What I find fascinating about Joni Mitchell's optimism in Circle Game is the fact that she had gone through some experiences that would render most people bitter and broken. She had been street homeless while pregnant as a penniless teenage art student, rejected by her family, and had ended up having give her baby up for adoption to give her child the best chance in life. That's not even touching on the pain and betrayal she must have felt toward the man who abandoned both her and her child. Despite those experiences she chose to sing about innocence, wonder, and hope. That is truly a victory of the soul and perhaps the deepest form of wisdom. Thanks for a brilliant video.
She was 22 not a teen, but neither homeless and he stayed with her after but told her he would not marry her or be a father for their daughter, and THAT felt like all else was empty to ever done with him. Eventually he left so she was spared from being the ass kicker. She had a job but that would not last soon, and hospital, etc nor be able to pretend she was married in the long run (at that time an stigma that closed you many doors, even for job openings you really needed ever more, as if your credit were almost that a step closer to another one that worked the streets, even to get out into str8 jobs) and those jobs for single young ladies would not sustain both alone herself. Daycares didnt exist really, but other ladies paid for it as maids or nannies. Forget about telling her parents she became a "fallen woman" 1964 still didnt believe or even understood in the Summer of Love, for free, that was very proper and even more polite Canada still in the 50's as many in Bible belts of USA, for another decade or longer... And as Joni had confessed a few times, her artistry didnt come out because she even believed in it or was leaning that way in the Arts (she was into painting being very visual herself and musical ear too but only as audience not in the other side as maker), but forced by necessity to make some bucks in independent gigs freelancing once her first husband also went frog on her, all b herself and in a quick tempo she honed her skills on her own self taught ways, a blessing. But like some proverbial greatest chefs of all time, once on the apron and getting a spoon and pot (as she said "I discovered I could be good at this, but I had no idea I had the gift for it, that came slowly the realization") these moved from serving cold sandwiches or recipes from others into the "improving" from others' own and make things in new ways. Specially, after she was allowed a sight into the big leagues and observed what the big boys like Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan and her boyfriend in CSN (who gave her a hand in the Indusrty to be signed into records) could do with their skills, and she absorbed like a vacuum or computer data processing, growing fast like a Natural, but not mimicking or playing along nor alike those tall sports players leagues, she turned it into something off this planet to places only a "Neo" kind can start to believe, and others cant go but just listen. The Lady was a born natural alike Mike Oldfield, who in my opinion Im convinced he is a Savant in music, like those children as Mozart, who like Joni are shown to play and soon are speaking in tongues in it, touched by the HG to since before their birth. As Joni reflected on how it all happened to her Art, all came to be like a set of chain reaction changes and yes truly setbacks and that led her to join Music making and performing and a whole new life form that made of her a new person
@@relaxingsounds1386 Not true at all. As she has said "there was no career at that time". Glad her daughter got a good home instead of going into foster care.
I was told by an old man when I was in my teens, "Don't ever lose the kid inside of you because when you do, that is when you get old". I lived by those words and I'm 70 now. People keep asking me, "When are you gonna grow up?" Me - "Never!"
Jonie did not write lyrics like other musicians she wrote poetry. Supremely talented artist of our generation who's beautiful voice froze time for me more than once
I agree. I consider her the best poet and musician ever. I started listening to her 1972 at 16- never been the same. My 33 yr. old daughter loves her as well.
@@helenamaria710Far more? Far more? I don't think so. Who is ahead would be debatable. Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Kate Bush, Van Morrison, Gordon Lightfoot have work that is extremely good as wel
@@johncowper7982 Joni Mitchell is great but she hasn't got the width of styles that Dylan has conquered with elan. And she went jazz and l can't stand jazz in any of it's incarnations. Kate Bush's body of work is also superior. IMNSHO Tell me about Dylan's great work from the 90s, 00s and even just recently.
I thank the universe every day for joni mitchell and her unmatched humanity. I wish more people recognised the significance of her work and her legacy. Not a day goes by without listening to her beautiful voice… and every day I feel like talking to an old friend.
I am now 71 years old, one wonders just where all that times goes along with wishing that I had done more with that time, but thankfully I am still alive and can still try to make each and everyday better then the day before . What else can you do except to strive to do just a bit better each day and I always try to make people smile or laugh just to try to brighten up their day. Does not always work but what else can you do? I can only hope to help someone try to have a better day!!!!!
Mitchell is a rare artist If you take away the music the lyrics have enough artistic merit to qualify as high art. Both sides now still moves me to tears. I love this era of music . It was so pure so honest so thoughtful so beautiful so heartfelt so cathartic.
It was, a thought that soon would see 4 dead in Ohio, 11 bayonetted at UNM, and more walks into the life. Many opted out, went on a permanent hiatus to places unknown.
Christian Gasior I don't know how someone could listen to Hejira or Court and Spark and still think that. I'd understand not liking it but it's definitely not bland, there's a ton going on.
@@christiangasior4244 Joni's melodies and harmonies were so good they are in a class of their own. Her voice was magnificent She was a great guitar player and arranger as well. She also played the piano, was a painter and she was beautiful. She definitely fired on all 8 cylinders.
Joni Mitchell is, in my opinion, the most consistently producer of exceptional songs-both lyrically and musically-of at least the last one hundred years. From 1969 with "Both Sides, Now" to "Hana" in 2007 listen to the complexity of the chords, rhythm, melody, and her arrangements there is simply a level of sophistication that most popular music rarely approaches. Cheers, Alan Tomlinson P.S. If for some reason, you don't agree with me, please feel free to continue to live in ignorance.
+ Phillip Hiller: I guess I have the opposite take on those two. Besides "Circle Game," there's Both Sides Now Free Man in Paris Cary (Get Out Your Cane) Michael from Mountains Night in the City For Free Chelsea Morning etc. Every one an exceptional composition, musically and lyrically. They never fail to get me humming/singing along, even if only in my head. Infectious! Somehow, I just can't relate much to most of Neil's works. Fred
Joni Mitchell was my mother's favorite singer when I was a teenager so I heard this song a lot. I'm 62 now and fully realize how precious those years of youth are and how much I gave up to grow up and be on my own as soon as I could. When my son got his first full-time job I convinced him to move in with me, which is what I wished I had done with my Dad. I allowed him to keep being young while guiding him to living in an adult world. Four very happy and productive years for the both of us. He's on his own now living a life I could only dream of when I was his age. In return I've recaptured more than the shreds of my youth and am the happiest I've been in decades. Neal and Joni each tell a different side of the same coin and the cool thing is that it can be possible to switch from the dark to the light side with effort and patience.
I think Neil and Joni are not only the best Canadian singer/songwriters that have ever lived. I think they are the best singer/songwriters that have ever lived. Period. The fact that they grew up a few hundred miles from each other is stunning (I know Neil was born in Toronto. But he moved to Winnipeg when he was a teenager).
I wore the grooves out on Blue at the age of 15! I learned to sing well by singing over and over and over with Joni. Eventually I achieved 3 1/2 octave range thanks to the challenge of singing to Blue.
@@NBportofino I LOVE THAT!!! Great story! My favorite song was the title track - I was actually 19, June, '71, in the Navy, and just arrived at my first Duty Station, NAS JAX. Was broke up from my GF in Philly, living alone, and as lonely and blue as I could be. Joni became something like my new GF, and we sang to each other, too. Every song on that album resonated with me. Funny corollary - I was a big Jethro Tull fan, and I taught myself to play the flute at night on guard duty out in the woods. Doing that led to me auditioning into a BFA Music program at Penn State in '74.
@@edfederoff2679 you taught yourself to play the flute?!! That’s so cool 😎. I loved Jethro Tull too. I saw them in concert in LA somewhere. Don’t remember because I saw practically everyone back then. Except for Joni. But…I’m executive producing a reality show starring Wynonna Judd and her husband Cactus Moser and Wynonna just performed with Brandi Carlisle at the Newport Folk Festival. It was a tribute to Joni and she performed with them. Sadly her range is gone due to a stroke. Wynonna loves Joni and Brandi recorded Blue herself. Check it out. Wy had a framed pic on her desk of herself with Joni. So jealous. Six degrees of separation
@Fred I came here on this for the about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey who are on the beautiful historic road to peace in the different sovereign nations of the United Nations just until the end of times living in PEACE without one drop of senseless blood shedding war at the happy digital internet after the search with the very fast searching machine “Google” ‘Music until the end of times not about senseless blood shedding war but instead of this until the end of times about peace on the beautiful peaceful world on the historic beautiful peaceful road to peace in the beautiful peaceful UN PEACE PALACE in the Hague in the beautiful Western former colonial business as usual the beautiful Royal Kingdom the Netherlands on the beautiful peaceful world on the beautiful peaceful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe’. What you are in answer to Russkiy Deutsch, who said “They’re such amazing artists, I couldn’t imagine what music would be without them.” stating “Well, for one thing, CSNY would be just CSN, like they were at first. Which is actually very, very good!”, is actually the matter with all about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey for the simple reason that all about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey who are on the beautiful historic road to peace in the different sovereign nations of the United Nations just until the end of times in the by Joni Mitchell described Circle Game in her happy response to Neil Young living in PEACE on the happy digital internet with the many inspiring anti-war and anti-cyber war quotes and outside the happy digital internet without one drop of senseless blood shedding war, this already for the simple reason that a beautiful peace world makes a peaceful life on the beautiful peaceful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe for everybody of course much easier, which beautiful peaceful world on the beautiful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe will of course make until the end of times make in the vanities of the vanities where there is nothing new under the sun the predictable rounds around the sun. But it will be in the history of mankind until the end of times of course for Mr. Crosby, Mr. Stills and Mr. Nash in the by the happy Joni Mitchell described happy Circle Game just an mission impossible to imagine how they would have sounded as good without Mr. Young.
