DJ Allyn – The Soundtrack for my Life

Big Yellow Taxi ~ Counting Crows  

Singer Adam Duritz (former member of the Bay Area band The Himalayans) and guitarist Dave Bryson formed Counting Crows in San Francisco in 1991. As well as his experience in The Himalayans, Duritz had contributed to recordings by the Bay Area group Sordid Humor, though never a member. Counting Crows began as an acoustic duo, playing gigs in and around Berkeley and San Francisco.

By 1993 the band had grown to a stable lineup of Duritz, Bryson, Matt Malley (bass), Charlie Gillingham (keys) and Steve Bowman (drums), and it was a regular on the Bay Area scene. The same year, the band signed to Geffen Records. On January 16, 1993, the band, still relatively unknown, filled in for Van Morrison at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, and was introduced by an enthusiastic Robbie Robertson. They remain the only unknowns ever to play the ceremony.

At some point before signing to Geffen, the band recorded demo versions of a number of songs, known as the ‘Flying Demos’. These later surfaced among the Counting Crows fanbase. Tracks include “Rain King”, “Omaha”, “Anna Begins”, “Einstein on the Beach (For an Eggman)”, “Shallow Days”, “Love and Addiction”, “Mr. Jones”, “Round Here”, “40 Years”, “Margery Dreams of Horses”, “Bulldog”, “Lightning” and “We’re Only Love”.

Various songs from this tape would later resurface on the band’s debut album August and Everything After; the songs contained on the tape featured different music and in some instances different lyrics.

Big Yellow Taxi

“Big Yellow Taxi” is a song originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell.

Mitchell got the idea for the song during a visit to Hawaii. She looked out of her hotel window at the spectacular Pacific mountain scenery, and then down to a parking lot.

“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.”

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin’ hot spot
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Ooooh, bop bop bop
Ooooh, bop bop bop

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
No, no, no
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot

Ooooh, bop bop bop
Ooooh, bop bop bop

Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT
I don’t care about spots on my apples,
Leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey now, they paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?

Ooooh, bop bop bop
Ooooh, bop bop bop

Listening late last night, I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi took my girl away
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Well, don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot
Why not?
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
Hey hey hey
Paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Ooooh, bop bop bop
Ooooh, bop bop bop

I don’t wanna give it
Why you wanna give it
Why you wanna giving it all away
Hey, hey, hey
Now you wanna give it
I should wanna give it
Now you wanna giving it all away

Hey, paved paradise to put up a parking lot

Other Songs Posted for this Artist

• October 6, 2009 -- Round Here ~ Counting Crows
• December 23, 2007 -- Mr. Jones ~ Counting Crows