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Joni Mitchell

n this poetic song, Joni Mitchell tells the story of concerts because she wanted to play songs that
T Icarousel as a metaphor for the years that go by, weren't as well known to her fans.
a child's journey to adulthood. She uses a

pointing out how we can look back, but we can't In a 1994 interview with Mojo, Joni Mitchell said: "I
didn't write 'Circle Game' as a children's song, but
return to our past.
H I'm very pleased to see it go into the culture in that
The song opens with the young boy enjoying the
wonder of youth, but looking forwards to getting way." The line "The painted ponies go up and down"
gave David Clayton-Thomas the idea for the lyric
E older. In the second verse, he is 16 and driving. The "Ride a painted pony let the spinnin' wheel spin" in
final verse finds him at 20, with his dreams
the Blood, Sweat & Tears hit "Spinning Wheel."
tempered a bit, but still with high hopes for his
future. David Clayton-Thomas was a huge fan of Jodi
Mitchell, claiming she was an early influence on his
This was partly written in response to Neil Young's own music.
song about lost innocence "Sugar Mountain,"
C where Neil sings, "You can't be 20 on Sugar The Circle Game is one of Joni Mitchell's most
covered songs, with more than 200 artists
Mountain." Joni's last verse is a rejoinder of sorts,
with the 20-year-old facing diminished dreams but recording it over the years. Among them: Steven
still with plenty of hope. Curtis Chapman, Ian McCulloch and Harry
I Neil Young and Joni Mitchell are both from Canada Belafonte.

and met in the mid-'60s. Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was born Roberta
R The folk singer Tom Rush recorded this song, mak- Joan Anderson on November 7th 1943, in Fort
Macleod, Canada. At the age of 9 Joni contracted
ing it the title track of his 1968 album, which also polio, and it was during her recovery in the hospital
included songs written by the soon-to-be-famous that she began performing and singing to patients.
C Jackson Browne and James Taylor. This was a After teaching herself how to play the guitar, she
breakthrough for Joni, who spent much of 1967
performing in Philadelphia and Toronto as she built went off to art college and quickly emerged as one
L up her career. Tom Rush saw her perform in Detroit
that year, and recorded "The Circle Game" along
with two other Joni Mitchell compositions for the
album: "Urge For Going" and "Tin Angel."
E Buffy Sainte-Marie was the first to record this song,

including it on her 1967 album Fire & Fleet &
Candlelight. Soon after, Sainte-Marie's manager
Elliot Roberts took on Joni Mitchell as a client after
seeing her perform. Elliot Roberts got Joni Mitchell
a record deal with Reprise in 1968; her solo career
G took off and she became one of most acclaimed

singer-songwriters of her generation.

A Joni Mitchell's version wasn't released until 1970
when it appeared on her album “Ladies Of The
Canyon”, but she had been playing it for years at
her concerts. The song got a lot of attention when
M she performed it at The Troubadour in Los Angeles
at a series of shows in the summer of 1968.

E Although it was never a big hit, this became one of Image by Henry Diltz
Joni Mitchell's most popular songs. Later in her
career, she left it off the set lists at most of her

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