“Big Yellow Taxi” is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, and originally released on her third album, Ladies of the Canyon (1970). Released in April 1970 by Reprise Records, the single was a hit in her native Canada (No. 15) as well as Australia (No. 6) and on the UK Singles Chart (No. 11). It only reached No. 67 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1970, but was later a bigger hit there for her in a live version released in 1974, which peaked at No. 24. Charting versions have also been recorded by the Neighborhood (who had the original top US 40 hit with the track in 1970, peaking at No. 29), and most notably by Amy Grant in 1995 and Counting Crows and Vanessa Carlton in 2002. The song was also sampled in Janet Jackson’s “Got ’til It’s Gone” (1997).
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”. 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 down town Honolulu, which is a living museum of tropical plants, some rare and endangered. In 1996, speaking to journalist Robert Hilburn, Joni Mitchell said this about writing the song: “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.”
In the song’s final verse, the political gives way to the personal. Mitchell recounts the departure of her “old man” in the eponymous “big yellow taxi”, which may refer to the old Metro Toronto Police patrol cars, which until 1986 were painted yellow. In many covers the departed one may be interpreted as variously a boyfriend, a husband or a father. 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.
Mitchell’s original recording was first released as a single and then, as stated above, included on her 1970 album Ladies of the Canyon. A later live version was released in 1974 (1975 in France and Spain) on Miles of Aisles and reached No. 24 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Billboard regarded the live version as “more full of life” than any of the singles Mitchell released in a long time. Cash Box called the live version “a great rendition of this excellent lyrical song.”
An animated music video of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” was produced by John Wilson of Fine Arts Films as an animated short for The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour television show in the mid-1970s. The only commercial release of this full-length music video was in the Video Gems home video release on VHS titled John Wilson’s Mini Musicals, also released as The Fantastic All-Electric Music Movie. The home video also contains an animated music video of Mitchell’s song “Both Sides, Now”.
