*One of the first performances of “Big Yellow Taxi,” she introduces it by saying, “I wrote this 2 weekends ago.” You can hear the audience reaction to hearing the lines, “They took all the trees and put ‘em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar and a half, just to see ‘em…” big collective chuckle, great! thanks @midnightbootlegs
Joni’s intro: “Saw some footage of the Big Sur Folk Festival and it showed Joanie Baez behind 3 camera men and Crosby, Stills, & Nash behind 8 camera men. — Two weekends ago I went to Hawaii, it was my first time there and I was only there for 2 days, which was kind of a bummer, wish I could have really seen more of the island. But I arrived there at 11 o’clock at night and the next morning I ran to the window and threw back the curtains and sure enough, there it was—paradise, you know, green, lush hills — white birds flying low — and right in the middle of it all…was a big parking lot [laughs] So I wrote this little rock ‘n’ roll song to commemorate the occasion. It’s called, “Big Yellow Taxi,” or alternatively, “They paved paradise and put in a parking lot…”