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.
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
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!!!!!
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.
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).
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.
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
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!
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.
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....
@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
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
@@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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
"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!)
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?
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.
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.
I n the category of Briiliant Musical Artist, I agree with Prince, Jimi Page, Robert Plant, Morrissey, Janet Jackson, Elvis Costello'd, countless others, Joans work is on par with anyone of the last 55 years. And not because she bought me spaghetti dinner in LA 1996. She's just as marvelous at a dinner table.
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)
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.
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.
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
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. 🤗❤️☮️
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.
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.
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.
There is just no comparing joni's lyrics with any other. They are all great in their own ways but joni portrays thoughts that so eloquently hits emotional nerves using metaphor and truthful speech ...i just don't know of anyone who did it better. Bob dylan maybe but some of his lyrics were filler & his music wasn't quite as dynamic
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.
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.
Polyphonic is with outta doubt the best music channel on RUclips, 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.
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.
Well, Joni put her baby up for adoption so, she went on that ride of life without responsibility, without the awareness of her child's life , happy or yearning for her . Was it all worth it ? what a strange ride........
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!!
Pink Floyd had written about youth, aging, and death throughout their career. Consistently, they used the metaphor of a "river" to represent the passage of time. What I find interesting is that Young, Mitchell, and Pink Floyd all come from the same era [60s], and although they had their relative youth in their 20s, they still had the foresight, focus, and ability to have an idea of what getting old might be like. They captured the fear associated with this process, as well as some elements of hope. ruclips.net/video/HX_du6Gcp1w/видео.html In contrast, it seems that today's artists worship their youth, and do not give their future much thought. It might be a good escape, and is definitely something worth celebrating. From my perspective, there are few of these artists whom I would accuse of having anything of relevance to say as they get older. The ones who can find something to say, and who can speak to their audience, are the ones who will have a future with it all. *_The endless river... forever and ever..._*
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.
Suggestion: St Vincent's cynical post modern feminist response 'Marry Me, John' (2008) to Laura Nyro's 'Wedding Bell Blues' (1966), written by Nyro aged 16 where love's voice is like a 'choir of carousels'. Nyro's song was a USA No.1 in 1969. Joni acknowledged Nyro as an important musical influence, one of her favourite tracks being Nyro's 'Captain for Dark Mornings' (1969).
Yes, and and add John Martyn in there, please, if you do - absolutely unbelievable artist, barely known I believe, at least in the US. His lyrics are enough to make a grown man - or woman - cry. Never heard of him? Try and find 'May You Never', 'Over the Hill', and 'Solid Air' (written for/about his good friend, Nick Drake) for a start. Pure magic.
Yeah, Bert Jansch inspired so many guitarists who went on to greater notariety-- Neil Young, for instance-- and he deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience.
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.
3rd also seems to be full of self-importance and ego stroking.😋 Don't quote your own book and especially don't give copyright notice! (From Cuvtixo's 2018 masterpiece, "You're an Idiot")
Cuvtixo D What stage of 20's will alway's often dictates one's point of view, & that is as it should be. As the late Leonard Cohen stated... ''Your body will never be familiar.'' this can be evidenced by the 7 year cycles of physical & mental growth. From birth to recieving your new front teeth From there to recieving your procreation abilities. From there to rearing the results of those said abilities. From there to eperiencing the retrograde of all of the above. From there, the time left that only The Creator of them all can know. So you may be able to tell by the slope of that above text's sloping truth... That whatever angle you may see it all, it never really belongs to you. Thank's for the kind advice on the copyright advice. Reckon i'll standfast as that ''Idiot''as long as it continues to help heal the PTSD of my fellow soldiers. To understand this in more depth of herat... refer to your own site's crippled Chihuahua that has been given the chance to become a bit more whole once again. Blessing's be upon You're masterpiece 20's series that you may happen to find yourself in. 71418
those were great times to be young. i turned 20 in 1969. My Back Pages: Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now Dylan wrote that in 1964 when he was about 23. In a Rolling Stone interview Joni said when she first met Neil around the time he wrote Sugar Moutain, he was strongly influenced by Dylan. so was just about everybody else, Dylan broke free of pressures to keep writing political songs after the several that he wrote said more than any others before or since, just nailing it. that's why people got mad and called him a sell out and a betrayer when he pursued his own artistic inspiration, no other choice. Neil Young, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylam, Roger McGuinn. Neil does the third verse and the ending guitar solo. ruclips.net/video/rGEIMCWob3U/видео.html&start_radio=1&list=RDrGEIMCWob3U
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.
