The tune

The Circle Game is a folk rock song for which Joni Mitchell wrote both the music and the lyrics in 1966. Mitchell wrote it as a reply to Neil Young's “Sugar Mountain” (1964), a song that laments the end of the teenage years, and her answer is more hopeful in tone. The song was first recorded by the duo Ian & Sylvia in April 1967, for their album So Much for Dreaming on Vanguard. Mitchell later recorded her own version for her album Ladies of the Canyon (1970). It is one of her most covered songs, and it has been recorded by a number of other artists since its first release. Readers interested in the song's origins will find that its composition and its two principal recordings are closely tied to the folk rock style of the mid-1960s, and to the songwriting of its composer.

What the song is about

The Circle Game is about aging and the hope of change. Mitchell wrote it as a response to Neil Young's “Sugar Mountain”, which mourns the end of the teenage years. Where Young's song looks back with regret, Mitchell's is more hopeful: the years pass quickly, the boy at the center of the song is now 20, and new dreams arrive before the last of the passing years has run its course. The song presents the turning of time as a source of renewal rather than only loss.