They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique
And a swinging hot spot
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They took all the trees
Put them in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ‘em
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Hey farmer farmer
Put away that d.d.t. now
Give me spots on my apples
But leave me the birds and the bees
Please!
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
Late last night
I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi
Took away my old man
Dont it always seem to go
That you dont know what youve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
This song was the first of our collection that exclusively deals with the human-nature relation in western culture: The devastation of natural environments and the creation of heavy urban ones. Pure nature was reduced to an only of economic importance spectacle and we now view it as a profitable museum exhibit. But soon we pay the price of the inevitable climatic change, either topic or global.
In another point, there's a call to farmers not to use toxins in order to produce huge and of "perfect" shape fruits. The organic small and with spots and some deformations on them are healthy, more tasty and in harmonic balance with the other creatures.
We thought that we build a paradise of safety and order away from the chaotic "horrible wilderness", but we realized at last that we only appreciate something only when we have lost it.
You can hear this song in youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueVpCfPAog4
23 August, 2007
Βig yellow taxi by Joni Mitchell, Αλμπουμ: Ladies of the canyon 1970
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1 comment:
This song has been classified as one of the first "environmentalist" songs. It is very interesting to read the description of how the lyrics of this song were inspired by the artist herslef:
"Living in Los Angeles, smog-choked L.A. is bad enough but the last straw came when I visited Hawaii for the first time. It was night time when we got there, so I didn't get my first view of the scenery until I got up the next morning. The hotel room was quite high up so in the distance I could see the blue Pacific Ocean. I walked over to the balcony and there was the picture book scenery, palm tree swaying in the breeze and all. Then I looked down and there was this ugly concrete car park in the hotel grounds. I thought "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot" and that's how the song "Big Yellow Taxi" was born."
From an interview to journalist Alan McDougall in the early 1970's.
In wikipedia, we further read:
The song is known for its environmental statement (as assumed from the lyric "paved paradise to put up a parking lot") and sentimental sound. The line, "Took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum/And charged the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em" refers to Foster Botanical Garden in downtown Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered.In the song's final verse, the political gives way to the personal, as Mitchell recounts the departure of a lover in the "big yellow taxi" of the title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi
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