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.
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
In contrast to the argument made here I find The Circle Game more melancholic than Sugar Mountain. I think that's because there is an implied finality in the Joni Michell song.
I don’t know a soul whose life turned out the way they wanted. Resilience and flexibility are imperative. By the time you reach 60 its like you’ve had many lives rolled into one. Don’t ever let disappointment turn to bitterness. Its a crazy ride! Always be grateful for whatever you have!
you missed the importance of the painted ponies going up and down...as in there will be ups and downs in life, but don't worry, not only does what goes up have to come down, but what goes down. is going to come up again ...so smile and enjoy the ride :)
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...
"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.
I loved the idea of this video, showing and comparing the 2 amazing songs. However, the „background“ music that constantly plays every time you speak (thus clashing with the musical clips of Sugar Mountain and Both Sides Now) is just annoying added noise! Sorry, but for this reason no thumbs up.
A very interesting analysis; could you do “End of the Line” also, as a metaphor for perseverance and endurance. Some lyrics weather well and take on deeper meaning as they age.
Anybody remember being a kid and your parents put you on the merry-go-round and each time it would go around they would wave to you and you would wave back? How reassuring is it to the child to know that their parents will be there after every turn?
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.
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
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
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
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!!!!!
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.
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
@@LageRUclips Canadian singer/songwriters specifically
@@dee1955 Ok what don't know how I didn't notice that
Gordon Lightfoot also
And Burton Cummings
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.
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
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!
Such wisdom from these 20 y.o. old souls. Although, now 50 years exiled from Sugar Mountain, I'm dragging my feet...
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.
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....
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
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?
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.
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!
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.
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.
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!
My other favorite song writer is also Canadian. Gordon Lightfoot.
Ian Tyson
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.
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.
"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!)
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?
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!
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.
I n the category of Briiliant Musical Artist, I agree with Prince, Jimi Page, Robert
Plant, Morrissey, Janet Jackson, Elvis Costello'd, countless others, Joans work is on par with anyone of the last 55 years.
And not because she bought me spaghetti dinner in LA 1996. She's just as marvelous at a dinner table.
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)
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.
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.
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!
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. 🤗❤️☮️
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.
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.
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.
OMG JONI MITCHELL IS MY FAVORITE OF ALL TIME THIS MAKES ME SOOO HAPPPPYYYYY
There is just no comparing joni's lyrics with any other. They are all great in their own ways but joni portrays thoughts that so eloquently hits emotional nerves using metaphor and truthful speech ...i just don't know of anyone who did it better. Bob dylan maybe but some of his lyrics were filler & his music wasn't quite as dynamic
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.
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.
This is music of my childhood.
It's excellent that it still gets the attention of people who could be my kids & grandkids.
Polyphonic is with outta doubt the best music channel on RUclips, 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.
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.
Well, Joni put her baby up for adoption so, she went on that ride of life without responsibility, without the awareness of her child's life , happy or yearning for her . Was it all worth it ? what a strange ride........
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!!
Who put these onions in here *sniff*. Amazing video, actually brought a tear to my eyes
Thank you Canada for these priceless gems. 🇨🇦 🇦🇺
This is one of the best things I’ve seen on the internet...thx...I needed it right now.
Pink Floyd had written about youth, aging, and death throughout their career. Consistently, they used the metaphor of a "river" to represent the passage of time.
