MARY BLACK: Having got off to a steady start with her first two albums, Joni's third, "Ladies of the Canyon," achieved chart success both sides of the Atlantic and produced the hit single "Big Yellow Taxi". Joni remembers how the song came to her.

JM: It was a regional hit in Hawaii. It was written about Hawaii and they recognized themselves. They seemed to be the only people that could recognize that they lived in a paradise. There were many paradises but locals don't tend to notice that they live in paradise. You know what I mean?

I went to visit Graham Nash actually. They were on tour there and it was my first time. And I came in at night and went directly to their hotel, and when I woke up in the morning I threw back the curtains -- we were on the 20th floor and I looked and I could see green hills and beautiful white flying birds with long tails and as far as the eye could see below that, I saw a parking lot. I was heartbroken. We were in Waikiki which is the most developed, and at that time was really paved over so I wrote that song then. And also the Hawaiians because of their tradition of slack key, really loved the guitar on that piece and it kind of leaked into Hawaiian music. If you listen to contemporary Hawaiian music, a lot of it sounds like "Big Yellow Taxi," unfortunately. I think it kind of overinfluenced the genre. I tend to like their music better before they heard "Big Yellow Taxi." (Sings mock Hawaiian words.) Whatever that means! (Laughs.)

BBC radio 2 February, 20th 1999

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.

Joni Mitchell in the Los Angeles Times, December, 8th 1996