FEATURE:
Joni Mitchell at Eighty
The Historic and Modern Relevance of Big Yellow Taxi
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ARRIVING a year before…
IMAGE CREDIT: ToddAlcottGraphics
her best-reviewed and seminal album, Blue, Joni Mitchell released Ladies of the Canyon. That album arrived in April 1970. At the start of a new decade, there was a lot of desire for social and political change. I think many of us associate the best protest and political songs as belonging to the 1960s. Perhaps that is true. However, one that ranks alongside the most important and remains extremely relevant to this day, Joni Mitchell’s Big Yellow Taxi is the tenth track of Ladies of the Canyon. Many albums open with an incredible trio of songs. In the case of Ladies of the Canyon, it ends with three extraordinary songs: Big Yellow Taxi, Woodstock and The Circle Game. The title of the album refers to Laurel Canyon - an epicentre and thriving hub of popular music culture in Los Angeles during the 1960s. This is where Mitchell lived while she was writing the album. In fact, Mitchell lived and wrote at 8217 Lookout Mountain Avenue. This is the house which is the subject of Graham Nash's Our House. There are a couple of reasons why I want to spotlight Big Yellow Taxi. I will come to its environmental messages and why they seem more urgent and impactful today. I also want to explore one of Joni Mitchell’s greatest and most profound songs. In spite of its serious messages, it is one of her most jaunty songs. Also, as Mitchell turns eighty on 7th November, I am writing a run of features to mark that occasion.
Written and produced by Joni Mitchell, Big Yellow Taxi was released as a single in July 1970. I want to reference some sources that explains the meaning behind the song. Some facts about a classic. How it has impacted and influenced culture and artists. I am going to start with Wikipedia and their section about the composition and recording of Big Yellow Taxi:
“In 1996, speaking to journalist Robert Hilburn, Mitchell said this about writing the song:
I wrote 'Big Yellow Taxi' on my first trip to Hawaii. 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.
IN THIS PHOTO: Joni Mitchell at home in Laurel Canyon, 1970/PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Diltz/Corbis
The song is known for its environmental concern – "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot" and "Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now" – and sentimental sound. The line "They took all the trees, and 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. Mitchell recounts the departure of her "old man" in the eponymous "big yellow taxi", which may refer to the old Metro Toronto Police patrol cars, which until 1986 were painted yellow. In many covers the departed one may be interpreted as variously a boyfriend, a husband or a father. The literal interpretation is that he is walking out on the singer by taking a taxi; otherwise it is assumed he is being taken away by the authorities.
Mitchell's original recording was first released as a single and then, as stated above, included on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon. A later live version was released in 1974 (1975 in France and Spain) on Miles of Aisles and reached No. 24 on the U.S. charts. Billboard regarded the live version as "more full of life" than any of the singles Mitchell released in a long time. Cash Box called the live version "a great rendition of this excellent lyrical song”.
Apologies if I repeat myself here. I saw a new article from American Songwriter. They looked inside a track that sent out warnings and messages – protecting ecology and the environment and respecting nature – that have almost been ignored for over fifty years. I wonder how Joni Mitchell feels about the song and how she wanted Big Yellow Taxi to impact and resonate:
“Meaning of the Song
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot. Through this line, Mitchell highlights the casual destruction of natural beauty in the face of urban development. Mitchell emphasizes how often we overlook the importance of things, especially nature, until they’re irrevocably lost: Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
How exactly did Mitchell come to these profound conclusions? A trip to Hawaii offered Mitchell the stark contrast between pristine natural beauty and creeping urban sprawl. The view from her Waikiki hotel room—green mountains beyond, parking lot below—sparked the song’s essence. Melding personal anecdotes with broader societal observations, Mitchell’s poetic approach to songwriting shines through in “Big Yellow Taxi.”
They paved paradise, put up a parking 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’ve got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
They took all the trees, put ’em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar an’ 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
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
Writer of the Song
Mitchell, one of the most influential songwriters of her generation, possessed a knack for weaving intricate narratives from her personal experiences, observations, and deep-seated beliefs. Since her emergence in the late 1960s, she has achieved numerous chart successes and etched her mark as a distinctive voice of her era.
