Album: Hejira (1976)

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• I was driving across the burning desert
  When I spotted six jet planes
  Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
  It was the hexagram of the heavens
  It was the strings of my guitar
  Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  The drone of flying engines
  Is a song so wild and blue
  It scrambles time and seasons
  If it gets through to you
  Then your life becomes a travelogue
  Of picture postcard charms
  Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  People will tell you where they've gone
  They'll tell you where to go
  But 'til you get there yourself
  You never really know
  Where some have found their paradise
  Others just come to harm
  Oh, Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  I wish that he was here tonight
  It's so hard to obey
  His sad request of me to kindly stay away
  So this is how I hide the hurt
  As the road leads cursed and charmed
  I tell Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  A ghost of aviation
  She was swallowed by the sky
  Or by the sea, like me, she had a dream to fly
  Like Icarus ascending
  On beautiful foolish arms
  Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  Maybe I've never really loved
  I guess that is the truth
  I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude
  And looking down on everything
  I crashed into his arms
  Amelia, it was just a false alarm
  
  I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel
  To shower off the dust
  And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust
  I dreamed of 747s
  Over geometric farms
  Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
  Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 7

• Benjamin from Old Forge PennsylvaniaRadio broadcasting from 1978-2010 at various stations including XM radio 2001-2010 beginning at WEJL and WEZX in Scranton Pennsylvania after graduation in 1978 with degrees in Communication and English Literature from King's College in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania and interviewed many artists in the Music industry
• Phil Regan from Leyland, Lancashire, EnglandIn my 55 years of singing and listening to contemporary folk music, I've never found a song that blended sublime poetic imagery, and hauntingly beautiful melody and performance, so completely. It is a work of genius, which is probably why its not better known - its just too good for the majority to appreciate.
• Les from SfOne of my favorite top five songs.... the greatest lyrics, spoke so directly to me when I was younger!
• Ret from Bristol, United KingdomLeaving aside my feelings about this song, which, while personal, I still don't really understand (the song is a little bit about death, after all)... I sat and figured out the chords to this the other day, it sounds pretty cool on the piano.
• Peter from Newark, NyJoni has a song called 'Cactus Tree' on her first album, Song to a Seagull, and it appears again live on "Miles of Aisles". I wonder if the Cactus Tree Motel in this song is related.
• Peter from Newark, NyThis entire album has some of the best imagery I've ever heard in lyrics. I love the line "slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust".
• Darrell from EugeneAmelia is also a medical term for the condition of having one or more limbs missing, thus making it a great name for the proverbial girl with no arms and no legs.

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