Music on Sundays: Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi

Jean Marie
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Milieuzorg is niets nieuw en zo’n 45 jaar geleden schreef en zong Joni Mitchell er een mooie song over. De natuur versus menselijke ingrepen met steen, asfalt en beton. Joni werd geboren in 1943 en schreef deze song in 1970.

Het is meer dan ooit actueel. Alleen is DDT nu vervangen door Round-Up.

Het is een zogenaamde ‘green song’ zoals Neil Young er ook schreef en zingt. De bezorgdheid voor natuur en milieu en de zorg voor de toekomst van de planeet staan hierbij centraal.

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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

They took all the trees

And put them in a tree museum

And they charged all the people

A dollar and a half to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And they put up a parking lot

 

Hey farmer farmer

Put away that D.D.T. 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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

 

Late last night

I heard the screen door slam

And a big yellow taxi

Took away my old man

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Mitchell in een interview in 1996 met The Los Angeles Times: "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."