joni mitchell sang paved paradise put up a parking lot.
joni mitchell sang paved paradise put up a parking lot.
who sang paved paradise put up a parking lot?
joni mitchell
bullet::::- it is apparently an urban legend that the bulldozing of the garden of allah in 1959 inspired the line in joni mitchell's song "big yellow taxi", "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot". indeed, mitchell later lived in the laurel canyon neighborhood in the hills north of the site. however, mitchell herself told journalist alan mcdougall in the early 1970s that the lyrics were inspired in 1970 by her first trip to hawaii, where she was struck by a jarring juxtaposition of nature and modern civilization. also, the next line after "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" is "with a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hot spot", which does not reflect what happened to the garden of allah site itself, on which a bank building was erected. there was, however, also a large parking lot on the site to serve that building; the nearby chateau marmont hotel and at least one other big, pinkish and even nearer residential building overlooked it; boutiques abounded on the sunset strip; and the "swinging", politically hot pandora's box nightclub was directly across crescent heights in the 1960s. the existence of a secondary source of inspiration has apparently not been explicitly denied in mitchell's published comments.
garden of allah hotel
section::::mitchell's composition and recording.









































mitchell said this to journalist alan mcdougall in the early 1970s about writing the song:









































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.
big yellow taxi