peace and earth

Cambridge PGCE Music

saying peace

Listen to this song, follow the lyrics and join in with the chorus when you can.

They paved paradise

And 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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

They took all the trees

Put 'em in a tree museum

And 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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And 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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And 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

Till it's gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

Big Yellow Taxi

by Joni Mitchell

showing peace

Image 1: Duddon Valley Image 2: Cambridge Retail Park

doing peace

The theme today is Peace and our Planet.

As guest hosts, the Music PGCE (teacher training programme) at University of Cambridge, have created 5 peace activities, based on the elements, centred on the theme of peace and our planet. Today's element is earth:

Big Yellow Taxi was written and performed by Joni Mitchell in 1970. In a 2019 interview, she said this about the song:

"I wrote Big Yellow Taxi on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song."