Writer: Joni Mitchell



They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

With a pink hotel, a boutique, and a swinging hot spot

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop, shoo-bop-bop-bop



They took all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum

And then they charged all the poeple twenty-five bucks just to see 'em

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop, shoo-bop-bop-bop



Hey farmer, farmer, put away your DDT now

Give me spots on my apples but leave me the birds and the bees, please

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot

I say, they paved paradise and they put up a parking lot



Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop



Late last night I heard the screen door slam

And a big yellow taxi carried off my old man

Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop



Don't it always seem to go

That you don't know what you've got till it's gone

They paved paradise and they put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop

Oh, now, they paved paradise and they put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop

Hey, steam rolled paradise and put up a parking lot

Shoo-bop-bop-bop-bop