Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi
An evening pause: This was I think the song that made her career. Its shallow environmentalism, from the still naive 1960s, seems appropriate today on Labor Day.
Hat tip Judd Clark.
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Bob:
I’m not so sure that environmentalism was all that naive back in the 60s. I remember how bad air pollution was really becoming, the press to clear cut all of the remaining old growth redwoods left (which wasn’t many), the stench of a local paper mill whenever you got within 5 miles of it, open landfills that were equally pungent, and river pollution that was so bad one even caught on fire. So in general the initial environmental movement was necessary and a good thing imho.
The problem of course is the nature of any bureaucracy to grow and expand and continually justify its existence which has led to ever more stringent regulations well past the point of reasonableness. For example, in California we now live under particulate air pollution standards that are so strict that a dust storm in the Gobi desert today can trigger Spare the Air alerts in a few weeks time if the jet stream happens to align correctly. Protecting us from harmful emissions is one thing, but to define that such that even Mother Nature cannot meet the standard is quite another, and THAT is our problem.
i liked it because of her voice and the accompanying music.
The line “Don’t it always seem to go?
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone” applies to many more things in life.
judd: I did to, which is why I posted it. It is a nice song, with some very clever lyrics, performed well, all reasons why it made her career.
God, I absolutely HATE her, her whiny voice and this song!