They paved paradise and put up a parking lot
With a pink hotel, a botique, 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

They took all the trees and put `em in a tree museum
And then they charged all the people 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

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 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 put up a parking lot

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 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 put up a parking lot

Text & Musik: Joni Mitchell
(c) 1970 Siquomb Publishing Corp. (BMI)