Farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. I don't care about spots on my apples, just leave me the birds and the bees, please. Sometimes we listen to the songs, and we can even sing along with them, but we don't actually hear the words. "Big Yellow Taxi" just might be one of those songs. It's worth your time to learn the words (and if you have children, teach them).

Though many of us in the younger generations may think that this is a Counting Crows song, it was actually originally written and performed by Joni Mitchell in 1970. The song covers such topics as development & urban sprawl:

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot.

It talks about deforestation and botanical gardens:

They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum. And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them.

And of course, as shown in the first line of this tip, Mitchell wrote about pesticides & chemicals: still an issue today, though not with DDT specifically.

Finally, the chorus brings it all home:

Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone.

Rebecca says: Ever since I learned the words to this song, I appreciate it so much more. I first wrote about it almost a year ago on my blog, greenerMIAMI. Watch the video to see and hear the Counting Crows version.