Car on a Hill – A Stab at Jackson Browne
“He said he’d be over three hours ago
I’ve been waiting for his car on the hill.”
The 1974 song from her Court and Spark album is about musician Jackson Browne, who actually played a big role in Mitchell’s life during the writing of this album. He was one of the few men who really got to her in a painful way. She fell in love with the younger man, who was only starting to become famous at the time.
Photo by Robert Knight Archive/Redferns/Getty Images
He then cheated on her with Phyllis Majors, the model he eventually married and had kids with, who then sadly committed suicide. The song describes the night she waited for him, in a “car on a hill,” but he never showed up. Why? Because he was with Majors. According to author Sheila Wellers, Mitchell was so distraught that she staged a “suicide attempt” (something that proved to be a little too close to home in his future).