she was particularly proud: "A lot of work went into that." Songs Mitchell has described the album as "really inspired... there is this restless feeling throughout it... The sweet loneliness of solitary travel", and has said that "I suppose a lot of people could have written a lot of my other songs, but I feel the songs on Hejira could only have come from me." Hejira opens with "Coyote", about a one-night stand with a ladies' man, speculated by several biographers to be Shepard. Mitchell would later perform the song with The Band at their 1976 farewell concert, which was eventually released under the title The Last Waltz (1978). The second track on Hejira, "Amelia", was inspired by Mitchell's breakup with then-partner John Guerin, and described by her as almost an exact account of her experience in the desert. The song interweaves a story of a desert journey (the "hejira within the hejira") with the famous aviator Amelia Earhart who mysteriously vanished during a flight over the Pacific Ocean. Mitchell has commented on the origins of the song: "I was thinking of Amelia Earhart and addressing it from one solo pilot to another... sort of reflecting on the cost of being a woman and having something you must do." The song, each verse of which ends with the refrain "Amelia, it was just a false alarm", repeatedly shifts between two keys, giving it a constant unsettled feeling. "Furry Sings the Blues", with Neil Young on harmonica, is an account of Mitchell meeting the blues guitarist and singer Furry Lewis in Beale Street, Memphis during a period when the surrounding area was being demolished. Lewis was displeased with Mitchell's use of his name. Mitchell would return to the song live in concert throughout the years. Like "Coyote", "Furry Sings the Blues" was sung by Mitchell at The Band's farewell concert. This version of the song was not included on the 1978 version of The Last Waltz but was included on the 2002 re-release. "A Strange Boy" recounts the affair Mitchell had with one of the men she was traveling with from Los Angeles to Maine; he was a flight attendant in his thirties who lived with his parents. "Hejira" is about Mitchell's reasons for leaving Guerin, and Mitchell described it as probably the toughest tune on the album to write. It features the bass work of Pastorius, who was inspired by