+ Theo Benschop: All I'm saying is that CSN sounded spectacularly innovative and wonderful before they brought Neil aboard. Have you heard their first album (CSN, that is)? It was ground-breaking at the time; it garnered both critical and popular acclaim. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (said to refer to Judy Collins); Wooden Ships (which was also covered by Jefferson Airplane); Guinevere; Marrakesh Express; etc. And at least one later album CSN recorded without Young, _Daylight Again,_ was also an excellent piece of work. In other words, we don't have to imagine what they would have sounded like without Neil Young - *we have actual examples, and they are wonderful!* This is not meant to cast any aspersions on Neil; their second album, with all 4 of them, is also one of the all-time greats. That's all I'm saying. I'm not entirely sure what you're saying; it doesn't seem to be entirely coherent. Fred
I'm 21 now and I kills me to hear songs like these written by people in their earlier 20s who are now in their 70s. It reminds me that one day I'm going to be an old man.
You will if you are fortunate. And you will look back with wonder at what was so important is now humorous. Youth is wasted on the young -- Like most things, you can't appreciate how special it is until it is no more.
You should listen to Lost Highway by Hank Williams. I first heard it when I was 21 and now at almost 30 I still adore it. If you check it out let me know what you think!
Thanks for reminding me how much I love Joni Mitchell. Her idiosyncratic mix of wistful longing and a subtle glimmer of hope makes her music achingly beautiful.
"Circle Game" is surely one of the best songs ever written, and Joni sings it so very beautifully. God bless you, Joni, you are unmatched! (Neil Young, you're great too!)
Listening to the 70-year-old Joni Mitchell sing "The Circle Game" is an experience that draws the tears until they run freely. What an extraordinary examination of a life lived. Thank you, Joni, for bringing such beauty to the world.
Both brilliant songs. "Sugar Mountain" is one of my favorite Neil Young songs ever. The connection between the two songs is fascinating. I guess the cold, long winters make the Canadians so much more introspective than we Americans.
Thanks for giving this grown ass man a moment in his feels. My mom loves Joni Mitchell and would play "The Circle Game" often when I was a little boy. Hadn't heard it in years. Especially touching now given the context of your video and me being much older.
Neil never got stuck in a moment too long. He always evolved and didn't dwell on his current success. Such a source of energy and I don't think there is a better artist out there
Except of course, Joni Mitchell. And as far as she's concerned, then some, as the comparison of these two songs proved. She's the one who's truly unparalleled.
@@donnahall3902 same and I don't think your missing anything. Not sure why her name got mixed in with so many prolific artist. I mean songwriting is extremely difficult and I think her talent as a writer is well beyond her abilities as a performer but I'm sure there are many who disagree. I'm just a simple fella. Give me some early Allman's, Leon Russell, Neil & Derek & the Dominos & I'm happy.
Neil got caught up with being a professional complainer about politics that really hurt his later career. He is my favorite all time but please play your music and not preach at us.
What beautiful comments Neil shared about Joni and his wife and just about being so grateful. What a blessed man. And we are all blessed to be open to their openness that allows such brilliance to come through them. That's what Love is all about.
At 67, "growing" old is an everyday event. You don't grow: you fade. And time does speed up for the older folk, per my personal experience. It's a principle of physics not yet understood or explained. The best thing you can do is to take care of yourself when you are young. Your health --- mental, spiritual and physical --- are all so important. Neglect, indifference, stupidity when you're younger --- each has it's consequences that can haunt you the rest of your life. My love of sports was the cause of physical issues that have followed me for decades now. Playing injured, the damage done cascaded in its own way to cause some physical limitations that are tough to get through when you expect to be a physical person your entire life. And you do slow down. Do as much as you can when you're young. Travel, laugh, share. Stay open to opportunities that present themselves, however unexpectedly. And always be kind. It costs you nothing, and the rewards can be great for both giver and receiver. The world has enough hate, corruption, cruelty and greed. Don't join that club. It's filled with hollow losers.
Robert - thank you for your eloquence of wise words... love NEVER fails... fellow feeling is vital for all of us... costs nothing to be considerate and caring ...
But now the days are short - I'm in the autumn of the year. And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs. From the brim to the dregs - it poured sweet and clear - it was a VERY good year.
That is true; the thing about time. A year when you are 20 is so long, you do so much. Now ( 57) if I don't work to make shit happen, a year can go by so quick. Just gotta use it to keep one motivated....
wow i love joni so much, thank you for this video. She has actually invented different tunings and developed a whole method of categorizing each song according to each tuning it is, she is amazing, she deserved a video for herself (i love neil young too, but he is much more spoken of)
Yes for a short time there he had an open line to magic . I think his narcissism and success has now convinced him every thing he does is great, which it just isn't. He would never write over 100 verses to pare it down to 4 now.
@@TheNaturalust other artists would love to write like Neil. Neil over 1200 songs. Twice as many as Dylan, More than McCartney, Springsteen, Petty, Clapton, Led Zeppelin Etc........
@@artvallejos1460 Not sure what that means. There is no correlation between quality and quantity and artists can ever only write like themselves. I've listened to ALL of Neil's stuff, he's actually my close neighbor although he's not here much anymore. I stick to my assertion. 😎
@@TheNaturalust all of his stuff is great. even if he doesn't think so. Time Fades Away. L A , uptight, City in The Smog City in The Smog, don't you wish you could be here too.
The story that Tom Rush tells is that Joni told him that she had a friend who was turning 20 and was depressed. That friend was a member of a Toronto teen club, and when one turned 20, they could no longer be a member, so she wrote it to cheer the friend up. My favorite Joni song is The Urge for Going, a great song about summer romances changing like the seasons. I was a member of The Club 47 and heard Joni sing it just after she wrote it in 1966. Joni is my favorite of all time folk music singer songwriter.
Not nice, ridiculous. I hoped to hear a duet by the two number one singer-songwriters of my youth. Maybe of all time. Instead we got still photos with the lyrics interrupted unnecessarily by a jerk who thinks he can explain the obvious. - Dragging my feet at 71.
Wow dude. That was brilliant. I am a sonically driven music lover and have heard these songs hundreds of times. I never took the time to follow the poetry. I have for other Joni and Neil songs but not this one. Wow.. thank you for dissecting it and both were great contrasting perspectives on life.
You and me and thousands others. The song is known for this effect. Joni's music has a way of transmitting directly to one's core. This is just perhaps the most obvious example. She's a true genius. Probably the most broadly talented artist of our lifetime. Singer, Composer, poet-lyricist, guitar player, piano player, painter - absolutely brilliant and unique in all of these, and probably more that I'm forgetting. I'm 63 in 2 days!
My sister has a voice almost exactly like Joni and our Grandma's favorite song was Circle Game. Therefore we've had to play it at almost every family gathering for decades. But when the priest at Grandma's funeral forbid us to play anything not on his "list", me and my sister agreed and then broke into Circle Game at the funeral. The priest was smoking from his ears mad but there wasn't a dry eye in the church when we were done. 🤗❤️☮️
And after all these years of playing _Circle Game,_ I had no idea it was inspired by Neil's _Sugar Mountain_ !!! Thanks for explaining this connection! Fred
I can remember listening to Sugar Mountain in my teens, loved the song and Neil Young in general. I've gotten more into Joni in the last decade or so and she's absolutely brilliant. I'm 51 now with an 8 and 10 year old. Listening to Sugar Mountain and The Circle Game helps me remember what being young is like and what a big deal the transition into teens and adulthood is, and how important it is to continue moving forward, not just grasping at the past.
