2000 Great Songs #1263: Big Yellow Taxi

March 09, 2026

2000 Great Songs #1263: Big Yellow Taxi

When it comes to Joni Mitchell, I mostly listen to her mid/late 70s records, when she moved beyond her folk roots into some interesting blends of pop and jazz. Which isn't to say I don't admire her earlier work; but, like early Bob Dylan, I respect that period more for her skills as a songwriter than as a performer. Still, I've always liked "Big Yellow Taxi" (from 1970's Ladies Of The Canyon). Sure, like a lot of her best-known early work (i.e. "Both Sides Now," "Chelsea Morning"), it's become a standard, something so embedded in our collective consciousness that it can be hard to enjoy as simply a piece of music. But on the rare occasions when I visit this era of Joni, it's hard not to be consistently won over by the charm of this song, its sense of 60s flower-power innocence pivoting into 70s betrayal and cynicism as electric and disheartening as anything on, say, Who's Next.