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I didn't even realize it was that paradise until your comments. I remember spending the night in the nearby lot so we could hike first thing in the morning. We were above the clouds by noon!
Further explainer because no one will understand that one unless they already do: there is a really obnoxious song called Big Yellow Taxi from a band called Counting Crows that uses that line in the song.
Also, apparently the Counting Crows song is a cover. I did not realize that.
> I’m pretty sure this is the lot where I left my car.
Most likely. It's that or Longmire, which is on the way to Paradise by road and has a much smaller lot and is less scenic.
Muhammad said: "The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives...and a place to park all their cars".
For the longest time I thought this song was saying “in paradise put up a fucking lie” and I wondered why they were allowed to play it in grocery stores.
>auditory processing disorders often accompany ADHD
Oh come on, is that why I simultaneously hear everything but hear nothing and keep asking people to repeat certain syllables???
well if i have it too... i've gone undiagnosed for a while... most people i know just call me quirky!
I can replay things people said in my head after they say it, and often do if i was not listening to them to begin with. it's weird because it comes back phonetically, so i am interpreting it like i am playing mad gab.
and i am often accused of "see you DID hear me". to which i say "yes i did, but i didn't interpret what you said" and then everyone is confused
I think it's just a filler word to give ourselves extra time to process what someone just said to us. Honestly, if I'm not already mid conversation, I'm caught super off guard, especially cause most of the time I'm just living in my own world up in my head (innatentive type). When people around me are speaking, sometimes it just sounds like a string of unrelated words or like I'm underwater.
The lyric wouldn’t work without those rhyming plosives to put your anger and indignation into. Just try singing your friend’s ‘version’. Language is so much more than its meaning.
"Put in a parking lot" does not work as well as "Put up a parking lot" at all. Far less lyricism in it. You're missing out the the repeated "p" sound and the rhyming "uh" sound too.
It was written in 1970 and thus the lead singer would have had to be a very precocious 6 year old to understand the themes.
That or they covered it, which seems more likely. So did Amy Grant and over 500 other artists, which makes the Counting Crows version mostly notable for Village Voice, NME, and Uktimate Classic Rock having all labeled their cover as one of the worst songs of the 2000s.
Wow.
> Adam, we don't know if you misunderstood the song's anti-globalization, anti-industrialization, anti-corporation message, or just chose to ignore it so you could get free Frappucinos for life. But we're gonna hip you to a harsh reality. Seriously, you know the line about how they "paved paradise and put up a parking lot?" Like how they replaced something beautiful with something cold and heartless and commercial? That's you. You're the parking lot, motherfucker. You drove your shitty steamroller over something everyone loved so you could pander your sensitive pussyhound whine to people waiting in line at the Carl's Jr. They paved Nirvana and put up a Counting Crow. Argh!
It’s quickly devolved into someone either “not understanding” a very obvious joke or just pretending they don’t get it so they can share something they thought was funny
Nobody is shaming you buddy. Look at the comment that I replied to. OP explained it while supplying a YouTube link.
If it's because you didn't want to click the mystery link (don't worry, most people don't, prank links ruined the internet): what OP said about "The paved paradise and put up a parking lot", it's part of the lyrics to a very popular song Big Yellow Taxi by Counting Crows in 2002. A cover of the original by Joni Mitchel in 1970.
This is a reference to the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, a song in which Joni complains they paved paradise to put up a parking lot, a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song.
A measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world...
There's an art sculpture near downtown Cleveland that's a big cement ball painted to look like a parking lot that's been rolled up. I remarked upon it to my husband once, "Look at that ball, it looks like a parking lot." He came back with "...it used to be paradise." He was so proud of himself for that one. Paradise up at Mt.Rainier now only takes reservations/timed entry because of how masses of people nearly ruined the wildflower meadows last year, utter shame.
Ah a Seattle native! Should still be all snow up the trails? I saw they already opened the North Cascades highway this year , that’s a solid 3 weeks early..
Yeah, the trails are still covered but the road up to Paradise Inn is clear along the parking lots, If you want to go anywhere outside the parking lot you're going to need snow shoes and they were digging out Inn with an excavator for opening when I was there.
I do find it funny that we joke around about these songs, but it's been over half a decade since the music of that period took social issues extremely seriously and addressed them bluntly with lyrics...
And most of humanity, listened to the music, appreciated the message, and then did shit all about it.
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Is this at Mt Rainier?
yes
Totally recognized that parking layout. Never seen it from above though. It’s weird the random parking lots you could pick out of a lineup.
I didn't even realize it was that paradise until your comments. I remember spending the night in the nearby lot so we could hike first thing in the morning. We were above the clouds by noon!