What I find interesting is that Young, Mitchell, and Pink Floyd all come from the same era [60s], and although they had their relative youth in their 20s, they still had the foresight, focus, and ability to have an idea of what getting old might be like. They captured the fear associated with this process, as well as some elements of hope.
ruclips.net/video/HX_du6Gcp1w/видео.html
In contrast, it seems that today's artists worship their youth, and do not give their future much thought. It might be a good escape, and is definitely something worth celebrating. From my perspective, there are few of these artists whom I would accuse of having anything of relevance to say as they get older. The ones who can find something to say, and who can speak to their audience, are the ones who will have a future with it all.
*_The endless river... forever and ever..._*
My 20th birthday is in 2 weeks. Great timing, thank you for this!
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?
Suggestion: St Vincent's cynical post modern feminist response 'Marry Me, John' (2008) to Laura Nyro's 'Wedding Bell Blues' (1966), written by Nyro aged 16 where love's voice is like a 'choir of carousels'. Nyro's song was a USA No.1 in 1969. Joni acknowledged Nyro as an important musical influence, one of her favourite tracks being Nyro's 'Captain for Dark Mornings' (1969).
Could you do a whole video on Joni's work, maybe "Blue" specifically?
young nope YES!!!!
Court and Spark.
@@johnbrowne3950 Court and spark..one of my top 5 desert island must haves!
@@cidDraGonFly Absolutely.
Do a video on Nick Drake's music or Bert Jansch and the british folk revival pleasee!
FarLeys 1 Nick Drake!!!
I’d love a video about the unusual way that Nick Drake’s music was revived - via a 1999 Volkswagen Cabrio ad.
Yes, and and add John Martyn in there, please, if you do - absolutely unbelievable artist, barely known I believe, at least in the US. His lyrics are enough to make a grown man - or woman - cry. Never heard of him? Try and find 'May You Never', 'Over the Hill', and 'Solid Air' (written for/about his good friend, Nick Drake) for a start. Pure magic.
Yeah, Bert Jansch inspired so many guitarists who went on to greater notariety-- Neil Young, for instance-- and he deserves to be appreciated by a wider audience.
The brevity of life astounds me. I am 69 for 3 more months......💙
Can you please do Jackson C Frank. He's really music's unsung hero.
The times they lived in and knowing each other allowed their talent to blossom into genius.
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.
Joni is THE songstress.
Something about Canada - Joni and Leonard Cohen are probably the foremost
English language writers of song,
Finally a video about Joni Mitchell lyrics!
@ age 65, i'd been down them trails... got the t-shirts - got the broken heart's.
& lookin' back, i've seen ...it... like this...
''4 Maybe 5 20's''
Life as i see ...it... is a series of 20's
The 1st, full of instinct, loftiness, and mistakes.
The 2nd of plans, Marriage, Children, and all of the work that they take.
The 3rd holds reflections, confidence, and faith.
And the 4th if you should become so blessed, a glimpse, if not a hand hold...
on that of a Great Grandchild's... first 20's pace. -gilpin 62118
© 2013 page 195 of ''SOLD to be DIER'S'' One Chaplain's answer to... ''Why Me God?''
Sold to be Diers ummmm......
ok
3rd also seems to be full of self-importance and ego stroking.😋 Don't quote your own book and especially don't give copyright notice! (From Cuvtixo's 2018 masterpiece, "You're an Idiot")
Cuvtixo D
What stage of 20's will alway's often dictates one's point of view, & that is as it should be. As the late Leonard Cohen stated... ''Your body will never be familiar.'' this can be evidenced by the 7 year cycles of physical & mental growth.
From birth to recieving your new front teeth
From there to recieving your procreation abilities.
From there to rearing the results of those said abilities.
From there to eperiencing the retrograde of all of the above.
From there, the time left that only The Creator of them all can know.
So you may be able to tell by the slope of that above text's sloping truth...
That whatever angle you may see it all, it never really belongs to you.
Thank's for the kind advice on the copyright advice. Reckon i'll standfast as that ''Idiot''as long as it continues to help heal the PTSD of my fellow soldiers. To understand this in more depth of herat... refer to your own site's crippled Chihuahua that has been given the chance to become a bit more whole once again.
