Song: Big Yellow Taxi
Artist: Joni Mitchell; Counting Crows ft. Vanessa Carlton
Year: 1970; 2002
Album: Ladies of the Canyon; Hard Candy
Language Feature: aspirated p/b
Episode Description
Do you like to practice perfect pronunciation? If you said “yes,” then this episode is for you. This song has many examples of aspiration. If you don’t know what this is, you should definitely listen to this episode. There is plenty of pronunciation practice, and a song with a good message.
In this episode, we’re talking about Joni Mitchell’s hit 1970 song, “Big Yellow Taxi.” In addition to pronunciation, we also discuss the idea of “taking something for granted.” Isn’t it true that you don’t know what you have until it's gone?
Episode Transcript
<Intro>
H: Hi! I’m Heather.
E: And I’m Ece.
H: We’re the co-hosts of the podcast, “English as a Singing Language.”
E: We love using songs from different genres and time periods to support our listeners who are teaching or learning English.
H: That’s right. We choose a song that has a pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary or fluency feature that is interesting and, after that we talk about the song in the episode.
E: You get to sing your way to better English!
H: Yes! So, in the last episode, we introduced our listeners to our friend Patti Spinner and her L-pop series of songs that were written specifically for English language learners.
E: We encourage you to check out that episode and all of Patti’s grammar-focused songs. Ok, what’s the theme of this episode, Heather?
H: This episode has perfect pronunciation practice for our listeners.
E: Hmmm….I think I can guess what the focus is…I’m excited to find out what the song is!
H: Me too! Let’s get started.
<end intro>
H: (humming “Big Yellow Taxi”) Oh! Hi Ece! It’s great to see you here!
E: Hi Heather! What are you doing? It’s November! I thought you didn’t like the cold!
H: Well, today is warm for November, so I thought I’d take a walk and get some fresh air.
E: Mind if I join you?
H: Of course not. Hey, why don’t we stop by that coffee shop we always used to go to? Remember the cozy one that had the delicious hot chocolate?
E: That’s a great idea. It’s right around the corner. I love that place. Let’s go!
H: Oh my gosh! Ece! It’s….gone!
E: It’s … a sandwich shop now. Gosh, I remember all the winter afternoons we spent there drinking coffee or hot chocolate, chatting and grading papers.
H: I can’t believe it.
E: I guess we took it for granted.
H: I guess so! When you take something for granted, it means that you don’t appreciate it. You think it will be always be there, no matter what. And actually, Ece, it reminds me of the song I was listening to just now.
E: It sounded like you were humming the Joni Mitchell’s 1970 hit song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” which originally appeared on her album, Ladies of the Canyon.
H: Yes! It’s a fantastic song not only for its positive message, but for the pronunciation practice it provides.
E: It’s about how most people don’t appreciate the positive parts of their lives until they are gone.
H: Yep. Just like our coffee shop…
E: Exactly.
H: The song also has an interesting origin story. Joni Mitchell took a trip to Hawaii, took a taxi to her hotel, and when she woke up and looked out the window of the hotel, she saw the beautiful mountains in the distance, but then also a huge, paved parking lot.
E: So, the buildings and the parking lot ruined the natural beauty.
H: Yeah, in a 2019 interview with Mojo Magazine she said, “That’s when I sat down and wrote the song. When it first came out, it was a regional hit in Hawaii because people there realized their paradise was being chewed up. It took 20 years for that song to sink in to people most other places. That is a powerful little song because there have been cases in a couple of cities of parking lots being torn up and turned into parks because of it.”
E: Wow! What an interesting story. And it sounds like the song actually has made people realize what they have, and it has created positive change.
H: Yep. Cool, right?
E: So before we start talking about the lyrics, what’s the pronunciation feature we’re focusing on?
H: It’s a pronunciation feature called “aspiration.”
E: Aspir-what?
H: Aspiration. It’s that little puff of air that is produced when we pronounce certain sounds, consonants, called stops.
E: Oh! Ok. So, for example the [t] sound in “taxi” or the [k] sound in “car.”
H: Exactly. Many languages have an unaspirated stop, without the puff of air.
E: And that puff of air is important to English, because it helps us determine whether the speaker is saying [t] or [d], for example.
H: Or [k] or [g].
E: Or, as in this song, [p] or [b].
H: Right. We need to hear that puff of air, or we will get confused between words such as “pad” and “bad.”
E: I really heard the aspiration difference between the [p] and the [b] of those two words.
H: We have a lot of great aspirated p practice in the first line of the lyrics. It goes, “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, with a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.”
E: So, I can really hear the difference between the [p] sounds in words like “paradise,” “parking,” and “pink” and the [b] sound of “boutique.”
H: And, what is a “boutique,” Ece?
E: A “boutique” is a small store that sells fashionable, usually expensive, clothes.
H: Hmmmm…a “boutique” is definitely not the kind of place where I usually shop for clothes.
E: Me neither. And how about a “swinging hot spot”? What is that?
H: Remember back in Season 2, Episode 2, in the song, “Dancing in the Streets”? We had the lyrics, “They’ll be swinging and swaying.”
E: Yes! That’s a great song. Listeners, go check out that episode if you haven’t already. I guess that a “swinging hot spot” is a place where people can go to listen to the latest music and dance.
