One of the great songwriters of our time, Joni Mitchell, brings us this morning’s CarTune, “Big Yellow Taxi.”
Cars show up often in Joni Mitchell’s lyrics. But at first hearing, “Big Yellow Taxi” isn’t a car song but the ultimate anti-car song—the automobile as stain on the planet. They paved paradise to put up a parking lot.
“I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii,” Mitchell would recall a few years later. “I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart—this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.”
But while the song’s inspiration was a parking lot, the theme is a feeling we’ve all had drilled deep into our bones: regret. Like when the big yellow taxi takes away her man: Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. That’s what all the great songwriters do: tap into the universality of human experience. She’s speaking directly to everyone within the sound of her voice.
This live performance is from 1970, when the song and the album on which it first appeared, Ladies of the Canyon, were brand new. It’s fun to watch: Mitchell seems to enjoy singing and playing the tune as much as we enjoy hearing it.
Boy, that one takes me back, thanks, peace man.
She really is a genius songwriter. Hell of a guitar player too.
A good one from the days before you needed dancers and pyrotechnics and pre-recorded vocals to put on a show. I usually skip over your Saturday posts because I have a lot of music and have heard most of them before. I’m not even a big fan of Joni Mitchell, although it’s good to hear her voice. But I played it today because it never hurts to be reminded that “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.
Wow. One woman, a guitar and a simple song. It almost justifies the use of that most overworked word: awesome.
Ms. Mitchell’s music has never been on my radar, but this is at least her second time on CarTune and I’m impressed with her skills. Thanks for that.