Car On A Hill by Joni Mitchell

According to Sheila Weller's book Girls Like Us, the song is supposedly about Joni waiting at her apartment in West Hollywood for Jackson Browne, who apparently never showed up since their relationship was dissolving. He had started to see Phyllis Major, who he would later marry.

The song is a great example of her visually-driven music. She had Tom Scott play horn parts to mimic passing cars. To enhance the passing traffic effect, she had the pitch of the horn track altered and also added her own layered vocals. The Berklee School of Music has apparently used the song as a final exam question in music theory classes, due to its complex rhythms. Joni is obviously proud of the song. She fought for it to be the second single off of the album, but Asylum Records released "Free Man in Paris" instead. She's also cited it among her favorites of her own material.

Lyrically, it's a pretty simple topic, but it's musically executed so vividly that the recording technology of the time is pressed beyond its capacities in the bridge's instrumental passage creating a distortion, similar to the moment a passing car is closest.

Full post with lyrics at the Troubadour Tribune