This comparison of the two songs was perfect! It made sense to me and I actually have a different outlook on getting older. I loved the carousel going round and round compared to life, enjoy every up and down, every circle! I didn't explain my feelings that well but it made sense to me! Thank you for the video and all the time you put in to it!!
I loved both of these songs growing up and never really looked too closely into the lyrics. I'm 65 now and so great this young guy brought new meanings from these brilliant songs to my consciousness, THANKS! YES, WE CAN ALWAYS HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM TO LEARN IN LIFE!
There are a lot singer songwriters that give their own view on the world we're living in but almost no one dared to be so honest and vulnerable as Joni did. You have to be very strong to show that to the world. Let the feminsists in the world talk but she did the talk and the walk. A powerwoman in the real sense of the word, a true goddess.
This song came out in my last year of primary school (Australia). It made me think, I was leaving the real care free time of being a kid and stepping into teenage years and so growing up. These were days of reflection and when this song came out, it sort of laid out the future for me. It made me rather melancholy about passing one phase of my life and excited for the future. I have never forgotten that day. Love JM.
@@snidelywhiplash8399 Add Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel,Garth Hudson and Levon Helm (He's American but gets honorary citizenship) to that list.
SideTripLife We Canucks have a wealth of music talent as mentioned. I apologize for the other genre of music I’m not familiar with but Liona Boyd a world renowned classical guitarist, Bruce Cockburn, Hank Snow and the truest Canadian, Stomping Tom Connors, “C eh N eh D eh! Canada’s our land...sorry, so sorry, got carried away!
After 52 years of pain and mistakes I met the man of my dreams. I never thought it would happen, but it did. And it can happen to you too, if you're brave enough.
Polyphonic is with outta doubt the best music channel on TH-cam, I look forward to each video because there is so much variety and each video is interesting and well thought out. Keep it up dude.
When I heard the story about those two songs, I heard that Neil Young's first band used to play in a club which didn't let anyone over 19 in. So when he turned 20 he lost his band, his friends, and his social scene all at once. How's that for a rite of passage?
I feel so privileged to have grown up with both these songs and these songwriters and look back upon them fondly as shaping my own love of life music and adulthood. I sometimes do wonder just what today's young adults will have to cling to since I see so many lost within baseless music ripe with kaleidoscopes of swirling nothingness lacking lyrical substance and frame. When they turn 53 I hardly see them lamenting upon Drake fondly or a thousand other hip hop artists whose songs reflect immediate gratification and good times. Where are the Joni and Neil's of this generation? Surely there has to be change but at what cost? Even more sadly today's youth do not even see or care that they have no one scripting their lives as we did in the form of these two Canadian artists. I suppose I have become my mother as the circle game passes and sugar mountain is long but abandoned with only a site where a carnival once stood...
As my last "revolving years" play out after being a life long fan of Neil and Joni and covering both these songs for decades, I never realized the connection. Great video.
Circle Game is such a great song. A catchy chorus for singing together in a group sittin' around at a party (very hippiesque feeling) and yet deep and lyrical content in the verses.
Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite singer-songwriters, and what she does differently from others of the genre (that honestly deters me from listening to others), is that she approaches some topics in a much more optimistic and hopeful attitude. The music is usually slow and moving, with double tracked guitars creating an extremely dreamy and wave like, and her lyrics are feel more about the story she's trying to tell, rather than the message she's trying to convey to you. Which means songs like Old Furry sounds incredibly lighthearted and fun, but the way she repeats certain phrases and accentuates some with little laughs or voices hints at something much more somber going on beneath the facade. The dreamy instrumental backs this up too, as if Joni herself is reflecting on this experience after the fact and runs it through her own mind. She lets the listener do the work, makes her music seem much less about whining about current affairs (I'm not trying to point fingers) and more about the art. Thanks for the great video, you've really expanded the world of music to me than just a bunch of records sitting on a shelf.
Beautifully put. I always feel a sense of peace listening to Joni's music more so than other songwriters from her era. She has a way of making the profound and complex sound so pure and simple.
Joni is and always will be one of the most underrated performers of the folk rock era. Neil always had a sharper edge to his music but they are both awesome musicians and very good friends a wonderful tribute to both of them thanks
You never fail to provide that extra insight that helps make these songs I’ve hear a thousand times mean more. For whatever reason, this morning, today, in this moment…this was thee message I needed to hear. Thank you.
When your a child you wish you were a teen. When your a teen you wish you were an adult. When your an adult we realize how much we miss our youth. When your elderly you wish you could go back and do it all again.
Not necessarily. As a “senior” adult (I’m 71), and even though my body won’t agree with me, I really enjoy the wisdom I’ve attained through the years. I realize now the crap I wasted my younger years on and, while I certainly wouldn’t change any of it (‘cause some of it was awesome) I do enjoy the things that I have and have become quite a lot. The fewer years you have to look forward to the more you’re likely to cherish the ones you have left.
I’ve never wanted to be a child or teen again. Those were terrible years for me. But that just supports Joni’s point. It’s a circle. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about any age. It’s up and down.
Great commentary on both Neil's Sugar Mountain & Joni's Circle Game. I grew up on their music here in Toronto, Canada and still of course listening to their wonderful songs now at 68.
TheBatugan77 chill bro. our american football is played in like. 3 countries. let the rest of the world have this one; we’re already big enough laughingstocks
Neil was saying being young is one's last pure essence of innocence and that can never be recaptured no matter how many times you go around Joni's carousel.
Go deeper, I am asked. Of the two songs Joni’s symbol of the carousel as a metaphor for time-for Samsara-nails it. The Wheel depicts the very ground and heart of existential life. From the four stages of life-birth, adolescents, adulthood, old age-to the turning of pleasure into pain, the Wheel is incredibly flexible yet precise in its capacity to depict the dance of Life. What in Sanskrit is called Dharma. And what in Chinese culture is referred to as the Tao, both are depicted as a Wheel. Things change-and must change-yet Life follows a pattern. Generation after generation. There is also wisdom in being able to ask: Where am I on the Wheel? What time is it now for me? Both songs shed light here. Sugar Mountain implies a similar theme. The melody is incredibly sweet, laced with melancholy. The stream of Life-like it or not-is moving us forward. The song describes a psychological death from one stage of life to the next -and the need to surrender. In Hindu cosmology the archetype for this kind of change is called Kali. She’s the great Devourer with blood dripping from Her tongue. Her name comes from the term “Kal” meaning “time.” She’s the Wheel of Time. She’s also the great Mother and She’s very black. Like Kali-Sugar Mountain is “sweet” but only when it’s our time to be there. Resist the flow of time and what’s sweet now soon becomes quite sour; even bitter. Nature assures the letting go. Like in a diet, sweet is good (up to a point); our bodies hold onto it in the form of fat. But introduce the appropriate amount of bitter into our diet and what happens? The body immediately begins to release its grip, to eliminate. The cells let go. We no longer hanker for the sweet experience. Things need to be moved on. In a similar way the Wheel of Life turns at times from sweet to bitter-beyond our control-and thus moves us forward in the stream. To move on we must let go our grip. Sugar Mountain must be surrendered. For the boy in the song Sugar Mountain has become bitter. Appropriately so. As I write this sort of comparison, I realize a simple comparison does not do justice to either. I would have to write a much longer piece to explore the matter properly. Instead of pecking away on this funky I Phone! Sugar Mountain is a beautiful metaphor for life’s irony. The bitter-sweetness of it. As a metaphor for time-timelessness Joni’s “carousel” stretches into all the great spiritual traditions.
Wow. This breaks my heart. And mostly because I loved these songs when I was twenty. But now I'm in my forties and I haven't even heard them since back in the day. I even forgot about them
At 62 I’ve listened to these two songs hundreds of times and never got the juxtaposition, thanks for the lessons. Like you said about skillshare, you’re never to old to learn something new
Having turned 70 now, i have seen life from both sides now, so I know where both Neil and Joni are speaking from. One thing I still have and always have had, is their music. Its gotten me this far and I plan on riding the carousel a while longer, and will look back then forward to their music, as I always have.
This is sincerely my favorite video you’ve made, on a personal level (expanding on two of my favorite songs from two of my favorite artists) and an existential one, for I’ll soon hit that 30th. (My) youth fades, but (my) spirit still soars. Time to pick up the Martin and finally tackle these songs. Also, I’ve had a helluva a time picking a name for this new Mexican Martin, but you be helped me choose; Joni it is :) thank you
She stripped away everything about her life and sang her pain. Would recommend that everyone listen to "Blue" at least one time. Still have my faded battered copy of this classic from beginning to end
The Circle Game always made me cry and still does.Both these songs are amazing, beautiful, bittersweet.And they were both so young when these were created.I have definitely kept my childlike sense if wonder, which doesn't seem to be very common.
