"Lost Hill" A just-written manuscript - to become "Barangrill". June 1972 photo by Joel Bernstein.

Joni introduced the song this way on August 12, 1974 at Temple University [transcribed by Mark Bell]:

I wrote this song a couple years ago; I was, ah… at that time I suppose more of a seeker, more “on the path” than I am now. Mainly because I was more miserable at that time [Joni chuckles]. And, uh, I wrote it kind of as a spoof on the Trinity, you know. Centered around three waitresses. [scattered audience applause] And I had two verses of it written, and I wasn’t exactly sure where it was going to take me, and one night I pulled into this gas station. It was after a session. It was, like, really early in the morning. And there was nobody there lined up or anything. There was this one guy, old black guy, on duty there. And he said to me “what are you doing out this hour of night?” And I said, “well, I just came from a recording session.” And he says “ohh, are you a singer?” And I said “yeah.” And he said “well, sing me something then.” So I mean, it’s like…on the spot like that, I couldn’t think of anything to sing, you know, so I said “I…you know, it’s very late at night, you know I’ve blown my pipes.” He said, “Okay; I’ll sing you something then.”

So he stepped back from the car and he burst into song, you know, and he started going through this whole routine, and I kept thinking to myself…[Joni speaking deliberately] ”I wish he would hurry up and put gas in my car.” [audience laughter]

And then halfway through it I said to myself “Now, wait a minute. This is a beautiful moment, and you’re rushing right through it, you know. Like you’re hasty to go home to what? To sleep, right? Is sleep more important than this beautiful moment? So when I got home, like, I felt like I had somehow rather been enlightened. This is a song called, ah [audience applause]….I don’t have to do it now! That’s what folkies used to do. You remember that? In coffeehouse days, they’d stand up and they’d say “this is a song about a man who kills a woman down by the river and along comes a knight on horseback and rescues the lady…” And then he sings the song [Joni laughs, tuning guitar]. I’m an old folkie. [audience laughter, applause] [singing] ‘I’m an old folk…You’re an old..’ [Joni chuckles, finishes checking guitar tuning]