“Harry’s House/Centerpiece” by Joni Mitchell
“Harry” would logically be the primary male subject of “Harry’s House/Centerpiece”. And he is not an individual per se but rather a personification. And what he personifies, most simply explained, is men who are caught up in high-end, executive careers, the types of which keep them away from their home and family.
Of course, such a modus operandi is not ideal as far as maintaining a marriage is concerned. So we are also introduced to Harry’s wife, who is by and large living the American Dream. That is to say that her husband’s income has afforded the opportunity to live in a beautiful home for instance. And we can say that, as depicted, she is akin to a rich housewife, not lacking anything in terms of edifying the crib to her approval.
But as for Harry, he’s really nowhere to be found. And on his end, he is rather shown as lusting after random women more or less. It should also be noted that as described, said women don’t appear like his wife at all. Indeed in the sixth verse, we also find Harry fantasizing about how his significant other used to shine back in her carefree youth, obviously being less impressed with the state she’s in today.
Other analysts have pointed out that this song is expertly-poetic in nature, even by Joni Mitchell’s standard. And we can also see based on what has been mentioned above that there’s a lot going on in this piece.
The story theoretically concludes with the vocalist alluding to the notion that Harry’s wife is actually cheating on him, using his appreciable resources, in his absence, to rather pimp out another dude who makes her like she is wanted.
When was “Harry’s House/Centerpiece” released?
During November of 1975, Joni Mitchell’s album “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” came out through Asylum Records. This was around the tail end of her musical heyday. The said project reached an impressive 4th place on the Billboard 200. “Harry’s House/Centerpiece” is one of the tracks found on its 10 song playlist.
Song’s Title (“Harry’s House/Centerpiece”)
The reason this track is co-titled “Centerpiece” is because the lyrics of the bridge(s), which are based on an idealized vision of the featured romance (i.e. countering the main narrative), were actually derived from a love song entitled “Centerpiece” (1962). This song was written by Harry Edison alongside Jon Hendricks.
Credits
As appears to be almost exclusively the case with Joni Mitchell songs, this is one that she wrote and produced herself. However, because she incorporated the 1960 jazz song “Centerpiece” into it, the following names are also credited songwriters:
- Harry Edison
- Jon Hendricks
“Harry’s House” by Harry Styles
In 2022, inspired by this song, singer Harry Styles named his 3rd studio album “Harry’s House”. Mitchell not only approved of it but she also showed massive support for it.