Thanks for doing this indepth comparison. I always loved Circle Game but with each passing season the depth of Joni's lyrics become more powerful. Just turned 64 and there is a lot to look back on and reflect upon.
I can't imagine how many specific song/artist requests you receive daily, but I came to this video early and just saw my chance to suggest that you consider making a video about one of my favorite artists, Peter Gabriel. I can't say exactly what song or message of his you should make a video about, but I just adore his legacy of playing music with people from his school and wearing funny costumes, to becoming a major contributor to the new progressive rock genre and finally becoming a pop god with his later, solo work
Excellent video Polyphonic. Joni has always been my spiritual siren, and heroin(e). I spell that last word like that deliberately. Because she's been like a powerful drug, for me. I'm addicted to her, and she has brought me incredible highs and beautiful epiphanies. But there's also a darkness in there, and I can sometimes only take limited doses, because her music/lyrics, her whole art, is just so powerful. It's great to hear this song framed like this, as a reply to Neil Young's song. I didn't know of the latter before seeing your video. So thanks for educating me. It's also great to hear the positive side of her insights brought out like this. As, for me, it's her 'saudade', as the Brazilians might call it, the blue melancholic note, that is usually dominant. Great stuff!
Wonder if they both got the carousel image from Catcher in the Rye, when Holden watches his younger sister Phoebe riding on one in Central Park...been a while since I read it, but I believe that's when he has, or starts to have, his epiphany about adulthood.
two of my most favourite musicians, especially in their younger years. I forgive Neil his ""horny"" stuff that once in while appears among the beautiful small songs, Joni, well, she is undoubtedly thequeen of pop-poetry and I esp. appreciate her early jazz work, very adventurious and the songs remain in my mind, even after 30-35 years. Hail to Joni and Neil.
I think I am the only one who just prefers the Mature Hissing of Summer Lawns Joni Mitchell. The one with complex surprising harmonic modulations and laser like sneaky lyrics that exposes some of the intrinsic hypocrisies and ironies of the 70s and 80s. Lost in the never ending ultimately nihilistic drug fuled party. The burst bubble of that better 60s dream still there like some kind of residual background radiation creating a dim spiritual disatisfaction in her characters like Scarlet and Edith and the Kingpin and her brilliant extreamly hallucinogenic insightful painterly "The Jungle Line" Rousseau walks on trumpet paths.. Safaris to the heart of all that jazz. Geeez she was like a little TS Elliot. On that LP.
I look that one up for a listen; I'd forgotten it. I've always esp liked her "Court and Spark" album; with songs like "Raised On Robbery," "Free Man in Paris," and on views on love. Last winter I happened on "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," a funny and jazzy collab between Joni and Chick Corea with a very famous bass player, last name begins with "P" whose name i've temp forgotten.
"In order to enjoy the carousel, you need to let it go round and round. Without the forward motion, without the repeating cycle, the carousel isn't a ride." I would add to this that without the ups and downs, it would be a really boring ride.
Interesting. I love both of these songs but I never knew the back story. I have to say that “Circle Game” has come to mean so much more these days than when I first heard it (I’m now in my 60s). These lines especially: 🎶...And they tell him/take your time/it won’t be long now/till you drag your feet to slow the circles down...🎶
No.... please no. People make such a big deal of Skynyrd's "response". But what do they really have to say to the profound moral accusations of Southern Man? "A southern man don't need him around anyhow." What boorish ignorance. The whole song just says how great things are for white people down there, and so what if they treat blacks like animals in order for it to be so. It's reflected all over the US with the "America: Love It or Leave It" mentality. No sense of justice, just a "Watcha gonna do about it?" hubris.
Neil young I feel like is underappreciated when it comes to his lyrics. Along with David Bowie and Space Oddity, Neil Young is the only artist to make me cry with Sugar Mountain and Old Man. His lyric writing is as good as Neil Peart
Neil Young is the greatest singer songwriter to ever live. His lyrics so simple, clean and pure. Even better than Leonard Cohen, far better than Dylan. I don't think he's underappreciated, as he thankfully has had a lot of renewed interest and spotlight lately. I like Rush and think Neil Peart is an excellent lyricist and story teller.
Michael Levine, Yes, Neil Young is a great singer/songwriter. Better than Dylan? Ridiculous. Dylan is the greatest singer/songwriter in the history of folk and rock. No one else is close. Neil Young not even in the discussion.
Excellent presentation! You've drawn together two very similar, yet, oh so different songs about aging. Your final synopsis was as poetic as the lyrical paintings of these classic songs. Well done! and Thank you!
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What I find fascinating about Joni Mitchell's optimism in Circle Game is the fact that she had gone through some experiences that would render most people bitter and broken. She had been street homeless while pregnant as a penniless teenage art student, rejected by her family, and had ended up having give her baby up for adoption to give her child the best chance in life. That's not even touching on the pain and betrayal she must have felt toward the man who abandoned both her and her child. Despite those experiences she chose to sing about innocence, wonder, and hope. That is truly a victory of the soul and perhaps the deepest form of wisdom. Thanks for a brilliant video.
She was 22 not a teen, but neither homeless and he stayed with her after but told her he would not marry her or be a father for their daughter, and THAT felt like all else was empty to ever done with him. Eventually he left so she was spared from being the ass kicker. She had a job but that would not last soon, and hospital, etc nor be able to pretend she was married in the long run (at that time an stigma that closed you many doors, even for job openings you really needed ever more, as if your credit were almost that a step closer to another one that worked the streets, even to get out into str8 jobs) and those jobs for single young ladies would not sustain both alone herself. Daycares didnt exist really, but other ladies paid for it as maids or nannies. Forget about telling her parents she became a "fallen woman" 1964 still didnt believe or even understood in the Summer of Love, for free, that was very proper and even more polite Canada still in the 50's as many in Bible belts of USA, for another decade or longer...
And as Joni had confessed a few times, her artistry didnt come out because she even believed in it or was leaning that way in the Arts (she was into painting being very visual herself and musical ear too but only as audience not in the other side as maker), but forced by necessity to make some bucks in independent gigs freelancing once her first husband also went frog on her, all b herself and in a quick tempo she honed her skills on her own self taught ways, a blessing. But like some proverbial greatest chefs of all time, once on the apron and getting a spoon and pot (as she said "I discovered I could be good at this, but I had no idea I had the gift for it, that came slowly the realization") these moved from serving cold sandwiches or recipes from others into the "improving" from others' own and make things in new ways. Specially, after she was allowed a sight into the big leagues and observed what the big boys like Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan and her boyfriend in CSN (who gave her a hand in the Indusrty to be signed into records) could do with their skills, and she absorbed like a vacuum or computer data processing, growing fast like a Natural, but not mimicking or playing along nor alike those tall sports players leagues, she turned it into something off this planet to places only a "Neo" kind can start to believe, and others cant go but just listen. The Lady was a born natural alike Mike Oldfield, who in my opinion Im convinced he is a Savant in music, like those children as Mozart, who like Joni are shown to play and soon are speaking in tongues in it, touched by the HG to since before their birth. As Joni reflected on how it all happened to her Art, all came to be like a set of chain reaction changes and yes truly setbacks and that led her to join Music making and performing and a whole new life form that made of her a new person
@@pendragonU wow. . .just wow
She gave her child up to focus on her career.
@@relaxingsounds1386 Not true at all. As she has said "there was no career at that time". Glad her daughter got a good home instead of going into foster care.
In today's sick world she would just kill it.........Abortion is murder
I was told by an old man when I was in my teens, "Don't ever lose the kid inside of you because when you do, that is when you get old". I lived by those words and I'm 70 now. People keep asking me, "When are you gonna grow up?" Me - "Never!"
I'm 65 and young women still look at me
@@edmundooliver7584 Lucky you. I became invisible to young women around 50.
@@thelakeman5207
don't worry about it now, you're better off without them.
@@DaleRC75 no, but they hate me or love me I still have all my black hair.
Jonie did not write lyrics like other musicians she wrote poetry. Supremely talented artist of our generation who's beautiful voice froze time for me more than once
And for me, far more poetic and beautiful than Dylan. Where is her Nobel?????
I agree. I consider her the best poet and musician ever. I started listening to her 1972 at 16- never been the same. My 33 yr. old daughter loves her as well.
@@helenamaria710Far more? Far more? I don't think so. Who is ahead would be debatable. Leonard Cohen, Neil Young, Kate Bush, Van Morrison, Gordon Lightfoot have work that is extremely good as wel
@@johncowper7982 Joni Mitchell is great but she hasn't got the width of styles that Dylan has conquered with elan. And she went jazz and l can't stand jazz in any of it's incarnations. Kate Bush's body of work is also superior.
IMNSHO
Tell me about Dylan's great work from the 90s, 00s and even just recently.
