Talk:Big Yellow Taxi

Covers Section Reorganized by Decade
I've organized the Covers section of this article by decade. This helps make that section less text-heavy and more navigable. It is my hope that other notable cover versions of "Big Yellow Taxi", some of which have been addressed in this Discussion page, can now be addressed under the appropriate decade subsection. Ieditwiki (talk) 21:52, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

Amy Grant
I don't believe that Amy Grant deserves her own box at the bottom, I'm taking it out.

I have added a Infobox to the article. I have filled it with as much info as I know, but there is still quite a lot missing and it needs finishing. JP Godfrey 17:58, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

Amy Grant infobox
I've added an infobox for Amy Grant's 1995 cover of the song, which was released as a radio single in the US and UK. The song is a part of Grant's singles chronology and was a major single release from the House of Love album. Without an infobox on this page, there is a broken link in Grant's singles chronology. I've also reinserted the Amy Grant box at the bottom of the page. I don't believe it's a question of an artist deserving a box or not; the song was an Amy Grant single release that charted in the US and UK and is part of the artist's Wikipedia singles chronology. Therefore, it is reasonable and important that these information boxes be included on this page. They do not add unnecessary congestion. Ieditwiki (talk) 21:52, 29 July 2008 (UTC)

year
Anyone know the year that the original single was released? It bothers me when people reference a timeless song like this as "an old joni mitchell song." If anyone can find the original release date, that would be great.--Cwiddofer 04:54, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

The first version I can recall was released in 1970 by a group called the Neighborhood on Big Tree records. I believe Joni released her version in late 1969. GMoney21 16:29, 12 December 2006 (UTC)GMoney21

tree museum
Foster Botanical Garden is in Honolulu, but not in the Waikiki neighborhood. I don't know the source of that tree museum information, though, so I don't know which is wrong: the name of the garden or of the neighborhood. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.171.45.81 (talk) 01:21, 3 February 2007 (UTC).

song title
There's nothing here about the title. It comes from the final verse, where we learn that Joni is not really singing primarily about the over-commercialisation of Hawaii, but using it as a metaphor for a relationship which has possibly just ended: "Late last night/ I heard the screen door slam/ And a big yellow taxi/ Took away my old man"

I always understood that the "Big Yellow Taxi" referred the school buses that were used to take draftees to basic training. ljd (talk) 08:50, 5 June 2011 (UTC)

Is this important enough to add? And how much is encyclopedic (factual) or just my interpretation? Mattmm 12:45, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

From what I've seen, it seems like her motivation to write the song was environmental, and perhaps she chose to draw parallel to realizing too late what you've lost when a relationship crumbles. I don't think that just because it's the title means it's what the song is about, personally, and in any case it seems like too much speculation, unless you can find a quote of her saying something to that effect. Kittenmama43 (talk) 00:42, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Social Impact - It seems to me that we should have a section about this, as it's seen as an activist song. But I'm new here, so for one I don't know how to do that, and for two I don't want to overstep my bounds. I was reading an interview in which she says, “Well, it’s done some good...People have sent me some pictures from places: ‘Look Joni, this used to be a parking lot, we turned it into a city garden.’ So in its small way it has done some actual urban revival. I heard the mayor here [in L.A. use it] recently. They loaned their technology for cleaning up the L.A. River to Seoul, Korea, and they said, ‘You can unpave paradise.’" http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Joni+Mitchell+interview+peace+memories+dance/2447317/story.html  Would it be reasonable to include that?

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Joni+Mitchell+interview+peace+memories+dance/2447317/story.html#ixzz1Fs2smM9G — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kittenmama43 (talk • contribs) 00:57, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Metaphor: The article says "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…" If the article is going to talk about metaphorical meanings, shouldn't it suggest that this verse about death? That's how I always heard it. A loved on often dies when we're not there, which expressed by the phrase "I heard the screen door slam." —MiguelMunoz (talk) 21:48, 13 April 2019 (UTC)

Garden of Allah?
The claim that the "paradise" of the chorus is not a natural one really needs to be verified by somebody in the know. It certainly seems to fly in the face of the themes of the rest of the song.

