Song of the Week: "This Flight Tonight"

Listen to the playlist of all these fucking songs HERE.

"This Flight Tonight"

Joni Mitchell

from Blue

1971

It's pretty rare that I choose a song for this column that I actively dislike (Blake Shelton is the shining exception), but here we are. I'm not a fan of Joni Mitchell, and I think this song kinda sucks, like most of Blue. But he particular issue I take with "This Flight Tonight" is at least interesting. So I'm going to talk about it briefly, and then you can go on about your day.

"This Flight Tonight," like most of this album, is Joni Mitchell doing her lullaby croon over an acoustic guitar. Snooze, right? But then at 1:56, for exactly ten seconds, the sound gets really tinny, like it's being played through an old-timey telephone or something. And there's electric guitar noodling, and possibly back-up singers? This is only ten seconds of the song. It switches back to acoustic and slow as abruptly as it started in the first place.

Pam listens to Blue quite a lot (it's dinner music for sure), and every time I hear those ten seconds, it's like nails on a chalkboard. It sounds awful.

Reading the lyrics, I now understand why the decision was made, in the context of the story that Mitchell is trying to relay, at least. Basically, "This Flight Tonight" is about Joni Mitchell being afraid of flying in an airplane. During the third verse, she explains that she is dealing with her fear by drinking champagne and listening to her headphones. So the odd sounding ten seconds is supposed to be the sounds coming out of her headphones, apparently.

That doesn't mean it's pleasant on my ears. It's too abrupt, and it adds nothing to the song. I don't hate Blue, it's just boring. This song isn't boring. It's interesting. And it's fucking bad.

Anyway, sorry. That's it. Better songs next week, hopefully.