In Joni
Mitchells Big Yellow Taxi, she sings of a world that has no awareness that it had devastated
nature to a sorrowful extent. The lyrics describe how natural paradisemeaning trees and other
foliagehas been replaced by growing industrialization and establishments such as a hotels,
boutiques, parking lots, and entertainment centers. Mitchell also adds an element ofto this with
the following lyrics:
They took all the trees, put em in a
tree museum,
And they charged the people dollar and a half just to see em.
This is in reference to the Foster Botanical Garden of Honolulu,
Hawaii, a living museum of rare and endangered tropical plants. Here, she demonstrates how
twisted the logic of industrialization isthat it eradicated greenery from public spaces, where
it rightly belongs, and forced it to move into privatized spaces, where only privileged
individuals can access and so appreciate the beauty of nature. It is clear in Big Yellow Taxi
that Mitchell laments how natural beauty is simultaneously undervalued and capitalized
on.
In the fourth verse, she likens this shift to the abrupt and hurtful
departure of a loved one:
Late last night, I heard the
screen door slam,
And a big yellow taxi took away my old man.
Notice that Mitchell used the image of a big yellow taxi in
connection with the aforementioned parking lots paved over previously fertile and grassy ground.
This also serves as commentary on how the way we treat the environment has an impact on our
relationships with each other.
The sentimental tone of Mitchells song only
serves to express her sorrow and regret over environmental devastation. In an interview with the
New York Times, she shares how she came to write the song:
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.
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