Name: Big Yellow Taxi
Duration: 2 min 39 s
Channel: Joni Mitchell
Description: "Big Yellow Taxi" is a song by Deirdre Leah Faegre. Although hardly my favorite Joni Mitchell song, it still resonates perhaps better than any other in her catalog of great work when I perform it, which even without a full rhythm section, is always great fun for patrons and attendees. So my dad decid

Big Yellow Taxi

Deirdre Leah Faegre

Playlist

Comment Share

Single $1

Although hardly my favorite Joni Mitchell song, it still resonates perhaps better than any other in her catalog of great work when I perform it, which even without a full rhythm section, is always great fun for patrons and attendees. So my dad decid

singer songwriter vocalist guitarist revolutionary gymnast figure skater

Deirdre Leah Faegre

But not until she received international recognition for her 'Cartwheel Heard 'Round the World' would she be firmly ensconced in her music. <br /><br /><br />

Determined and confident, she proceeded to each task and accomplishment with extraordinary grace and style and became a model for others during her developmental years that also included gymnastics and a sudden interest in the piano at age nine. But not until she received international recognition for her was the inspiration that piqued her interest in playing the piano, but it was her steady cultural diet of that established her direction as a singer/songwriter and musician/arranger.

Song Info

Genre

Pop • Cover Songs

Charts

#9,912 today Peak #165

#1,013 in subgenre Peak #14

Author

Joni Mitchell

Rights

2009

Uploaded

May 10, 2009

Track Files

MP3

MP3 2.4 MB • 128 kbps • 2:39

Story behind the song

As recording sessions can typically take longer than anticipated and while this production was no exception, the arrangement and actual audio recording came together at the speed of sound.  Since the concept for this arrangement was only to build on the existing one, less time was required for its completion and although still tedious, reduced considerably the labor of love. 

If one had the time to compare the original to this version; for example, the triangle heard several times in this rendition has identical articulation [resonance and muting] to the original.  The same attention to detail  on the congas that were pitched to the original and the acoustic guitar and its open tuning et cetera.  Forgive me when I say that I believe this is the very best variation on the theme of 'Big Yellow Taxi...'

Lyrics

They paved paradise
And 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
?Til it's gone
They paved paradise 
And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then 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 
And put up a parking lot

Hey farmer, farmer
Put away that 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 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
Come and 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
And put up a parking lot

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
And put up a parking lot

They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot

Comments

Please sign up or log in to post a comment.