Joni introduced the song like this on October 12, 1967:

"Speaking of London--we were somewhere...there... (strums) While I was over there--oh, I don't need that one... While I was over there I picked up a little song about London and a little information about London. Apparently, London Bridge is actually falling down. That's not, you know, just a nursery rhyme; it really is falling into wrack and ruin. And what they do with their points of historical interest when they're falling into wrack and ruin is to rent them out to people. And all they have to do is keep it reasonably clean--you know, the castle or whatever it is that they're renting--and, uh, memorize, like, who sent the silverware it belonged... the drapes... and Louis That and Henry That and, you know... and take people people through their living rooms on Sunday afternoons.

"So now London Bridge is truly falling down and they've put it up for sale and, uh, I got to thinking a while about who should buy it, and what would happen if certain people bought it, and certain things would be drastic. But if The Beatles bought it and painted it bright fuchsia and had the same people who painted their Rolls Royce, with flowers all over it and also their gypsy caravan with the little steps up the back and the two fine matched Clydesdale horses--who aren't painted, just the caravan is!-- To paint the bridge, it might be kind of fun in London."