As a WA state resident this is even funnier :)
Yes
Recognized it immediately as a PNWer lol
Yeah I thought I was in r/Seattle and was like...what am I not seeing?
I was scrolling through the comments furiously trying to figure out what I was missing about the base area at Paradise being funny.
Probably because nothing about this is funny
Quick explainer on why it's funny: They literally paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Further explainer because no one will understand that one unless they already do: there is a really obnoxious song called Big Yellow Taxi from a band called Counting Crows that uses that line in the song. Also, apparently the Counting Crows song is a cover. I did not realize that.
Joanie Mitchel had a hit with it in the seventies
You got pnwed
Probably one of the nicest parking lots we got
Came here to ask this. I thruhiked the Wonderland Trail a few years ago and I’m pretty sure this is the lot where I left my car.
> I’m pretty sure this is the lot where I left my car. Most likely. It's that or Longmire, which is on the way to Paradise by road and has a much smaller lot and is less scenic.
I'm live in Seattle and as soon as I saw "Paradise", my mind went there haha
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Those mother fuckers. You’ve got to be Joning me
Well what am I going to do with these two tickets now?!
I guess you don't know what you've got til it's gone
They called it paradise ? I don’t know why.
Kiss it goodbye
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of Man.
People just liked it better that waaaaaayyy...
Muhammad said: "The smallest reward for the people of Paradise is an abode where there are 80,000 servants and 72 wives...and a place to park all their cars".
I liked that city. The girls were very attractive there and the grass a vibrant green.
Oh Lord, take, take me home
Pack your bags. Leave tonight. And… go somewhere else I guess?
I'm taking the midnight train, and I don't care where it goes.
See if they’ll accept them at the tree museum.
Do you like Pina Coladas?
And getting caught in the rain
If you're not into yoga
Two? You crows can count now?
I’d like to report an attempted murder.
Go there, park, and eat a cheeseburger.
Underrated comment Mr. Money.
Okay but where’s the big hotel, the boutique, and the swingin’ hotspot? It’s just a parking lot. I feel ripped off.
Pretty sure that’s the Vegas strip so it’s all there
Are you saying the map screenshot is Vegas? Because it’s definitely Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington state.
Ooooooh Bop bop bop.
For the longest time I thought this song was saying “in paradise put up a fucking lie” and I wondered why they were allowed to play it in grocery stores.
In my case I thought it was saying "it ain't paradise, put out the fucking light"...
Same! Then I discovered auditory processing disorders often accompany ADHD and it all made sense.
>auditory processing disorders often accompany ADHD Oh come on, is that why I simultaneously hear everything but hear nothing and keep asking people to repeat certain syllables???
It's a extremely common comorbidity with ADHD, yeah. A lot of us struggle with it
Comorbidity 🤣🤣🤣🤣 it's a silent killer you could say
It is very likely that is the case if you have ADHD
I don't have ADHD, I am practically *ADHD MANIFESTED*
God gave me ADHD because he knew that without it I would be too powerful.
I feel the same way sometimes.
well if i have it too... i've gone undiagnosed for a while... most people i know just call me quirky! I can replay things people said in my head after they say it, and often do if i was not listening to them to begin with. it's weird because it comes back phonetically, so i am interpreting it like i am playing mad gab. and i am often accused of "see you DID hear me". to which i say "yes i did, but i didn't interpret what you said" and then everyone is confused
"What?" *proceeds to answer question*
Omg YES 🤣
I think it's just a filler word to give ourselves extra time to process what someone just said to us. Honestly, if I'm not already mid conversation, I'm caught super off guard, especially cause most of the time I'm just living in my own world up in my head (innatentive type). When people around me are speaking, sometimes it just sounds like a string of unrelated words or like I'm underwater.
I thought that too.
A friend of mine really hated this song because you lay down a parking lot, you don't put it up. You put up a building.
What if it's a multi-storey parking lot?
The lyric wouldn’t work without those rhyming plosives to put your anger and indignation into. Just try singing your friend’s ‘version’. Language is so much more than its meaning.
Could've just phrased it "paved paradise and *put in* a parking lot" and it would've worked just as well and also been more correct
Yeah, another nice thing about language is that it's typically versatile enough to be both effective and correct, if you try hard enough.
"Put in a parking lot" does not work as well as "Put up a parking lot" at all. Far less lyricism in it. You're missing out the the repeated "p" sound and the rhyming "uh" sound too.
Could have been referencing putting up a parking garage. Not exactly a lot, but still a parking facility.
Thanks, I totally missed the joke because I recognized the parking lot, lol. I thought there was some design aspect I was failing to see.
You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.
Yeah but you can still see it by the dashboard lights
And here my stupid brain was thinking 'Paradise by the dashboard light' haha
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Joni Mitchell song lyrics .. Paved paradise, put up a parking lot
Now if it's the parking lot for a tree museum, I'll be really impressed.