@@helenamaria710cause Dylan is better than
I thank the universe every day for joni mitchell and her unmatched humanity. I wish more people recognised the significance of her work and her legacy. Not a day goes by without listening to her beautiful voice… and every day I feel like talking to an old friend.
Universal humanity? What about her medical fascism on vaccine mandates.
The mask slipped...her and NY..Will never be forgiven
Listen to this song for years but never really understood sugar mountain
My first time hearing circle game by Joni Mitchell what an awesome artist she was and Neil Young
Still love their music to this day I am 60 years old
I am now 71 years old, one wonders just where all that times goes along with wishing that I had done more with that time, but thankfully I am still alive and can still try to make each and everyday better then the day before
. What else can you do except to strive to do just a bit better each day and I always try to make people smile or laugh just to try to brighten up their day. Does not always work but what else can you do? I can only hope to help someone try to have a better day!!!!!
Mitchell is a rare artist If you take away the music the lyrics have enough artistic merit to qualify as high art. Both sides now still moves me to tears. I love this era of music . It was so pure so honest so thoughtful so beautiful so heartfelt so cathartic.
I definitely agree.
Joni’s music is just bland without the lyrics.
It was, a thought that soon would see 4 dead in Ohio, 11 bayonetted at UNM, and more walks into the life. Many opted out, went on a permanent hiatus to places unknown.
Christian Gasior I don't know how someone could listen to Hejira or Court and Spark and still think that. I'd understand not liking it but it's definitely not bland, there's a ton going on.
@@christiangasior4244 Joni's melodies and harmonies were so good they are in a class of their own. Her voice was magnificent She was a great guitar player and arranger as well. She also played the piano, was a painter and she was beautiful. She definitely fired on all 8 cylinders.
Joni is one of the greatest lyricists of the modern era.
S Sligh hell yeah
Joni Mitchell is, in my opinion, the most consistently producer of exceptional songs-both lyrically and musically-of at least the last one hundred years. From 1969 with "Both Sides, Now" to "Hana" in 2007 listen to the complexity of the chords, rhythm, melody, and her arrangements there is simply a level of sophistication that most popular music rarely approaches.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
P.S. If for some reason, you don't agree with me, please feel free to continue to live in ignorance.
What the hell is the "modern era"? Can you give an example from before? Kind hard to do from before recordings were possible. Just say "best ever!"
+ Phillip Hiller: I guess I have the opposite take on those two. Besides "Circle Game," there's
Both Sides Now
Free Man in Paris
Cary (Get Out Your Cane)
Michael from Mountains
Night in the City
For Free
Chelsea Morning
etc.
Every one an exceptional composition, musically and lyrically. They never fail to get me humming/singing along, even if only in my head. Infectious!
Somehow, I just can't relate much to most of Neil's works.
Fred
Absolutely
Joni Mitchell was my mother's favorite singer when I was a teenager so I heard this song a lot. I'm 62 now and fully realize how precious those years of youth are and how much I gave up to grow up and be on my own as soon as I could. When my son got his first full-time job I convinced him to move in with me, which is what I wished I had done with my Dad. I allowed him to keep being young while guiding him to living in an adult world. Four very happy and productive years for the both of us. He's on his own now living a life I could only dream of when I was his age. In return I've recaptured more than the shreds of my youth and am the happiest I've been in decades. Neal and Joni each tell a different side of the same coin and the cool thing is that it can be possible to switch from the dark to the light side with effort and patience.
I think Neil and Joni are not only the best Canadian singer/songwriters that have ever lived. I think they are the best singer/songwriters that have ever lived. Period. The fact that they grew up a few hundred miles from each other is stunning (I know Neil was born in Toronto. But he moved to Winnipeg when he was a teenager).
Add Cohen to the list
@@LageTH-cam Canadian singer/songwriters specifically
@@dee1955 Ok what don't know how I didn't notice that
Gordon Lightfoot also
And Burton Cummings
When I was 18, I wore the grooves right out of "Blue". One of the most amazing masterworks by a master artist.
I did the same. I had to buy a new one. I liked the blue sleeve in the original. The new one had a white sleeve.
@@murrayarmstrong499 I didn't know that - thanks 🙏
I wore the grooves out on Blue at the age of 15! I learned to sing well by singing over and over and over with Joni. Eventually I achieved 3 1/2 octave range thanks to the challenge of singing to Blue.
@@NBportofino I LOVE THAT!!! Great story! My favorite song was the title track - I was actually 19, June, '71, in the Navy, and just arrived at my first Duty Station, NAS JAX. Was broke up from my GF in Philly, living alone, and as lonely and blue as I could be. Joni became something like my new GF, and we sang to each other, too. Every song on that album resonated with me. Funny corollary - I was a big Jethro Tull fan, and I taught myself to play the flute at night on guard duty out in the woods. Doing that led to me auditioning into a BFA Music program at Penn State in '74.
@@edfederoff2679 you taught yourself to play the flute?!! That’s so cool 😎. I loved Jethro Tull too. I saw them in concert in LA somewhere. Don’t remember because I saw practically everyone back then. Except for Joni. But…I’m executive producing a reality show starring Wynonna Judd and her husband Cactus Moser and Wynonna just performed with Brandi Carlisle at the Newport Folk Festival. It was a tribute to Joni and she performed with them. Sadly her range is gone due to a stroke. Wynonna loves Joni and Brandi recorded Blue herself. Check it out. Wy had a framed pic on her desk of herself with Joni. So jealous. Six degrees of separation
They’re such amazing artists, I couldn’t imagine what music would be without them
Sure, but these days Joni is just a nut-case with imaginary Morgellons Disease. It's hard to listen to hear her songs now without thinking about it.
JCO2002 I don’t find it too difficult
+ Russkiy Deutsch: Well, for one thing, CSNY would be just CSN, like they were at first.
Which is actually very, very good!
Fred
@Fred
I came here on this for the about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey who are on the beautiful historic road to peace in the different sovereign nations of the United Nations just until the end of times living in PEACE without one drop of senseless blood shedding war at the happy digital internet after the search with the very fast searching machine “Google”
‘Music until the end of times not about senseless blood shedding war but instead of this until the end of times about peace on the beautiful peaceful world on the historic beautiful peaceful road to peace in the beautiful peaceful UN PEACE PALACE in the Hague in the beautiful Western former colonial business as usual the beautiful Royal Kingdom the Netherlands on the beautiful peaceful world on the beautiful peaceful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe’.
What you are in answer to Russkiy Deutsch, who said
“They’re such amazing artists, I couldn’t imagine what music would be without them.”
stating
“Well, for one thing, CSNY would be just CSN, like they were at first.
Which is actually very, very good!”,
is actually the matter with all about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey for the simple reason that all about 7 Billion simple descendants of the first human beings not being a monkey who are on the beautiful historic road to peace in the different sovereign nations of the United Nations just until the end of times in the by Joni Mitchell described Circle Game in her happy response to Neil Young living in PEACE on the happy digital internet with the many inspiring anti-war and anti-cyber war quotes and outside the happy digital internet without one drop of senseless blood shedding war, this already for the simple reason that a beautiful peace world makes a peaceful life on the beautiful peaceful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe for everybody of course much easier, which beautiful peaceful world on the beautiful planet Earth in the beautiful peaceful Universe will of course make until the end of times make in the vanities of the vanities where there is nothing new under the sun the predictable rounds around the sun.
But it will be in the history of mankind until the end of times of course for Mr. Crosby, Mr. Stills and Mr. Nash in the by the happy Joni Mitchell described happy Circle Game just an mission impossible to imagine how they would have sounded as good without Mr. Young.
+ Theo Benschop: All I'm saying is that CSN sounded spectacularly innovative and wonderful before they brought Neil aboard.
Have you heard their first album (CSN, that is)? It was ground-breaking at the time; it garnered both critical and popular acclaim.
Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (said to refer to Judy Collins); Wooden Ships (which was also covered by Jefferson Airplane); Guinevere; Marrakesh Express; etc.
And at least one later album CSN recorded without Young, _Daylight Again,_ was also an excellent piece of work.
In other words, we don't have to imagine what they would have sounded like without Neil Young - *we have actual examples, and they are wonderful!*
This is not meant to cast any aspersions on Neil; their second album, with all 4 of them, is also one of the all-time greats.
That's all I'm saying. I'm not entirely sure what you're saying; it doesn't seem to be entirely coherent.
Fred
I'm 21 now and I kills me to hear songs like these written by people in their earlier 20s who are now in their 70s. It reminds me that one day I'm going to be an old man.
You will if you are fortunate. And you will look back with wonder at what was so important is now humorous. Youth is wasted on the young -- Like most things, you can't appreciate how special it is until it is no more.
But when you look at your life, you'll be a lot like they were.
