What is this Chief of Staff?

May 26, 2012 4:28 PM

Joni Mitchell's Harry's House/Centerpiece. A lyrics question.

This lyric:
She is lost in House and Gardens/
He's caught up in Chief of Staff.

What is Chief of Staff? A magazine? A television show?

My google explorations have turned up nothing....

posted by Chrischris to Media & Arts (5 answers total)

Maybe this?
posted by Raichle at 4:44 PM on May 26, 2012

I know it's capitalized in the lyrics here (as it is in the liner notes themselves,) but I still think it's not a specific reference, but more a poetic way of saying that she is a homemaker and he is a businessman.
posted by Lorin at 5:10 PM on May 26, 2012

What Lorin said is how I've always interpreted it. (This is one of my favourite song(s) of hers. Well, hers and Hendricks/Mandel. People confined in their gender roles, and the dissatisfaction, the trap...

And the imagery! ...a dragonfly lands on the Pan Am roof / like a helicopter on a tomb...
posted by Savannah at 8:34 PM on May 26, 2012

As Loren said, how I've always interpreted it.
posted by Rash at 9:34 PM on May 26, 2012

This dude?

Chief if staff in 1973, hissing of summer lawns was what? 1975?
posted by roboton666 at 11:29 PM on May 26, 2012