Anal-yzing lyrics.

So like , you know the song "Big yellow taxi" by "Counting crows" ?

Well , a pretty peculiar thing happened to me about a year ago concerning this song. And I'm pretty certain that it has something to do with political correctness. Although , in my opinion , "very vaguely" , I would say.

So , the story starts with one of my study-books for English. You know , the sorts of books that you use in your studies and they have all sorts of grammar , pronounciation etc. exercises for you. So , at this one page , there's the lyrics of this "Big yellow taxi" - song printed on it. I can't remember for sure , but I guess it had something to do with the text the opposite page was about. But for some reason , I remembered this one part about the song that just didn't seem to add up with the original lyrics of the song.

Once again , don't ask me how was that possible at all. But, this one little thing in the lyrics at this part really puzzled me. Just look;


listenin' late last night
i heard the screen door slam
and a big yellow taxi took my girl away
now, don't it always seem to go
that you don't know what you've got
til its gone
they paved paradise
and put up a parking lot


Alright , I want you to pay special attention to the part I bolded and painted with red. Since , in the book , this part went like this:

listenin' late last night
i heard the screen door slam
and a big yellow taxi took away my old man (Ouch , WTF ?!)
now, don't it always seem to go
that you don't know what you've got
til its gone
they paved paradise
and put up a parking lot


I was a bit puzzled at first. Since , by god , what did the guy's old man have to do with this song ?! Absolutely fucking nothing ! It was a corny love song of some pop-rock band !? But you know , bringing in the old man surely twisted the plot but not much else. Therefore I wondered. What was the reason behind this little change in lyrics ? I could only come up with an answer that had something to do with political correctness. But , how had that piece of the lyrics broken political correctness , exactly ?

They should really put this thing into the X-files , man.