I don't see this in the article, has it been removed? what was it supposed to be instead? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Kittenmama43 (talk • contribs) 17:29, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Keb' Mo' version
I noticed that Keb' Mo' also made his own version of that same song. Shouldn't there be a reference to that?--Megamanfan3 17:03, 16 May 2007 (UTC)

"Chocked"?
Does this mean to say "smog chocked"? Not "smog choked"? - Jmabel | Talk 23:25, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

"paradise and" vs. "paradise to"
Which version of the chorus is correct? Thanos6 02:54, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Counting Crows section
the little block for the counting crows' single information lists Adam Duritz and David Bryson as the writers for "Big Yellow Taxi," but the writer should still be Joni Mitchell —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.252.254.29 (talk) 09:33, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Friends
Why is there a "Friends" box underneath the article?? Mango101 (talk) 18:18, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

Silent Spring Connection?
It seems to me to be a connection between the verse beginning with "Hey Farmer, Farmer, put away your DDT..." and the book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson. The book postulated that soon springtime wouldn't have the singing of birds or the buzzing of bee populations ("leave me the birds and the bees"?) due to the poisoning of the ecosystem by pesticides, namely DDT. The book was published in 1962, and the song was written in the late '60s, so there is the possibility of a correlation. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.123.253.48 (talk) 04:03, 12 January 2008 (UTC)

Irony?
A great song, but we must presume she flew to Hawaii and landed herself on a giant paved runway, after which her imported taxi took a very long paved road to her hotel. It appears most artists and writers in Wikipedia are subject to similar criticisms (see 'Walden' here by Thoreau, for example). Perhaps she thought the parking lot should not block the view from her probably-expensive hotel room.63.193.144.79 (talk) 07:12, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

An insightful, serious and funny point. Never thought of that. Good one. --Keithbob (talk) 18:50, 24 January 2009 (UTC)


 * Not to mention the aircraft factory where the plane was made, the car factory where the car was made, and the mines where the metal and oil were extracted... Presumably the real message in the song is one of the need for better public transport in Hawaii and a tax on car-park spaces? ;-) Fig (talk) 13:34, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

Interesting ideas, but probably don't particularly have a place in a Wikipedia article, especially if they haven't been discussed in a published source at all. If we start detailing anything that could be interpreted as hypocrisy by advocates of environmental care, we'd have a lot of articles to edit. Kittenmama43 (talk) 00:40, 7 March 2011 (UTC)

Alan Partridge does indeed take up this point in his 1997 UK TV show "I'm Alan Partridge" - he says "..Joni complains they paved paradise to put up a parking lot, a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mcsony (talk • contribs) 07:27, 30 September 2019 (UTC)

Máire Brennan
Someone's added another page called 'Big Yellow Taxi single', under See Also. As it's a cover of the same song, it should in this article.91.107.114.169 (talk) 11:53, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Tracklistings
Is there some way we could add tracklistings for the singles (Joni, Máire, Amy & Counting Crows), as this is afterall a page about the songs and the various singles. All other singles pages have tracklistings...Filastin (talk) 13:14, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Photo of yellow taxi
Hey, I notice that the photo of the yellow taxi is actually a photo of a Toronto police car (which happens to be yellow). I don't know how to change this, sorry. 93.92.153.12 (talk) 16:17, 5 March 2012 (UTC)

Citation in other songs
In Manfred Mann's Earth Band's song Lies (Through the 80s), first song of 1980 album Chance, the line with the parking lot is referenced. I'm unsure if this is important enough to add, but a section about citations of Big Yellow Taxi would be interesting, what do you think? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Karldot (talk • contribs) 16:20, 10 May 2012 (UTC)

Additional citations
Why and where does this article need additional citations for verification? What references does it need and how should they be added? Hyacinth (talk) 02:36, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

Cover Version By a Group of Teens?
As a teen in the 1970s I heard what was then an old version of this song sung by what I thought was a group of teens (ala the Osmonds or the DeFranco Family), but I never knew who it was. The article mentions The Neighborhood having a hit in 1970. Does anyone know anything about this group? Their cover was in the top 40, so I'm sure it merits at least a brief article in Wikipedia.69.140.94.116 (talk) 17:31, 6 February 2015 (UTC)


 * One of the cool things about Wikipedia is that anyone can start an article or edit an existing one. The only caveat is all info needs a reliable source per Wiki guidelines. I was surprised the Neighborhood does not have a page. Perhaps the group does not meet the notability guidelines - or no one has researched for sources and started an article. Please feel free to do so. Cheers!THX1136 (talk) 21:40, 1 February 2018 (UTC)

Re-release year
In the page introduction it states that Joni Mitchell re-released the song in 1974. In the body of the page it says 1975. I don't know which is correct so I can't fix the page.


 * . Per the above editor's unsigned query, I clarified the confusion in the article regarding the 1974 and 1975 release dates. The single was released in 1974 in Canada, the United States, and elsewhere and 1975 in at least France and Spain. 5Q5 (talk) 15:12, 14 August 2017 (UTC)

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