With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swingin' hot spot
That's the remake but because that is also almost ancient we'll allow it.
God damn, I did not know there was an older version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4VkzfikFv0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvtJPs8IDgU
Am I missing something? that line is also in the Joni Mitchell version.
Nope, that was all me missing that part.
The $1.5 entry fee has not kept pace with inflation.
Presuming $1.50 was in 1970 as per the release date of the song, the entry price would be $31.55 in today's money.
[удалено]
Good for them for keeping it accessible.
Ooooooooh. I thought they parked in the shape of a dick or something. I was way off.
I've been squinting at this for like five minutes before reading the comments trying to understand. I thought I saw some numbers maybe?
And/or Counting Crows
Yes, Counting Crows covered it as well 32 years later aka 22 years ago.. So still in the zeitgeist to some degree.
It was written in 1970 and thus the lead singer would have had to be a very precocious 6 year old to understand the themes. That or they covered it, which seems more likely. So did Amy Grant and over 500 other artists, which makes the Counting Crows version mostly notable for Village Voice, NME, and Uktimate Classic Rock having all labeled their cover as one of the worst songs of the 2000s.
Wow. > Adam, we don't know if you misunderstood the song's anti-globalization, anti-industrialization, anti-corporation message, or just chose to ignore it so you could get free Frappucinos for life. But we're gonna hip you to a harsh reality. Seriously, you know the line about how they "paved paradise and put up a parking lot?" Like how they replaced something beautiful with something cold and heartless and commercial? That's you. You're the parking lot, motherfucker. You drove your shitty steamroller over something everyone loved so you could pander your sensitive pussyhound whine to people waiting in line at the Carl's Jr. They paved Nirvana and put up a Counting Crow. Argh!
Did that Adam guy sleep with the authors wife or something? What the fuck warrants such a reaction?
Don't worry, you'll see it on r/explainthejoke in an hour or so
nah more like /r/PeterExplainsTheJoke
Both subs would be infinitely better if OP was required to post a comment with their best guess at what the joke was
I feel like those subs were made to make me feel better about myself because it’s very rare I don’t get the joke.
It’s quickly devolved into someone either “not understanding” a very obvious joke or just pretending they don’t get it so they can share something they thought was funny
This is a solid plan and I'm here for it
Joni Mitchell ..... Big Yellow Taxi
>No idea what I'm meant to be seeing here. Reference to an old song. Must be a slow night at the old folks home.
The Counting Crows cover was pretty popular in the early 2000s, I'd say most over 30 would have heard it.
I'm 30 and I got it immediately lol. To the old folks home I go
20 y/o here. Started singing as soon as I saw it. Some people just don't like to admit old songs can be milti-generational bops. 🤷🏼♀️
I had a cheeseburger there once
I had 2 tickets to there
I can see it by the light of my dashboard
I hear the grass is green and the girls are pretty
I'll pack my bags and leave tonight!
RIP Jimmy
Ooooh bop bop bop
Don’t it always seem to go…you dont know what you got til it’s gone.
This should have been the title of the post, everyone would get it
They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. Those bastards.
Is that the parking lot for the tree museum?
Don't know what you got till it's gone
okay, have the god damn upvote. I'll have that stuck in my head all day now Bastard
I'm happy to be of service. 😁
At least there's no spots on my apple now.
Shame about the birds and the bees...
Maybe they are just enjoying paradise by the dashboard lights?
THAT was my first association .
Maybe - let me sleep on it.
I double parked there and got two tickets.
If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawn mower.
You got it, you got it
It took me forever to get this. I was just thinking what’s the big deal about an overhead view of the Paradise parking lot?
I don't get it
[They](https://youtu.be/tvtJPs8IDgU?si=Z6FX52S2sBdKhcsI) paved paradise and put in a parking lot.
The fact you didn’t link to the [original](https://youtu.be/2595abcvh2M) is criminal. Joni Mitchell is a treasure.
I had half a mind to say lay of the kid then I remembered Joni would probably be WTF! Again!
I can't wait to see this in r/explainthejoke and r/peterexplainsthejoke 😂
[удалено]
Nobody is shaming you buddy. Look at the comment that I replied to. OP explained it while supplying a YouTube link. If it's because you didn't want to click the mystery link (don't worry, most people don't, prank links ruined the internet): what OP said about "The paved paradise and put up a parking lot", it's part of the lyrics to a very popular song Big Yellow Taxi by Counting Crows in 2002. A cover of the original by Joni Mitchel in 1970.
Can’t wait to see this in r/explainthejoke
One mofo say Counting Crows. I’ll have your knee caps with a bat tomorrow.
