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Big Yellow Taxi Lyrics
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Hey, farmer, farmer
Put away the DDT now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees, please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone?
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
I said, don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Shoo, bop, bop, bop, bop
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
The overall message is not taking things for granted. She goes into how the environment is being exploited and wasted by people, and transitions into catching herself doing the same thing to someone she loves.
I just found out the true story! Joni used to play at a club in Yorkville, Toronto called the Paradise...it was bought out and flatted to make way for a parking lot! It now has a luxury hotel with a plaque that says "This used to be Paradise".
The trees were transplanted to the Government Buildings..costly!
This song was autobiographical and based on her experiences in Yorkville of the 60's - the Haight Ashbury of the North.
Most women of my generation ( I am 48) think this is about Joni's daughter that she surrendered for adoption. I'm a man so I take their word for it. It was too painful even for a great artist like Joni Mitchell to address directly so it's hidden in the lyrics. The big yellow taxi took away her little girl, not her old man. I think anyone who gives up a child knowing you'll never know another thing about her would feel like they don't know what they got 'till it's gone. Joni was tortured by...
Most women of my generation ( I am 48) think this is about Joni's daughter that she surrendered for adoption. I'm a man so I take their word for it. It was too painful even for a great artist like Joni Mitchell to address directly so it's hidden in the lyrics. The big yellow taxi took away her little girl, not her old man. I think anyone who gives up a child knowing you'll never know another thing about her would feel like they don't know what they got 'till it's gone. Joni was tortured by this feeling and it came out in a great song. I'm adopted and I reunited with my maternal birth family after about 37 years. My biological mother died when I was 3. That was about two years after she gave me up. She was run over by a truck. I give Joni Mitchell all the credit in the world for pressing on a giving the big yellow taxi story a new, happier final verse. This song always makes me feel like crying because I secretly know what it's really about.
wow.. that's something.
wow.. that's something.
Interesting!
Interesting!
I would like to know what is the source of this information?
I would like to know what is the source of this information?
@Grooveon ...and the "big yellow taxi" would be a Toronto cop car, which were yellow in the 60's and 70's
@Grooveon ...and the "big yellow taxi" would be a Toronto cop car, which were yellow in the 60's and 70's
To me it brings across the fallacy of the era in which she sings. The guts of the song being various rallying calls of the 60's. And however well meaning these intentions where, the focus of the song is this 'big yellow taxi', which took her old man. That the dreamers of the 60's where either so devout to the notions of the latter half of that decade that they simply didn't see the more immediate emotional crisis going on or rather perhaps that it is a little bit easier to rant and rave at the horrors of the world en masse than it is to consult that most imtimate place where your lover cannot handle being with you anymore. I find it interesting that post 11/9/01 that even Yoko Ono once confining herself to her bed for peace, supported the military response to afganistan acknowledging that the 60's peace rallies had more than an elment of maschismo. Granted that level of aggression was useful to a degree it did lead to a short-sightedness that has been endlessly recorded in current popular history. And that is what strikes me about Joni in this period of her work, for all the joy that she manages to put across; its the relentless desire to present the other side of the coin to her generation that makes me feel so connected to her. And don't even get me started on blue...
My favourite line is:
"They took all the trees Put 'em in a tree museum And they charged all the people A dollar and a half just to see 'em!"
...because that's a VERY CANADIAN view of the dangers of raw, unbridled capitalism! Joni, you're a genius!!!
Okay everyone, there's a KEY to understanding part of this song that you will not get unless you lived in Toronto, Canada (like I did) back in the 1970's. The POLICE CARS at that time in Toronto were YELLOW (with a single cherry red light on top). This is the "BIG YELLOW TAXI" that Joni is referring to in the song (Joni has explained this). The conclusion? Her boyfriend didn't just take off... he was ARRESTED by the Police. Who knows, maybe it was following an environmental protest of some sort...
this song is about living every moment to its fullest and appreciating everything...because tomorrow something you love could be gone and you never know how important something is to you until its gone
This song, I'm pretty sure, is about how people just knock down land and put up hotels and parking lots and not knowing but they've done till it's done. So pretty much, think before you do, Don't get blinded by want.
Well. I believe the song means that peanut butter is contagious. It can spread across many countries through many different ways. Sheep. Air. Fish. Mosquitoes. Many other things can cause this because of The New Year. Thank You.
Sincerely, Kim K
I think it speaks volumes about how society is just screwing up all the simple beuty in the world. Jonni is relating this to an ex boyfriend. She found a way to tie the two together. cool song! Amy Grant did a good cover.
yeah, i think this song is just about not taking for granted the things you have and not let the government screw everything up. like, wouldn't that be insane if you had to go to a tree museum to see trees? just think about THAT.
"Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know whatcha got till it's gone??" this lyrics is sooo incredibly true and it applies to alot of things if you just think about it! this song always puts me in a great mood~if you're lookin' for a different version try the one by Counting Crows with Vanessa Carlton- you can find it on the soundtrack of "Two Weeks Notice"....it's my fave version of the song.