Discussion » Questions » Random Knowledge » You never know what you got til' it's gone take Paradise and put up a parking lot. Joani or Carly?

You never know what you got til' it's gone take Paradise and put up a parking lot. Joani or Carly?

BTW is it make paradise or take Paradise. Just guessing this whole thing.

Posted - June 5, 2019

Responses


  • 628
    Joni Mitchell
    "Paved paradise and put up a parking lot"
      June 5, 2019 9:08 PM MDT
    3

  • 4631
    Joni Mitchell wrote the song, "Big Yellow Taxi", which contained the words, "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

    Her song is full of poetic metaphors about environmental destruction.

    In an interview with Alan McDougall in the early 1970s, 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.

    Other lines include "Hey farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now"  and, "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", referring to botanical gardens as attempts to save endangered species.



    This post was edited by inky at June 6, 2019 4:19 PM MDT
      June 5, 2019 9:25 PM MDT
    3

  • 4631
    Thanks for the pick, Cosmic. :)
      June 8, 2019 3:17 PM MDT
    1

  • You're quite wecome:)
      June 9, 2019 5:17 AM MDT
    0

  • 46117
    Take Paradise and it's all Joni Mitchell.  
      June 6, 2019 1:14 AM MDT
    2

  • 10026
    You have your answer and I have tears. :(  
    Even thinking of this song makes me cry.
      June 6, 2019 10:04 AM MDT
    2

  • 4631
    Same. I always loved her songs, but this one the most.
    She, like Rachel Carson, was one of the first to blow the whistle on climate change.
    But no one with any power listened.
      June 8, 2019 3:16 PM MDT
    1

  • 6098
    The line is "they paved Paradise and put up a parking lot".
      June 8, 2019 8:40 PM MDT
    1

  • Definitely Joni.

    Always a genius.
      June 9, 2019 10:21 AM MDT
    1