Herbie Hancock

Featuring: Tina Turner

Songwriter: Joni Mitchell

[Verse 1]
The big man arrives
Disco dancers greet him, plainclothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters the band sounds like typewriters
The big man, he's not listening
His eyes hold Edith, his left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight?

[Verse 2]
Edith in the ring
The passed-over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws, for now, withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge, they look on
Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

[Verse 3]
Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song, some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snow blind, romantic and snow blind
She says his crime belongs
Edith and the Kingpin, each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away

Herbert Jeffrey “Herbie” Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, composer and actor from Chicago, Illinois.

In 1960 he began working with Donald Byrd and Coleman Hawkins. He recorded his first solo album “Takin' Off” for Blue Note Records in 1962. “Watermelon Man”. Thanks to the album he caught the attention of Miles Davis, who asks, in May 1963, Hancock to join his Second Great Quintet.

In the sixties he records two important albums in jazz “Empyrean Isles” (1964) and “Maiden Voyage” (1965), both for Blue Note. During this period, Hancock also composed the score to Michelangelo Antonioni’s film Blowup (1966), the first of many film soundtracks he recorded in his career.

more tracks from the album

River: The Joni Letters

From the album

River: The Joni Letters (2007)

Herbie Hancock popular songs

Edith and the KingpinHerbie Hancock

Herbie Hancock

River: The Joni Letters