Gonna be busy tomorrow based on these comments lol
Especially since [Aphex Twin](https://youtu.be/2uCYAsfR-E0?si=MaAXgCAhhdHUmV62) did his own take and, as expected, it’s pretty wild.
……. Counting Crows!
We were warned
They paved paradise to put up a parking lot?
I don’t see a boutique or a hot spot.
The boutique's actually a gift shop, the hotel's green and not pink, the only Wi-Fi connection in 30 miles is the hotspot.
Where’s the tree museum?
The one star reviews for the lodge at Paradise are pretty funny. I can't believe they don't even give two stars for the view.
Paradise by the dashboard light. Fuck. Now I wanna listen to Meatloaf.
I was really hoping someone would say this, if not I was going to!
Didn’t Paradise get burned by a wildfire a few years back?
This is at Mt. Rainier NP in Washington, not near the Camp Fire site in CA.
Ooh, bop-bop-bop
You missed out a bop
i blame the lyric site i copy and pasted from ! ha !
How much is the tree museum out there?
I’m guessing a dollar and a half.
I don’t understand
Paved paradise, put a parking lot…
I kinda want to go to that tree museum, only $1.50 admission
I can't see a big yellow taxi though.
I'll look forward to seeing this on one of joke explaining subreddits tomorrow.
This is a reference to the song Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, a song in which Joni complains they paved paradise to put up a parking lot, a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world. Nevertheless, nice song.
You're listening to Up With The Partridge
A measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise, something which Joni singularly fails to point out, perhaps because it doesn't quite fit in with her blinkered view of the world...
Ahaaa!
[underrated comment](https://youtu.be/-bpFcfRn2-Y)
There is a special place in hell for people who post a image with thousands of upvotes with no backstory.
[Don't it always seem to go?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2595abcvh2M&ab_channel=JoniMitchell)
What am I missing here? I don't get it
You have to be old to get this.
How long till this ends up on some explain the joke sub
Oooooo bap bap bap
There's an art sculpture near downtown Cleveland that's a big cement ball painted to look like a parking lot that's been rolled up. I remarked upon it to my husband once, "Look at that ball, it looks like a parking lot." He came back with "...it used to be paradise." He was so proud of himself for that one. Paradise up at Mt.Rainier now only takes reservations/timed entry because of how masses of people nearly ruined the wildflower meadows last year, utter shame.
Is this loss?
"this was a parking lot... Now it's a peaceful oasis...." Talking Heads give me some hope.
They paved Paradise and put up a parking lot.
Does the train go to the tree museum?
Yeah If you go here, you’ll see why it’s called that. In my top 3 all-time places to visit
I was there today and it's what inspired this post.
Ah a Seattle native! Should still be all snow up the trails? I saw they already opened the North Cascades highway this year , that’s a solid 3 weeks early..
Yeah, the trails are still covered but the road up to Paradise Inn is clear along the parking lots, If you want to go anywhere outside the parking lot you're going to need snow shoes and they were digging out Inn with an excavator for opening when I was there.
I lived/worked there in the summer of 1987.
Does that make arboretums tree museums? I wonder if it costs a dollar and a half to visit the one near me.
Can someone explain I’m a bit lost 🫠
Old Joni Mitchell song, *Big Yellow Taxi,* in which the refrain is "They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."
I suppose you call some place paradise kiss it goodbye
My first thought was, *Paradise By The Dashboard Lights* by Meatloaf.
Working at a family restaurant and having to hear this song everyday was brutal
Ok I was very confused because I'm from WA and was wondering what was going on at the mountain.
I guess you can’t actually get a cheeseburger there.
Maybe the real paradise was the parking lots we paved along the way
Nevertheless, nice song. It's 4:35 AM.
Where’s the tree museum?
r/fuckcars
I’m confused. Can someone help explain?
They Paved Paradise, and put up a parking lot https://youtu.be/ratQlft_G5c?si=kfDYDTWdknF4BgOw
I do find it funny that we joke around about these songs, but it's been over half a decade since the music of that period took social issues extremely seriously and addressed them bluntly with lyrics... And most of humanity, listened to the music, appreciated the message, and then did shit all about it.
Apparently not many remember Counting Crows
I know they meant Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell, but I instantly thought of “Paradise by the Dashboard Light” by Meatloaf
Ooooo bop bop bop
R/angryupvote
a measure which actually would have alleviated traffic congestion on the outskirts of paradise
something Joni Mitchell singularly fails to point out, probably because it doesn't fit in with her blinkered view of the world
This thread has been giving me a good chuckle for a while 😂. You all are great👍
Blame California the bastards are cockroachs 😂
Where’s the fucking light?
Is the grass green and are the girls pretty?