Australian singles chart:
Big Yellow Taxi entered the Kent charts on 31 August 1970 and peaked at #6. The song was #50 on the Top 100 of 1970.
Album:
The song is on Ladies of the Canyon which entered the Kent album charts on 8 February 1971 and peaked at #32.
Songwriter:
Joni Mitchell
Producer:
Joni Mitchell
Record label of Australian release:
Reprise
Los Angeles Times:
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.
Read more: www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-12-08-ca-6804-story.html
Wikipedia:
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.
Read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi
This song is also on our Spotify playlist Bang a Gong – the 70s
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