historically has not received a warm reception from mainstream audiences, realized this and played Imagine. I mean who is going to boo Imagine? Especially if it has a really cool arrangement? And she got a huge, positive response from the crowd. I just think that, regardless of how beautifully it was executed, Joni played the wrong set that day.

[@rileysummers484]

And this is why most of Joni’s fan base respects her, she is an artist whose interest is the art, not the dollar signs or the gawking of the fans, she puts forth what art she wants to present. You wouldn’t ask DaVinci to repaint the Mona Lisa, or Van Gogh Starry night.

[@bb1111116]

U4EA; I understand. I sometimes wish Joni would play more of her up-tempo songs live. But she has said she didn't want to be a human jukebox. She played what felt right for her at the time. So sometime she would lose some of the audience. When Dylan transitioned to rock 'n' roll, he was booed at every concert for one year. I think Joni is at his level. She plays what she wants & you can take it or leave it.

[@davidespinosa1910]

Yes -- a large fraction of the audience couldn't follow at all. But fortunately it was caught on video, and here we are.

[@stude1953]

Joni playing a Gibson strat. lol

[@garypeatling7927]

Strange set of songs for non jm fans, coped well

[@robertince4817]

The audience here is tantamount to blasphemous

[@OneOfUsHere]

I thought people were cheering for her not realizing many were pissed that Pete Townshend wasn't there. Those aholes were trying to drown her out.

[@CraigHamil]

This crowd is pathetic.

[@lhunt480]

Why can’t the Americans keep quiet when Joni is playing?? Just ignorance and disrespect that’s what it is!!!

[@phillanager6245]

Wow, what a rude audience. New Jersey, figures.

[@pagliacci2942]

Good version of 3 Great', but it's outro is rather banal. Number one always needed a screeching guitar to elevate it. In any case, glad she didn't pander to the idiots in the crowd.