Blessing's be upon You're masterpiece 20's series that you may happen to find yourself in. 71418
those were great times to be young. i turned 20 in 1969.
My Back Pages:
Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now
Dylan wrote that in 1964 when he was about 23.
In a Rolling Stone interview Joni said when she first met Neil around the time he wrote Sugar Moutain, he was strongly influenced by Dylan. so was just about everybody else, Dylan broke free of pressures to keep writing political songs after the several that he wrote said more than any others before or since, just nailing it. that's why people got mad and called him a sell out and a betrayer when he pursued his own artistic inspiration, no other choice.
Neil Young, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylam, Roger McGuinn.
Neil does the third verse and the ending guitar solo.
ruclips.net/video/rGEIMCWob3U/видео.html&start_radio=1&list=RDrGEIMCWob3U
Damn! That video you linked to is blocked in the UK. ☹
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
no offense but your analysis doesn't bring anything. the lyrics are pretty straightforward and I wish you could have just let them play out.
Glad Joni is getting a video. She’s such a gifted artist. An artist’s artist.
I love both. Circle Game makes me sadder than Sugar Mountain, though.
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.
Once in a lifetime by Talking Heads next?
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
In contrast to the argument made here I find The Circle Game more melancholic than Sugar Mountain. I think that's because there is an implied finality in the Joni Michell song.
Awesome to see you do a video of two of the greatest songwriters of all time..
Cortez the killer by Neil young is my favorite song when I'm alone driving long distance
Agreed … I also dig the album Relayer by YES when on a long roadtrip …
ruclips.net/video/paeNnR33i5Q/видео.html
Yung Neil ❤️
Babby Jones lol
nice minutemen picture dude x
sspaceboyy thanks man
Scott Pilgrim
I don’t know a soul whose life turned out the way they wanted. Resilience and flexibility are imperative. By the time you reach 60 its like you’ve had many lives rolled into one. Don’t ever let disappointment turn to bitterness. Its a crazy ride! Always be grateful for whatever you have!
I hope Joni's seen this...
We love you Joni.
Both Joni and Neil had polio when they were children, another thing they have in common besides enormous talent.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are without a doubt some of the greatest songwriters like EVER!!!
you missed the importance of the painted ponies going up and down...as in there will be ups and downs in life, but don't worry, not only does what goes up have to come down, but what goes down. is going to come up again ...so smile and enjoy the ride :)
what?? neil and joni who?? you mean to tell me that lil wayne and cardi b are not the greatest lyricist of all time??? pfft.
I dare say “The Secret O’ Life” by James Taylor has the same type of lyrics. Been a fan of all 3 artists for over half a century!
Joni Mitchell is simply the greatest singer songwriter to ever live. She astounds me.
Joni mitchell came directly from heaven
Great video, as always. Would you made one about Jimmi Hendrix?
Good job. I was around when those songs were released, yet I've never thought of them in this way.
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.
Where have all the poets gone? Why was nobody listening to these messages??
truly a great video, but damn i feel sad now :(
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...
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.
"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.
Two of the best songwriters of all time. Joni’s “Both Sides Now” is my life’s theme song.
I loved the idea of this video, showing and comparing the 2 amazing songs. However, the „background“ music that constantly plays every time you speak (thus clashing with the musical clips of Sugar Mountain and Both Sides Now) is just annoying added noise! Sorry, but for this reason no thumbs up.
More neil
We all will get older and hopefully wiser. My Back Pages by Dylan is one of the best songs on this topic. Pray, hope and don't worry (st padre pio)
A very interesting analysis; could you do “End of the Line” also, as a metaphor for perseverance and endurance. Some lyrics weather well and take on deeper meaning as they age.
Anybody remember being a kid and your parents put you on the merry-go-round and each time it would go around they would wave to you and you would wave back? How reassuring is it to the child to know that their parents will be there after every turn?
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.
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