We're Captive on the Carousel of Time...
"In 1965 I was up in Canada, and there was a friend of mine up there who had just left a rock'n'roll band” said folk singer Joni Mitchell as she graced the stage of London’s Paris Theater in 1970. She continued: “He had just newly turned 21, and that meant he was no longer allowed into his favorite haunt, which was kind of a teeny-bopper club and once you're over 21 you couldn't get back in there anymore; so he was really feeling terrible because his girlfriends and everybody that he wanted to hang out with, his band could still go there, you know, but it's one of the things that drove him to become a folk singer…that he couldn't play in this club anymore. 'Cause he was over the hill.” That friend was Neil Young. He composed ‘Sugar Mountain’ on his 19th birthday, about his dread of growing up and the nostalgia he felt for his adolescence in Manitoba. Mitchell called the song a lament for his youth.
Mitchell and Young, both Canadian folk singers, had become fast friends during the start of their careers. Mitchell’s inspiration behind her early 70s hit ‘The Circle Game’ came from ‘Sugar Mountain’, making it a response song: “And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called 'The Circle Game’.”
I remember the first time I heard ‘The Circle Game’. The song was used for my sixth grade graduation video. The song perfectly encapsulates how fast time can go, and how beautiful growing up can be: the perfect graduation song. Flash forward to college when I was obsessed with Neil Young after seeing him play at the Desert Trip music festival that fall, I found out the boy in ‘The Circle Game’ Mitchell was singing about was him! What made the song even more impactful to me was the fact that David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, friends and collaborators of both Mitchell and Young, sang backup on the track. Almost like a group of friends coming together to cheer Young up. Poignant artistry and a beautiful message.
Young’s ‘Sugar Mountain’ felt reminiscent of my own childhood in Beverly Glen Canyon: “It’s so noisy at the fair, but all your friends are there. And the candy floss you had. And your mother and your dad.” My neighborhood had a street fair every year. As a kid this annual event was one of my favorite summer activities, but by the time I got to college, although still in LA, I felt I had grown out of that phase of my life. “Though you’re thinking that you’re leaving there too soon…” ‘Sugar Mountain’ quickly became my Freshman year anthem.
Mitchell and Young alike use each verse of their songs to discuss a different chapter of growing up. From being a child trying to catch a dragonfly, to trying your first cigarette. The line, “Now you're underneath the stairs. And you're giving back some glares. To the people that you met. And it's your first cigarette” from ‘Sugar Mountain’ reminds me of hanging out with my own neighborhood friends. We grew up together on those winding canyon streets and one night, we all ended up in someone’s garage talking, listening to music and at the end of the night the boy next door, who I had the biggest crush on, walked me home for the first time. Regarding that verse, Young, abruptly pausing in the middle of a concert, claimed, “I think it's one of the lamest verses I ever wrote. And, uhh...it takes a lotta nerve for me to get up here and sing it in front of you people. But, if when I'm finished singing, you sing the chorus 'Sugar Mountain' super loud, I'll just forget about it right away and we can continue.” Lame to him, transportative for me, the listener. ‘Sugar Mountain’ brought me right back to my preteen years. That’s the power of music and Young’s incredible storytelling.
As for Mitchell’s tune, I believe, the best quote that encapsulates the impact of ‘The Circle Game,’ comes from blues singer Tom Rush: “As long as kids grow up, that tune will be relevant”.
We can’t return, we can only look. I don’t believe that. Through the music, we can return.
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