July 2019: Waging War on Paradise
Waging War on Paradise
Song #97 in my "write 100 songs" project.
This one was a tough one. I had some words written down in my little black book and was working to put them into lyric form. I had just checked out a book of Joni Mitchell's song lyrics and was reading "Big Yellow Taxi" and saw that I could use some of her ideas in my song, as inspiration and as a tribute.
Big Yellow Taxi
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hotspot.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 to see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 apples but leave me the birds and bees please.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 came and took away my old man.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e got till it's gone.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
In my song, I acknowledging the wonders of Mother Earth, and her ultimate power to correct the human blight on paradise.
I used some of the environmental images from Joni's song: the parking lot, paradise, trees, the birds and the bees, food, DDT (yesterday's RoundUp) as sort of an organizing structure for the lyrics. Included in the book of Joni's lyrics was a quote about the reason she wrote the song while in Hawaii, "...and it broke my heart, this blight on paradise", and how nicely blight rhymed with paradise (not an exact rhyme, but good enough to use), and I used that phrase as well.
I wanted to use an open tuning, like Joni does for her songs, but I needed one in a minor key. I found an open D tuning in minor, but couldn't find a chord progression or sound that I liked so used regular tuning. Originally I was strumming, but then it turned into a finger-picking song. One melodic phrase alluded me for a few days, but perseverance won, and finally I found the complete song. I added a CODA, kind of like a bridge with a different feel, but in my songs, it acts as a summary or moral of the story kind of add-on. Then I added in a few vocal fill lines, and it was done.
Waging War on Paradise
Clear-cut all the age-old trees, plastic clogs the rivers and seas
Food so strangely modified, then sprayed with toxic pesticide.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
Shiny towers they kill the birds, their eggs don't hatch, that's what I've heard
Foulness greys the innocent sky, bees are dying, they cannot fly.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
Cancer grows, it steals our lives, earth heats up and species die
Living lives with endless greed, we are the enemy, you and me.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
But you our Mother will right all the wrongs
Restore nature's balance, resilient and strong.
And we will fall and you will reign, in paradise again.
And we will fall and you will reign, in paradise again.
Has anything gotten better since Joni wrote her song? Unfortunately, no.
Song #97 in my "write 100 songs" project.
This one was a tough one. I had some words written down in my little black book and was working to put them into lyric form. I had just checked out a book of Joni Mitchell's song lyrics and was reading "Big Yellow Taxi" and saw that I could use some of her ideas in my song, as inspiration and as a tribute.
Big Yellow Taxi
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a boutique and a swinging hotspot.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 to see 'em.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 apples but leave me the birds and bees please.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e 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 came and took away my old man.
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you'e got till it's gone.
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
In my song, I acknowledging the wonders of Mother Earth, and her ultimate power to correct the human blight on paradise.
I used some of the environmental images from Joni's song: the parking lot, paradise, trees, the birds and the bees, food, DDT (yesterday's RoundUp) as sort of an organizing structure for the lyrics. Included in the book of Joni's lyrics was a quote about the reason she wrote the song while in Hawaii, "...and it broke my heart, this blight on paradise", and how nicely blight rhymed with paradise (not an exact rhyme, but good enough to use), and I used that phrase as well.
I wanted to use an open tuning, like Joni does for her songs, but I needed one in a minor key. I found an open D tuning in minor, but couldn't find a chord progression or sound that I liked so used regular tuning. Originally I was strumming, but then it turned into a finger-picking song. One melodic phrase alluded me for a few days, but perseverance won, and finally I found the complete song. I added a CODA, kind of like a bridge with a different feel, but in my songs, it acts as a summary or moral of the story kind of add-on. Then I added in a few vocal fill lines, and it was done.
Waging War on Paradise
Clear-cut all the age-old trees, plastic clogs the rivers and seas
Food so strangely modified, then sprayed with toxic pesticide.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
Shiny towers they kill the birds, their eggs don't hatch, that's what I've heard
Foulness greys the innocent sky, bees are dying, they cannot fly.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
Cancer grows, it steals our lives, earth heats up and species die
Living lives with endless greed, we are the enemy, you and me.
Parking lots, they cover the ground, spreading out from cities and towns
Everywhere we see the blight, we're waging war on paradise.
But you our Mother will right all the wrongs
Restore nature's balance, resilient and strong.
And we will fall and you will reign, in paradise again.
And we will fall and you will reign, in paradise again.
Has anything gotten better since Joni wrote her song? Unfortunately, no.
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