You should listen to Lost Highway by Hank Williams. I first heard it when I was 21 and now at almost 30 I still adore it. If you check it out let me know what you think!
Crushenator500 hey thanks for the recommendation. Definitely a great song.
No problem, I'm glad you liked it!
Thanks for reminding me how much I love Joni Mitchell. Her idiosyncratic mix of wistful longing and a subtle glimmer of hope makes her music achingly beautiful.
"Circle Game" is surely one of the best songs ever written, and Joni sings it so very beautifully. God bless you, Joni, you are unmatched! (Neil Young, you're great too!)
Listening to the 70-year-old Joni Mitchell sing "The Circle Game" is an experience that draws the tears until they run freely. What an extraordinary examination of a life lived. Thank you, Joni, for bringing such beauty to the world.
Both brilliant songs. "Sugar Mountain" is one of my favorite Neil Young songs ever. The connection between the two songs is fascinating. I guess the cold, long winters make the Canadians so much more introspective than we Americans.
Thanks for giving this grown ass man a moment in his feels. My mom loves Joni Mitchell and would play "The Circle Game" often when I was a little boy. Hadn't heard it in years. Especially touching now given the context of your video and me being much older.
Jimmy John honest
Dynamite sammiches, and freakin' fast delivery! Sorry J.J., I really couldn't help myself!
Sorry, you lost me at feels.
Neil never got stuck in a moment too long. He always evolved and didn't dwell on his current success. Such a source of energy and I don't think there is a better artist out there
Except of course, Joni Mitchell. And as far as she's concerned, then some, as the comparison of these two songs proved.
She's the one who's truly unparalleled.
Me too... I feel the same about him. He’s one of my dearest old friends, 💞💐💞💐💞💐💞💐
@@dereathjohnna doubt he's your friend he wasn't anyone's friend very long, esle he be truly seen
@@donnahall3902 same and I don't think your missing anything. Not sure why her name got mixed in with so many prolific artist. I mean songwriting is extremely difficult and I think her talent as a writer is well beyond her abilities as a performer but I'm sure there are many who disagree. I'm just a simple fella. Give me some early Allman's, Leon Russell, Neil & Derek & the Dominos & I'm happy.
Neil got caught up with being a professional complainer about politics that really hurt his later career. He is my favorite all time but please play your music and not preach at us.
What beautiful comments Neil shared about Joni and his wife and just about being so grateful. What a blessed man. And we are all blessed to be open to their openness that allows such brilliance to come through them. That's what Love is all about.
At 67, "growing" old is an everyday event. You don't grow: you fade.
And time does speed up for the older folk, per my personal experience. It's a principle of physics not yet understood or explained.
The best thing you can do is to take care of yourself when you are young. Your health --- mental, spiritual and physical --- are all so important. Neglect, indifference, stupidity when you're younger --- each has it's consequences that can haunt you the rest of your life.
My love of sports was the cause of physical issues that have followed me for decades now. Playing injured, the damage done cascaded in its own way to cause some physical limitations that are tough to get through when you expect to be a physical person your entire life.
And you do slow down. Do as much as you can when you're young. Travel, laugh, share. Stay open to opportunities that present themselves, however unexpectedly.
And always be kind. It costs you nothing, and the rewards can be great for both giver and receiver. The world has enough hate, corruption, cruelty and greed. Don't join that club. It's filled with hollow losers.
Sage advice.
I'll ignore all of it.
👍👍👍👍👍👍
Sin was my downfall.
Robert - thank you for your eloquence of wise words... love NEVER fails... fellow feeling is vital for all of us... costs nothing to be considerate and caring ...
But now the days are short - I'm in the autumn of the year. And now I think of my life as vintage wine from fine old kegs. From the brim to the dregs - it poured sweet and clear - it was a VERY good year.
That is true; the thing about time. A year when you are 20 is so long, you do so much. Now ( 57) if I don't work to make shit happen, a year can go by so quick. Just gotta use it to keep one motivated....
wow i love joni so much, thank you for this video. She has actually invented different tunings and developed a whole method of categorizing each song according to each tuning it is, she is amazing, she deserved a video for herself (i love neil young too, but he is much more spoken of)
Neil Young is glaringly omitted from best songwriters and lyricists discussions, and I will never know why. He writes beautiful, beautiful songs.
Not omitted by me.
Yes for a short time there he had an open line to magic . I think his narcissism and success has now convinced him every thing he does is great, which it just isn't. He would never write over 100 verses to pare it down to 4 now.
@@TheNaturalust
other artists would love to write like Neil.
Neil over 1200 songs. Twice as many as Dylan, More than McCartney, Springsteen, Petty, Clapton, Led Zeppelin
Etc........
@@artvallejos1460 Not sure what that means. There is no correlation between quality and quantity and artists can ever only write like themselves. I've listened to ALL of Neil's stuff, he's actually my close neighbor although he's not here much anymore. I stick to my assertion. 😎
@@TheNaturalust
all of his stuff is great. even if he doesn't think so. Time Fades Away.
L A , uptight, City in The Smog
City in The Smog, don't you wish you could be here too.
The story that Tom Rush tells is that Joni told him that she had a friend who was turning 20 and was depressed. That friend was a member of a Toronto teen club, and when one turned 20, they could no longer be a member, so she wrote it to cheer the friend up. My favorite Joni song is The Urge for Going, a great song about summer romances changing like the seasons. I was a member of The Club 47 and heard Joni sing it just after she wrote it in 1966. Joni is my favorite of all time folk music singer songwriter.
2 great songwriters getting their own video. Nice.
was that a part 5 anime reference? (yes it comes out in october)
Hi
Not nice, ridiculous. I hoped to hear a duet by the two number one singer-songwriters of my youth. Maybe of all time. Instead we got still photos with the lyrics interrupted unnecessarily by a jerk who thinks he can explain the obvious. - Dragging my feet at 71.
Wow dude. That was brilliant. I am a sonically driven music lover and have heard these songs hundreds of times. I never took the time to follow the poetry. I have for other Joni and Neil songs but not this one. Wow.. thank you for dissecting it and both were great contrasting perspectives on life.
This is music of my childhood.
It's excellent that it still gets the attention of people who could be my kids & grandkids.
I don't know why, but every time I hear, "Yesterday a child came out to wonder" I start to tear up. Happened again just now. And I'm 64.
It happened to me too.I'm 66.It always gets me!😥
I'm almost 65 & have lived through many losses of dreams, including the death of a beloved 5 year old grandson.
You and me and thousands others. The song is known for this effect. Joni's music has a way of transmitting directly to one's core. This is just perhaps the most obvious example. She's a true genius. Probably the most broadly talented artist of our lifetime.
Singer, Composer, poet-lyricist, guitar player, piano player, painter - absolutely brilliant and unique in all of these, and probably more that I'm forgetting.
I'm 63 in 2 days!
I've loved both songs for the last 40 years or so but that is theirs the time I realised the connection. Brilliant thank you.
Such wisdom from these 20 y.o. old souls. Although, now 50 years exiled from Sugar Mountain, I'm dragging my feet...
As someone who's turning 19 in August, I just wanted to thank you for the existential crisis you've presented me with.
Existential crisis? CALL 1-800-
Welcome to the party! It gets better; it could always be worse. Whatcha bringing?
You’re just a sentient being _suffering_ as a virtual slave to your will to life.
True. But. That didn't help.
You are welcome, I'm sure. Get a grip.
My sister has a voice almost exactly like Joni and our Grandma's favorite song was Circle Game. Therefore we've had to play it at almost every family gathering for decades. But when the priest at Grandma's funeral forbid us to play anything not on his "list", me and my sister agreed and then broke into Circle Game at the funeral. The priest was smoking from his ears mad but there wasn't a dry eye in the church when we were done. 🤗❤️☮️
And after all these years of playing _Circle Game,_ I had no idea it was inspired by Neil's _Sugar Mountain_ !!!
Thanks for explaining this connection!
Fred
I'm currently listening to The Last Waltz on vinyl... 'Helpless' with Neil and Joni is so timeless!
Glad Joni is getting a video. She’s such a gifted artist. An artist’s artist.
I can remember listening to Sugar Mountain in my teens, loved the song and Neil Young in general. I've gotten more into Joni in the last decade or so and she's absolutely brilliant. I'm 51 now with an 8 and 10 year old. Listening to Sugar Mountain and The Circle Game helps me remember what being young is like and what a big deal the transition into teens and adulthood is, and how important it is to continue moving forward, not just grasping at the past.
This comparison of the two songs was perfect! It made sense to me and I actually have a different outlook on getting older. I loved the carousel going round and round compared to life, enjoy every up and down, every circle! I didn't explain my feelings that well but it made sense to me! Thank you for the video and all the time you put in to it!!
