The end of Big Yellow Taxi - Yay or Nay?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Aar Gal, Oct 14, 2020.

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  1. Tlaloc

    Tlaloc Token young person

    It's "yea or nay".

    I'm fine with the lower part, but I agree the laugh sounds forced, awkward, and embarrassed rather than genuinely ad-libbed.
     
    anthontherun, FJFP and Wordnat2 like this.
  2. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Almost any joke will get stale if you hear it over and over and over again. I find that's kind of true with any element of any recorded musical performance. Music is a performing art and it's an ephemeral thing -- it exists when the sound waves are in the air, and then it's gone. When you record a performance and then play that recorded performance over and over again, eventually for me almost everything about it loses its charm or I become numb to it or possibly even irritated by it.
     
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  3. Wordnat2

    Wordnat2 Square as hay, dull as cattle.

    Location:
    Boise
    Just listened to it for the first time. That was physically painful.
     
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  4. Keith V

    Keith V Forum Resident

    Location:
    Secaucus, NJ
    I don’t care much either way. I guess it sets her apart like that stuff she does in “Furray Sings the Blues” which is embarrassing.
     
  5. Chest Pains Productions

    Chest Pains Productions Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philly
    The entire song is annoying, the lyrics, the singing, all of it.
     
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  6. minglewood

    minglewood Life is A Carnival

    Location:
    In A Space
    I like it, fits the ending very well. The song is about the destruction of nature by greedy reckless maniacs. The ending to me represents a way of communicating how silly our way of life has become.
     
    sekaer and FJFP like this.
  7. Lance LaSalle

    Lance LaSalle Prince of Swollen Sinus

    Laugh sounds phony.
     
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  8. bluejimbop

    bluejimbop Thumb Toe Heel Toe

    Location:
    Castro Valley, CA
    When another driver does me wrong in traffic, I point a fat finger at them and say “I don’ like you”
     
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  9. linklinc

    linklinc Forum Resident

    Yay, yea, ya-ya and yeah, yeah, yeah!
    Absolutely adorable!
     
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  10. Right. This is the only reason why I don't like it.
     
    Lance LaSalle and bluejimbop like this.
  11. Sluggy

    Sluggy Forum Resident

    Location:
    The Red Centre
    Can't stand it at all. Heard a dozen cover versions from His Bobness to Counting Crows, and they're all crap, so I'm guessing I hate this particular song.
     
    Lance LaSalle likes this.
  12. NumberEight

    NumberEight Came too late and stayed too long

    Back in 1970, it was just the sort of thing we expected, and we ran with it.

    There was too much good music around back then for us to discuss the last few seconds of a song recorded in, er, 1920 or thereabouts. :)
     
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  13. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    I'm about as old as the song is, I've been listening to it all my life, so it's just part of the record. I've always found it a fun moment.
     
    sotosound, showtaper and Dodoz like this.
  14. sound chaser

    sound chaser Senior Member

    Location:
    North East UK.
    Much prefer the end of Amy Grant’s version :).
     
  15. MrCJF

    MrCJF Best served with coffee and cake.

    Location:
    United Kingdom
    "Heebie Jeebies" by Louise Armstrong's Hot Five (1926) may have been an equivalent?
     
  16. guitarman1969

    guitarman1969 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London, UK
    It’s always sounded contrived to me, but I’ve heard BYT too many times anyway so I’ve lost any connection with it.
     
  17. Trader Joe

    Trader Joe Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Hampshire
    Never liked it. I find it amateurish. Quite unprofessional.
     
  18. nosticker

    nosticker Forum Guy

    Location:
    Ringwood, NJ
    It's great. It sold, It's bloody Joni Mitchell. Shut up! :)



    Dan
     
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  19. Thievius

    Thievius Blue Oyster Cult-ist

    Location:
    Syracuse, NY
    I'm indifferent to anything related to Joni Mitchell so...splunge.
     
  20. sekaer

    sekaer Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    It's a comic song about a sad situation. I'm not a big fan of humor in music (I always skip "Twisted" off Joni's Court & Spark) but Joni could be funny to me, especially live. Not to beat a dead horse, but the low voice is "the man" putting up the parking lot over the falsetto complaint. It fits the song and I like it!
     
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  21. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Eye-rolling song as a whole, so it seems perfectly in keeping.
     
  22. SKATTERBRANE

    SKATTERBRANE Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tucson, AZ
    I do not mind unselfconscious mistakes on a recording. But planned laughter or dialogue (and one can usually tell) bugs the crap out of me, much like canned laughter on sitcoms. I think most of the laughter just before or just after a song is either planned or spliced in from another portion of the recording session. I may be wrong here, but it SEEMS as if Joni was naturally reacting to her low singing voice, she was goofing on herself. At least it comes off that way to me.

    I used to LOVE Joni Mitchell. Now it is a very rare thing that I ever play her albums. But the ones I still play the most are Blue, For The Roses and Hissing Of Summer Lawns. (never a big fan of Court And Spark). I have outgrown her hippie folky albums and I have NEVER liked her jazz or Geffen albums (except Wild Thing Run Fast). The sound quality of say Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm or Dog Eat Dog compared to Blue or For The Roses is a very depressing affair!
     
  23. AveryKG

    AveryKG Sultan of snacks

    Location:
    west London
    Yay from me, basically because I much prefer 'low' Joni to 'high' Joni. I love her stuff from 'Blue' onwards but can hardly listen to those first couple of albums because of that high voice.
     
  24. The Dark Elf

    The Dark Elf Curmudgeonly Wordwraith

    Location:
    Michigan
    People get their panties in a bunch over the weirdest things.
     
  25. Fischman

    Fischman RockMonster, ClassicalMaster, and JazzMeister

    Location:
    New Mexico
    The laugh seems out of place. It throws an incongruous levity on top of a pretty serious topic. It doesn't bother me, but it does seem a wrong way to wrap things up here.
     
    Armjim likes this.
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