“Big Yellow Taxi” typified Mitchell’s propensity to combine catchy melodies with profound messages—this time addressing the threat of unchecked urbanization on nature’s beauty. Driven by her introspective songwriting approach, Mitchell often channeled her environmental concerns, painting vivid pictures of a world where nature’s essence was often realized only when it was absent or under threat.
Facts About the Song
Mitchell penned the initial lines of the song during her cab ride from a hotel.
The original recording of “Big Yellow Taxi” ends with Mitchell’s distinct laugh. It wasn’t joy, but a response to a studio mistake, left in the track to add a touch of spontaneity.
Mitchell’s environmental concerns weren’t limited to “Big Yellow Taxi.” Her song “Shine” from 2007 also touches on similar themes.
Impact of the Song
“Big Yellow Taxi” resonated with many in the ’70s, an era marked by rising environmental activism, making it both timely and timeless. Covered by artists from Bob Dylan to Counting Crows, Mitchell’s version charted globally, solidifying it as one of her most iconic tracks”.
I will end by bringing things up to date and how Big Yellow Taxi should be heeded today. Also, as it has been covered a few times, I will pop one or two versions in this feature. Even though it addresses environmental and climate considerations in addition to nature and preservation in general, I like the fact that something a bit more modest and unusual influenced Big Yellow Taxi’s title. This article discusses an interview where Joni Mitchell discussed getting the idea for Big Yellow Taxi and how she got it down:
“In a 1996 interview with Robert Hilburn, Joni Mitchell said, “I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. 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.”
In addition to singing about how “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot,” Mitchell also addresses the use of the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, or DDT, in her lyrics. Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring focused on the impacts of the compound on eggs and the resulting die off of birds as well as its carcinogenic behavior in humans. The book contributed to the burgeoning environmental movement in the United States. DDT was banned nationally in 1972 and internationally in 2004, though its use continues in some areas”.
As the Financial Times wrote in 2019, Big Yellow Taxi has been covered a huge amount of times. I think we are in an era where songs are coming through that discuss the environment and call for awareness and activation regarding climate change. That said, there is less attention and visibility as in 1970. A year when artists were keen to put in the spotlight the dangers afflicting the environment and natural world:
“There was something in the air in 1970 — and songwriters did not like it. The year produced a stream of environmental protest songs, all of which have proved sustainable. “Apeman” by The Kinks, Neil Young’s “After the Gold Rush” and Cat Stevens’ “Where Do the Children Play?” all captured the mood of ecological concern.
The most renewable of all, however, has been Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, which has become the indisputable environmental anthem. According to Mitchell’s own website, at least 456 artists have recorded the song, and since 1990 someone has recorded it virtually every year. She herself has recorded it three times, the second, live version in 1974 proving a bigger hit than the original.
There were specific reasons for environmental angst at the time. A massive oil spill off Santa Barbara, California, in 1969, then the worst in American history, caused widespread shock and outrage. The oil platform explosion, which released some 3m gallons of crude in a 35-mile slick along the Pacific coast, proved formative in the birth of the modern environmental movement.
The year also included the sight of the heavily polluted Cuyahoga River in Ohio catching fire, with the flames soaring five storeys high as oil and chemical waste slicks were ignited by sparks from a passing train. This prompted the US Congress to pass the The National Environmental Policy Act in 1970”.
As Joni Mitchell is eighty on 7th November, I wanted to spotlight one of her finest songs. I definitely think that Big Yellow Taxi is a song that should act as a warning for modern artists. We need that same wave of movement regarding putting the climate and environment at the front. There are a few songs at the moment that tackle the issue, though not as many as there should be. One of the pearls in the phenomenal Ladies of the Canyon, Big Yellow Taxi has been tackled by everyone from Amy Grant to Bob Dylan. It is a remarkably affecting and potent song! Made all the more affecting by the rather upbeat and almost teenager-like delivery. A sense of the innocent, relaxed and cheery when highlighting the environment. I think that, if Joni Mitchell attempted to write a similar song today, she would produce something as seismic. We are in a position, fifty-three years after Big Yellow Taxi was released, where the climate crisis is now an emergency. One that everyone in music needs to be speak about! For that reason alone, I wanted to spend time getting to the bottom of and exploring…
THE seismic Big Yellow Taxi.