MITCHELL, Joni


Big Yellow Taxi

They paved paradise

Put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique

And a swinging 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

They took all the trees

Put 'em in a tree museum

Then they charged the people

A dollar and 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

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

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

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

They paved paradise

Put up a parking lot

They paved paradise

Put up a parking lot

Both Sides, Now

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere,
I've looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the sun,
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done,
But clouds got in my way.

I've looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall
I really don't know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels,
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real,
I've looked at love that way.

But now it's just another show,
You leave 'em laughing when you go
And if you care, don't let them know,
Don't give yourself away.

I've looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It's love's illusions I recall
I really don't know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud,
To say "I love you" right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds,
I've looked at life that way.

Oh but now old friends they're acting strange,
They shake their heads, they say I've changed
Well something's lost, but something's gained
In living every day.

I've looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

I've looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life at all

It's life's illusions I recall
I really don't know life
I really don't know life at all


Circle Game

Yesterday a child came out to wonder

Caught a dragonfly inside a jar

Fearful when the sky was full of thunder

And tearful at the falling of a star

Then the child moved ten times round the seasons

Skated over ten clear frozen streams

Words like when you're older must appease him

And promises of someday make his dreams

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look

Behind from where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now

Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town

And they tell him take your time it won't be long now

Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

And the seasons they go round and round

So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty

Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true

There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty

Before the last revolving year is through

And the seasons they go round and round
…..


Amelia

I was driving across the burning desert

When I spotted six jet planes

Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain

It was the hexagram of the heavens

it was the strings of my guitar

Amelia, it was just a false alarm

The drone of flying engines

Is a song so wild and blue

It scrambles time and seasons if it gets through to you

Then your life becomes a travelogue

Of picture-post-card-charms

Amelia, it was just a false alarm

People will tell you where they've gone

They'll tell you where to go

But till you get there yourself you never really know

Where some have found their paradise

Others just come to harm

Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I wish that he was here tonight

It's so hard to obey

His sad request of me to kindly stay away

So this is how I hide the hurt

As the road leads cursed and charmed

I tell Amelia, it was just a false alarm

A ghost of aviation

She was swallowed by the sky

Or by the sea, like me she had a dream to fly

Like Icarus ascending

On beautiful foolish arms

Amelia, it was just a false alarm

Maybe I've never really loved

I guess that is the truth

I've spent my whole life in clouds at icy altitude

And looking down on everything

I crashed into his arms

Amelia, it was just a false alarm

I pulled into the Cactus Tree Motel

To shower off the dust

And I slept on the strange pillows of my wanderlust

I dreamed of 747's

Over geometric farms

Dreams, Amelia, dreams and false alarms

The last time I saw Richard

The last time I saw Richard was Detroit in '68

And he told me, "All romantics meet the same fate someday

Cynical and drunk and boring someone in some dark café

"You laugh," he said, "you think you're immune

Go look at your eyes, they're full of moon

You like roses and kisses and pretty men to tell you

All those pretty lies, pretty lies

When you gonna realize they're only pretty lies?

Only pretty lies, just pretty lies"

He put a quarter in the Wurlitzer

And he pushed three buttons and the thing began to whirr

And a bar maid came by in fishnet stockings and a bow tie

And she said "Drink up now, it's gettin' on time to close."

"Richard, you haven't really changed," I said, it's just that

Now you're romanticizing some pain that's in your head

You got tombs in your eyes, but the songs you punched are dreamy

Listen, they sing of love so sweet, love so sweet

When you gonna get yourself back on your feet?

Oh and love can be so sweet, love so sweet

Richard got married to a figure skater

And he bought her a dishwasher and a coffee percolator

And he drinks at home now most nights with the TV on

And all the house lights left up bright

I'm gonna blow this damn candle out

I don't want nobody comin' over to my table

I got nothing to talk to anybody about

All good dreamers pass this way someday

Hidin' behind bottles in dark cafés

Dark cafés, only a dark cocoon

Before I get my gorgeous wings and fly away

Only a phase, these dark café days