The end of Big Yellow Taxi - Yay or Nay?

It is different.
That line is core to the songs theme of the ills of overdevelopment and the loss of nature while the laugh stands in direct opposition to that theme.

 

I love Joni Mitchell and have always liked the Ladies of the Canyon album. But on an album of pretty heavy songs overall, Big Yellow Taxi is performed kind of lighthearted and with a big grin, which is completely not how the lyrics read or how she has discussed writing the song in past interviews. Maybe that was intentional; it just seems a bit out of place considering what she was singing about. I don't hate the laugh at the end but if it had been edited out I would not miss it myself.

 

This thread reminds me of a late 1966 issue of Hit Parader I have with an article on laughter in pop/rock songs (for instance Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35"). Probably my favorite laughter in a song is the one on King Crimson's "Lizard" LP -can't recall the song title but it may be "Happy Family".

 

This is how I hear it. Reacting to that random low vocal she just did, goofing, and maybe reacting to someone in the booth reacting to it too (the "second half" of her laughter as the song fades into silence).

 

I love that bit. It's ny favourite when you can tell artists are havibg fun with it. It's also great with little 'odditties' like that.

 

Agreed. It doesn’t sound forced at all. And it doesn’t make any sense for it to be intentional.

 

I think you mean “Runaway”.

 

Grotesque? You're kidding, right?

 

I wouldn't go as far as to say it ruins the whole song, but I don't like it. Kind of a one-time joke.

 

Yeah, my bad.

 

Nope doesn’t bother me at all.

 

I don't particularly dislike the laugh, which is in keeping with the mood of the song. I did always think that the mood of the entire song was at odds with the seriousness of the lyrics. Perhaps that was intentional on Joni's part, to avoid the song becoming too depressing, but that's why it was never a particular favourite of mine. I preferred the remake of it on the Shine album.

 

Happy Family is an entirely different matter. It is intentional, laughter without mirth. And it is part of the song. It is not some fake reality inserted to a song to make it seem like some spontaneous folksy, natural patter to reinforce the "down hominess" of the artist.

And Happy Family is about................wait for it..........................The Beatles!

 

Interesting that the "hit" version of "Big Yellow Taxi" by the Neighborhood didn't include the laughter...I heard this version in 1970 long before I heard Joni's original.

 

It sounds absolutely normal to me. I never thought of it as something too different or whatever.
EDIT: I even listened to it now just to check if there was something really strange that I never noticed.

 

My favourite piece of laughter in a song - not that the bar is set very high - is in Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)". He sings "for a laugh", then does a fake laugh just in case you don't know what a laugh sounds like and need to hear it demonstrated.

 

A wonderful ending to a wonderfully quirky song, so of course yes.

 

So that's a ' nay ' then?

 

I like the song Big Yellow Taxi.

The “ooh bop bop bop” vocal Adlibs from Vanessa Carlton are a bit childlike though.

 

I like it. Yeah....I do.

 

My initial impression was a lot like the OP's, except I didn't think too much of the song to begin with and the ending was enough to really put me off it.

I don't particularly care for any of Joni's songs that I've heard (limited to the hits; I have however always liked Carey), but I've more or less made my peace with Big Yellow Taxi, including the ending. In that way it's much like the ten billion butterfly sneezes at the beginning of the Moody Blues' To Our Children's Children's Children. One does become accustomed to it.

 

The music juxtapositions itself against what is kind of a sad somewhat serious (very serious to many still) topic. Its all happy and rambunctious with the guitar, melody and rhythm. The songs seriousness (the little expressed emotionally) barely holds together with the playful words and then signs off with the "Oh well, screw it. Enjoy life anyway." moment. Which is expressed by the laugh and silly melody twist at the end. Accidental or not, I feel it adds to the song. I think thats kind of the point of the song. Laugh to keep from crying.

 

Elvis Costello must've liked it, as he did something very similar in the fade-out of this. Crank up the volume to hear the maniacal laughter:



Heathen Town

 

OMG it is sooooo forced.

Such a great song with a cringey ending.

 

Thank goodness we only heard Joni's original in Saskatoon. Not that she's universally beloved in her hometown, in fact she's quite divisive.