If you haven’t noticed I am digging You Tube lately! So I am doing searches of things on my mind! I saw The Counting Crows last week in concert and was reminded what an amazing band they are! I was a little disappointed in some of the song selections they had choose, but they are still an great band! This is my one of my favorite songs that they do next to Mr Jones (although it is a Joni Mitchell song) I still Love it! The video is even more awesome that it was shot in Coney Island, another one of my obsessions, Amusement Parks! I wish I was alive to see Coney Island in it’s Hey Day! Awesome song and video, enjoy!
A Little History :
‘Big Yellow Taxi” is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell.
Mitchell got the idea for the song during a visit to Hawaii. She looked out of her hotel window at the spectacular Pacific mountain scenery, and then down to a parking lot. The phrase “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot” was referenced in Eric Schlosser’s book Chew on This regarding urban development and how small towns are losing their small town feel.
Joni said this about writing the song to journalist Alan McDougall in the early 1970’s :
“Living in Los Angeles, smog chocked 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.”
Big Yellow Taxi Lyrics
They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parkin’ lot
They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no, don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parkin’ lot
Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees – please
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now, they’ve paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?
Listen, late last night, I heard the screen door swing,
And a big yellow taxi took my girl away
Now don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now now, don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got till it’s gone
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not, they paved paradise
They put up a parking lot
Hey hey hey, paved paradise and put up a parking lot
I don’t wanna give it
Why you wanna give it
Why you wanna givin it all away
Hey, hey, hey
Now you wanna give it
I should wanna give it
Cuz you’re givin it all away, no no
I don’t wanna give it
Why you wanna give it
Why you wanna givin it all away
Cuz you’re givin it all givin it all away yeah yeah
Cuz You’re givin it all away hey, hey, hey
Hey, paved paradise, to put up a parking lot
la,la, la, la, la, la, la ,la ,la ,la ,la
Paved paradise, and put up a parking lot