H: Exactly. I have to say, I don’t go to swinging hot spots, either.
E: Me neither. So, what you want to do with the [p] sound is to make sure that it has that puff of air. It’s, “They paved paradise, put in a parking lot.”
H: If you don’t aspirate the [p] sound, it becomes more like, “They baved baradise, but in a barking lot.”
E: Right. Let’s talk about the verses before we get to the refrain. She sings, “They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum, and they charged the people a dollar an' a half just to see 'em.”
H: This line supposedly refers to the Foster Botanical Gardens in Oahu in Hawaii. There are so many beautiful trees in the garden, and people have to pay money to go in and see them when some people might say that access to trees should be free.
E: And it reminds us that we should appreciate even the most basic things in our lives, like trees, that we might take for granted.
H: There are some good [p] practice words there, too. “put ‘em in” and “people.”
E: There are also some common deletions of sounds that people make when speaking conversational English. For example, instead of singing, “They took all the trees, put them in a tree museum,” she sings, “They took all the trees, put 'em in a tree museum.”
H: And instead of, “And they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see them,” she sings, “and they charged the people a dollar an' a half just to see 'em.”
E: Yep. And the next lines are about an environmental problem that people should consider.
H: Yes. She sings, “Hey, farmer, farmer, put away that DDT now. Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees, please!”
E: DDT is a chemical or poison used to kill insects on plants, right?
H: It used to be used on farms to kill bugs so they wouldn’t eat the plants.
E: But it had very serious effects on the environment.
H: So, she doesn’t care if the apples she eats are perfect, she doesn’t want them to be covered with poison.
E: There are some [p] practice words there, too, “put away,” “apples,” and “please.”
H: And the final verse goes, “Late last night, I heard the screen door slam, and a big yellow taxi took away my old man.”
E: Ok, I remember from Season 2, Episode 5, Tracy Chapman’s song, Fast Car, that “my old man,” is a conversational way to refer to your father, your dad.”
H: “Your old man,” can refer to your father, but some people also use it to talk about their husband, boyfriend, or romantic partner.
E: Hmmmm….it seems like that might be confusing.
H: Not really. It’s usually pretty clear from the context whether it means “dad” or “romantic partner.”
E: Yes. Here we can tell that she’s talking about her romantic partner, who left suddenly, in the middle of the night, in a big yellow taxi.
H: Now talking about the refrain, it starts, “I said, don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.”
E: You’re going to say something about the grammar, aren’t you?
H: We would teach our students, “Doesn’t it always seem to go,” right?
E: Right. But as we often point out in song lyrics, the way people speak and sing English can be different from the way it is used in grammar books.
H: And, “Doesn’t it always seem to go?” doesn’t really work with the rhythm of the song.
E: No, it doesn’t. There are some other sound deletions and reductions that make this line a great example of how natural spoken English sounds. She doesn’t sing, “Doesn’t it always seem to go that you do not know what you have until it is gone.”
H: No, the way she sings it, “Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone,” sounds much smoother and more natural.
E: And that is what we were just talking about, isn’t it?
H: It is. That great little coffee shop that we used to go to is not there anymore. We didn’t know what we had until it was gone
E: Just like in this song, there are many things you might take for granted. It might be a beautiful green space,
H: Healthy trees that give us clean air,
E: Or a person we really care about.
H: That’s right. Sometimes, you don’t appreciate what you have until you no longer have it.
E: “You don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
H: I think we’re ready to sing now!
E: I think we are. There’s a link to Joni Mitchel’s 1970 original version as well as the Counting Crow’s 2002 cover in the episode notes.
H: And listeners, make sure to produce a puff of air on all of the [p] sounds in the song.
E: Yes! Remember,
E + H: “They paved paradise, put in a parking lot hahaha.”
<outro>
E: That is a really great song. It has a wonderful message, and it is full of aspirated [p] sounds for practice.
H: It really is a wonderful song. It’s important to pay attention to all of the meaningful things in our lives.
E: Yes! Like our podcast!
H: I will never take the podcast for granted!
E: Speaking of the podcast, listeners, make sure to like and follow, “English as a Singing Language” wherever you listen to us.
H: You can check out our episodes on our YouTube channel, too!
E: Oh! And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @singinglanguages
H: Well, Ece, I know the perfect place for a pot of tea or cup of coffee. There’s a new coffee shop on Point Park Place just ahead.
E: That sounds pleasant!
H: Who knows? Maybe this will become our new favorite place.
E: Until then, have fun and…
H + E: … just keep singing!
Official YouTube Video
Official YouTube Video of the 2002 Version by the Counting Crows
Complete Lyrics
They paved paradise, 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've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
They took all the trees put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar an' a half just to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
Hey farmer, farmer put away that DDT now
Give me spots on my apples, but leave me the birds and the bees
Please
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot
(Ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop, ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
Late last night I heard the screen door slam
And a big yellow taxi took away my old man
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
I said don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot (ooh, bop-bop-bop-bop)
They paved paradise
Put up a parking lot
Songwriters: Joni Mitchell / Timothy Mckenzie / Marc Williams
Big Yellow Taxi lyrics © Crazy Crow Music, Emi Music Publishing Ltd, Stellar Songs Ltd
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