I loved both of these songs growing up and never really looked too closely into the lyrics. I'm 65 now and so great this young guy brought new meanings from these brilliant songs to my consciousness, THANKS! YES, WE CAN ALWAYS HAVE PLENTY OF ROOM TO LEARN IN LIFE!
There are a lot singer songwriters that give their own view on the world we're living in but almost no one dared to be so honest and vulnerable as Joni did.
You have to be very strong to show that to the world. Let the feminsists in the world talk but she did the talk and the walk. A powerwoman in the real sense of the word, a true goddess.
This song came out in my last year of primary school (Australia).
It made me think, I was leaving the real care free time of being a kid and stepping into teenage years and so growing up.
These were days of reflection and when this song came out, it sort of laid out the future for me. It made me rather melancholy about passing one phase of my life and excited for the future. I have never forgotten that day. Love JM.
Two amazing Canadian artists...voices of a generation that we still enjoy as much today as we did when they first hit the airwaves...timeless.
Two of the best songwriters of all time. Joni’s “Both Sides Now” is my life’s theme song.
Two of Canada's 🇨🇦national treasures !!
along with Leonard Cohen Gordon Lightfoot (one of The Bob's favourite song writers)
@@snidelywhiplash8399 Add Robbie Robertson, Rick Danko, Richard Manuel,Garth Hudson and Levon Helm (He's American but gets honorary citizenship) to that list.
Aye agreed eh, Joni & Neil double-double national treasures
@@snidelywhiplash8399 Might as well mention Bachman / Cummings
SideTripLife We Canucks have a wealth of music talent as mentioned. I apologize for the other genre of music I’m not familiar with but Liona Boyd a world renowned classical guitarist, Bruce Cockburn, Hank Snow and the truest Canadian, Stomping Tom Connors, “C eh N eh D eh! Canada’s our land...sorry, so sorry, got carried away!
After 52 years of pain and mistakes I met the man of my dreams. I never thought it would happen, but it did. And it can happen to you too, if you're brave enough.
Polyphonic is with outta doubt the best music channel on TH-cam, I look forward to each video because there is so much variety and each video is interesting and well thought out. Keep it up dude.
When I heard the story about those two songs, I heard that Neil Young's first band used to play in a club which didn't let anyone over 19 in. So when he turned 20 he lost his band, his friends, and his social scene all at once. How's that for a rite of passage?
OMG JONI MITCHELL IS MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME THIS MAKES ME SOOO HAPPPPYYYYY
I feel so privileged to have grown up with both these songs and these songwriters and look back upon them fondly as shaping my own love of life music and adulthood. I sometimes do wonder just what today's young adults will have to cling to since I see so many lost within baseless music ripe with kaleidoscopes of swirling nothingness lacking lyrical substance and frame. When they turn 53 I hardly see them lamenting upon Drake fondly or a thousand other hip hop artists whose songs reflect immediate gratification and good times. Where are the Joni and Neil's of this generation? Surely there has to be change but at what cost? Even more sadly today's youth do not even see or care that they have no one scripting their lives as we did in the form of these two Canadian artists. I suppose I have become my mother as the circle game passes and sugar mountain is long but abandoned with only a site where a carnival once stood...
Two of my favorite songwriters of all time. I've always wished that they had made an album together. Thank you for this video.
I wish they had had a child together
As my last "revolving years" play out after being a life long fan of Neil and Joni and covering both these songs for decades, I never realized the connection. Great video.
You're gonna' live to be 105 .....
Quit fooling around .....
Circle Game is such a great song. A catchy chorus for singing together in a group sittin' around at a party (very hippiesque feeling) and yet deep and lyrical content in the verses.
Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite singer-songwriters, and what she does differently from others of the genre (that honestly deters me from listening to others), is that she approaches some topics in a much more optimistic and hopeful attitude. The music is usually slow and moving, with double tracked guitars creating an extremely dreamy and wave like, and her lyrics are feel more about the story she's trying to tell, rather than the message she's trying to convey to you. Which means songs like Old Furry sounds incredibly lighthearted and fun, but the way she repeats certain phrases and accentuates some with little laughs or voices hints at something much more somber going on beneath the facade. The dreamy instrumental backs this up too, as if Joni herself is reflecting on this experience after the fact and runs it through her own mind. She lets the listener do the work, makes her music seem much less about whining about current affairs (I'm not trying to point fingers) and more about the art.
Thanks for the great video, you've really expanded the world of music to me than just a bunch of records sitting on a shelf.
Reed Baldwin You just perfectly described why Joni Mitchell is one of my favorite, if not, my favorite musician.
Beautifully put. I always feel a sense of peace listening to Joni's music more so than other songwriters from her era. She has a way of making the profound and complex sound so pure and simple.
I love finding over people who love Joni
William Talbot Same. Sometimes it feels as if Joni doesn't get as much praise for her songwriting as Dylan does. She's a marvel.
June Asiimwe Honestly I personally think she’s a far superior songwriter to Dylan but that’s just my opinion
This is one of the best things I’ve seen on the internet...thx...I needed it right now.
Good job. I was around when those songs were released, yet I've never thought of them in this way.
Who put these onions in here *sniff*. Amazing video, actually brought a tear to my eyes
Joni is and always will be one of the most underrated performers of the folk rock era. Neil always had a sharper edge to his music but they are both awesome musicians and very good friends a wonderful tribute to both of them thanks
Dear God, moron arrives with the Underrated bomb!
Awesome to see you do a video of two of the greatest songwriters of all time..
You never fail to provide that extra insight that helps make these songs I’ve hear a thousand times mean more. For whatever reason, this morning, today, in this moment…this was thee message I needed to hear. Thank you.
The times they lived in and knowing each other allowed their talent to blossom into genius.
I love both of these two beautiful Canadian singer songwriters. I have been listening to then for more than 50 years.
When your a child you wish you were a teen. When your a teen you wish you were an adult. When your an adult we realize how much we miss our youth. When your elderly you wish you could go back and do it all again.
Not necessarily. As a “senior” adult (I’m 71), and even though my body won’t agree with me, I really enjoy the wisdom I’ve attained through the years. I realize now the crap I wasted my younger years on and, while I certainly wouldn’t change any of it (‘cause some of it was awesome) I do enjoy the things that I have and have become quite a lot. The fewer years you have to look forward to the more you’re likely to cherish the ones you have left.
I’ve never wanted to be a child or teen again. Those were terrible years for me. But that just supports Joni’s point. It’s a circle. There’s nothing inherently good or bad about any age. It’s up and down.
I was 18 and new to guitar and music. Joni changed my life irrecoverably. All for the stellar better. Thank you Joni for all your music/poetry.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are without a doubt some of the greatest songwriters like EVER!!!
Great commentary on both Neil's Sugar Mountain & Joni's Circle Game. I grew up on their music here in Toronto, Canada and still of course listening to their wonderful songs now at 68.
Neil and Joni are both Canadian. They would spell "colour" with a U.
both from the Canadian prairies. I can see the neighbourhood Neil grew up in from my condo window now
That's why we correct Canadians.
And it's soccer. Not football.
TheBatugan77 chill bro. our american football is played in like. 3 countries. let the rest of the world have this one; we’re already big enough laughingstocks
@@denniscross5588 neil is from ontario.
is that your sum of knowledge aboot canada?
I'm 61 and this song somehow touches my heart and brings a tear to my eye.
Neil was saying being young is one's last pure essence of innocence and that can never be recaptured no matter how many times you go around Joni's carousel.
Excellent analysis of these two songs by two of my favorite musicians of that era. And their are lessons for us as well.
Go deeper, I am asked. Of the two songs Joni’s symbol of the carousel as a metaphor for time-for Samsara-nails it. The Wheel depicts the very ground and heart of existential life. From the four stages of life-birth, adolescents, adulthood, old age-to the turning of pleasure into pain, the Wheel is incredibly flexible yet precise in its capacity to depict the dance of Life. What in Sanskrit is called Dharma. And what in Chinese culture is referred to as the Tao, both are depicted as a Wheel. Things change-and must change-yet Life follows a pattern. Generation after generation. There is also wisdom in being able to ask: Where am I on the Wheel? What time is it now for me?
Both songs shed light here.
Sugar Mountain implies a similar theme. The melody is incredibly sweet, laced with melancholy. The stream of Life-like it or not-is moving us forward. The song describes a psychological death from one stage of life to the next -and the need to surrender.
In Hindu cosmology the archetype for this kind of change is called Kali. She’s the great Devourer with blood dripping from Her tongue. Her name comes from the term “Kal” meaning “time.” She’s the Wheel of Time. She’s also the great Mother and She’s very black. Like Kali-Sugar Mountain is “sweet” but only when it’s our time to be there. Resist the flow of time and what’s sweet now soon becomes quite sour; even bitter. Nature assures the letting go. Like in a diet, sweet is good (up to a point); our bodies hold onto it in the form of fat. But introduce the appropriate amount of bitter into our diet and what happens? The body immediately begins to release its grip, to eliminate. The cells let go. We no longer hanker for the sweet experience. Things need to be moved on.
In a similar way the Wheel of Life turns at times from sweet to bitter-beyond our control-and thus moves us forward in the stream. To move on we must let go our grip. Sugar Mountain must be surrendered. For the boy in the song Sugar Mountain has become bitter. Appropriately so.
As I write this sort of comparison, I realize a simple comparison does not do justice to either. I would have to write a much longer piece to explore the matter properly. Instead of pecking away on this funky I Phone!
Sugar Mountain is a beautiful metaphor for life’s irony. The bitter-sweetness of it. As a metaphor for time-timelessness Joni’s “carousel” stretches into all the great spiritual traditions.
Wow. This breaks my heart.
And mostly because I loved these songs when I was twenty.
But now I'm in my forties and I haven't even heard them since back in the day. I even forgot about them
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Thank you for this video. Love both of these songs.
Both songs brought me to tears.
At 62 I’ve listened to these two songs hundreds of times and never got the juxtaposition, thanks for the lessons. Like you said about skillshare, you’re never to old to learn something new
Thank you Canada for these priceless gems. 🇨🇦 🇦🇺
Having turned 70 now, i have seen life from both sides now, so I know where both Neil and Joni are speaking from. One thing I still have and always have had, is their music. Its gotten me this far and I plan on riding the carousel a while longer, and will look back then forward to their music, as I always have.
Finally a video about Joni Mitchell lyrics!
This is sincerely my favorite video you’ve made, on a personal level (expanding on two of my favorite songs from two of my favorite artists) and an existential one, for I’ll soon hit that 30th. (My) youth fades, but (my) spirit still soars. Time to pick up the Martin and finally tackle these songs.
Also, I’ve had a helluva a time picking a name for this new Mexican Martin, but you be helped me choose; Joni it is :) thank you
She stripped away everything about her life and sang her pain. Would recommend that everyone listen to "Blue" at least one time. Still have my faded battered copy of this classic from beginning to end
The Circle Game always made me cry and still does.Both these songs are amazing, beautiful, bittersweet.And they were both so young when these were created.I have definitely kept my childlike sense if wonder, which doesn't seem to be very common.
My 20th birthday is in 2 weeks. Great timing, thank you for this!
Thanks for doing this indepth comparison. I always loved Circle Game but with each passing season the depth of Joni's lyrics become more powerful. Just turned 64 and there is a lot to look back on and reflect upon.
Joni Mitchell is simply the greatest singer songwriter to ever live. She astounds me.
Cool history....really enjoyed listening to how he wrote the words. She was such a good writer too...we are fortunate to have them.
I can't imagine how many specific song/artist requests you receive daily, but I came to this video early and just saw my chance to suggest that you consider making a video about one of my favorite artists, Peter Gabriel. I can't say exactly what song or message of his you should make a video about, but I just adore his legacy of playing music with people from his school and wearing funny costumes, to becoming a major contributor to the new progressive rock genre and finally becoming a pop god with his later, solo work
Excellent video Polyphonic. Joni has always been my spiritual siren, and heroin(e). I spell that last word like that deliberately. Because she's been like a powerful drug, for me. I'm addicted to her, and she has brought me incredible highs and beautiful epiphanies. But there's also a darkness in there, and I can sometimes only take limited doses, because her music/lyrics, her whole art, is just so powerful. It's great to hear this song framed like this, as a reply to Neil Young's song. I didn't know of the latter before seeing your video. So thanks for educating me. It's also great to hear the positive side of her insights brought out like this. As, for me, it's her 'saudade', as the Brazilians might call it, the blue melancholic note, that is usually dominant. Great stuff!
Joni is pure poetry! I needed to get older to understand and love her!
Bravo. Well done, and that's from a fellow who just celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his 19th Birthday!
Wonder if they both got the carousel image from Catcher in the Rye, when Holden watches his younger sister Phoebe riding on one in Central Park...been a while since I read it, but I believe that's when he has, or starts to have, his epiphany about adulthood.
Great artists and songs - thank you for highlighting the two songs
two of my most favourite musicians, especially in their younger years. I forgive Neil his ""horny"" stuff that once in while appears among the beautiful small songs, Joni, well, she is undoubtedly thequeen of pop-poetry and I esp. appreciate her early jazz work, very adventurious and the songs remain in my mind, even after 30-35 years. Hail to Joni and Neil.
These two songs may be simple but both with so much heart and life.
Finally you did a video on Joni
Thank you! What insightful comments! You brought the magic of both songs alive again!
I think I am the only one who just prefers the Mature Hissing of Summer Lawns Joni Mitchell. The one with complex surprising harmonic modulations and laser like sneaky lyrics that exposes some of the intrinsic hypocrisies and ironies of the 70s and 80s. Lost in the never ending ultimately nihilistic drug fuled party. The burst bubble of that better 60s dream still there like some kind of residual background radiation creating a dim spiritual disatisfaction in her characters like Scarlet and Edith and the Kingpin and her brilliant extreamly hallucinogenic insightful painterly "The Jungle Line" Rousseau walks on trumpet paths.. Safaris to the heart of all that jazz. Geeez she was like a little TS Elliot. On that LP.
man I love that record too. a very special time in my life.
My favorite!
Apparently Prince was a big fan of that album.
I look that one up for a listen; I'd forgotten it. I've always esp liked her "Court and Spark" album; with songs like "Raised On Robbery," "Free Man in Paris," and on views on love. Last winter I happened on "The Dry Cleaner from Des Moines," a funny and jazzy collab between Joni and Chick Corea with a very famous bass player, last name begins with "P" whose name i've temp forgotten.
@@carlcushmanhybels8159 Pastorius? Jaco Pastorius. Unfortunately he died in a pub brawl. Amazing guitarist but a bit of a loose unit.
Wonderfully philosophical and touching analysis of their lyrics looking at the big picture.
"In order to enjoy the carousel, you need to let it go round and round. Without the forward motion, without the repeating cycle, the carousel isn't a ride."
I would add to this that without the ups and downs, it would be a really boring ride.
That was very interesting to know that there was a link between the two songs this way. Both were very favorite songs growing up.
My other favorite song writer is also Canadian. Gordon Lightfoot.
Ian Tyson
Interesting. I love both of these songs but I never knew the back story. I have to say that “Circle Game” has come to mean so much more these days than when I first heard it (I’m now in my 60s). These lines especially:
🎶...And they tell him/take your time/it won’t be long now/till you drag your feet to slow the circles down...🎶
An analysis of Southern Man from Neil Young and Sweet Home Alabama from Lyrnyrd Skynyrd would be fantastic!
Brandon King don't forget Neil's rejoinder, "Alabama."
No.... please no. People make such a big deal of Skynyrd's "response". But what do they really have to say to the profound moral accusations of Southern Man? "A southern man don't need him around anyhow." What boorish ignorance. The whole song just says how great things are for white people down there, and so what if they treat blacks like animals in order for it to be so. It's reflected all over the US with the "America: Love It or Leave It" mentality. No sense of justice, just a "Watcha gonna do about it?" hubris.
Yeah, they were assholes but mighty fine musicians.
I thought someone might mention that.
@@pathfinder1273 What's your point?
Boy these two really make you sit and listen,such beautiful music and lyrics that go together like peanut butter and jelly,awesome artists!
Neil young I feel like is underappreciated when it comes to his lyrics. Along with David Bowie and Space Oddity, Neil Young is the only artist to make me cry with Sugar Mountain and Old Man. His lyric writing is as good as Neil Peart
I definitely agree, Joni is also one of the greatest lyricists.
No way is he underappreciated, nor is Joni. Not by my generation that is for sure. LOL.
Neil Young is the greatest singer songwriter to ever live. His lyrics so simple, clean and pure.
Even better than Leonard Cohen, far better than Dylan.
I don't think he's underappreciated, as he thankfully has had a lot of renewed interest and spotlight lately.
I like Rush and think Neil Peart is an excellent lyricist and story teller.
kinda of bizarre comparing NY to Neil Peart...it's like comparing Ernest Hemingway to Isaac Asimov. But I do like them both.
Michael Levine,
Yes, Neil Young is a great singer/songwriter. Better than Dylan? Ridiculous. Dylan is the greatest singer/songwriter in the history of folk and rock. No one else is close. Neil Young not even in the discussion.
Excellent presentation! You've drawn together two very similar, yet, oh so different songs about aging. Your final synopsis was as poetic as the lyrical paintings of these classic songs. Well done! and Thank you!