Album: Ladies Of The Canyon (1970)

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• Yesterday a child came out to wonder
  Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
  Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
  And tearful at the falling of a star
  And the seasons they go round and round
  And the painted ponies go up and down
  We're captive on the carousel of time
  We can't return we can only look behind
  From where we came
  And go round and round and round
  In the circle game
  
  Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
  Skated over ten clear frozen streams
  Words like, when you're older, must appease him
  And promises of someday make his dreams
  And the seasons they go round and round
  And the painted ponies go up and down
  We're captive on the carousel of time
  We can't return we can only look behind
  From where we came
  And go round and round and round
  In the circle game
  
  Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
  Cartwheels turn to car wheels through the town
  And they tell him,
  Take your time, it won't be long now
  Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down
  And the seasons they go round and round
  And the painted ponies go up and down
  We're captive on the carousel of time
  We can't return we can only look behind
  From where we came
  And go round and round and round
  In the circle game
  
  So the years spin by and now the boy is twenty
  Though his dreams have lost some grandeur coming true
  There'll be new dreams, maybe better dreams and plenty
  Before the last revolving year is through
  And the seasons they go round and round
  And the painted ponies go up and down
  We're captive on the carousel of time
  We can't return, we can only look behind
  From where we came
  And go round and round and round
  In the circle game
  
  And go round and round and round
  In the circle game Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
  Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc., Royalty Network, Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 19

• Seventh Mist from 7th HeavenI always loved Tom Rush’s version. So insightful, yet resigned to the inevitable.
• La Zalewski from PaMy wife and her friend sang this at her daughter's wedding in 2015. The male backing vocals seem a little distracting.
• Miles from Vancouver, CanadaHere's something else worth pointing out. The backing singers on this song are credited to the Lookout Mountain Downstairs Choir...who are in fact David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash and Neil Young!
• Sharon Cicero from Ft Walton Beach FlaI cry everytime i hear this song
• Harry from Calgary, CanadaI feel very sad when I hear this song. I am with Myles from Vancouver. I detest "Big Yellow Taxi" but LOVE this song.
• Tc from Evanston, IlGarret that's true. She wrote "Circle Games" in response to Neil Young's "Sugar Mountain" a lament about being one year older and no longer able to go to a particular hang out with friends any longer due to the clubs(?) age limit. There is a Joni Mitchell quote about this on wikipedia under Sugar Mountain the song. I also remember hearing
  her say it on a live version of "Circle Game" years and years ago. That may be where the quote on wikipedia is taken from.
• Miles from Vancouver, CanadaI actually prefer Joni's output after Court and Spark, but this is one of the best songs from Reprise albums and perhaps the only reason I'd listen to Ladies of the Canyon. Screw "Big Yellow Taxi"...I hate that song. "The Circle Game" is far better. (Sometimes it even makes me cry.)
• Don from Aurora, OhWhat can one say about "The Circle Game" it has to be one of the best writing songs ever. It is a perfect example of Apollinian and Dionysian as per Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy.
• Camille from Toronto, OhThis song has deeper significance to Joni Mitchell. In her late teens or early twenties prior to her fame, she gave birth to a daughter out of wedlock. It was a time in our nation when unwed mothers were practically shunned. No one in Joni's family knew about the baby till decades later. She gave the baby up for adoption. Read the lyrics of the Circle Game with this information in mind and it has a much deeper meaning. Joni never gave birth to another child. The older women of her family, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, had sacrificed their hopes, dreams and creativity for husbands and children, at times leading lives of hard work and drudgery. Joni wanted to rise above that and allow her creative side to develop, not just for herself but as a tribute to those women who came before her. Now at a midlife age, Joni and her daughter have reunited. Read about it more in depth in the book "Girls Like Us".
• Andrew from Portland, OrYou know, I'd heard that Joni made the "It's better when an older person sings it" comment to someone who'd just performed Both Sides, Now. I could be wrong, though.
• David from Youngstown, OhThis was one of the songs we sang at my fifth-grade elementary school graduation in 1977. I didn't get it at the time, but the lyrics are beautiful and so meaningful.
• Randy from Las Vegas, NvSorry, I was wrong. Joni did write the song.
• Randy from Las Vegas, NvAlthough Joni Mitchell did perform this song, I believe that it was written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. Buffy, like Joni was born in Canada. She was a native-american born on a Cree reservation in Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan.
• Ivan from Dallas, TxA fairly famous female singer named Agnes Chan in Hong Kong covered this in the early seventies. The B side was Peter Paul & Mary's "Day Is Done".
• Gary from Houston, TxAn older woman sang this at her own concert, and afterward Joni went back stage to meet with her. Without telling the woman that she was the writer, Joni said, "Wow, it sounds so much better when an older person sings it." The woman seemed offended, but Joni laughs at this now.
• Dave from Cardiff, WalesTom Rush (best known for writing the Walker Brothers' classic "No Regrets") later covered this, and his 1989 'best of' album was named after it.
• Garrett from Nashville, TnAnyone know if it's true that Joni wrote this about Neil Young turning twenty? (They were friends when they were unknown artists in Canada).
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScBtw, I get what Jonie Mitchell meant about the song sounding better when someone older sang it. Someone who was older would probably have had more experiences and would have felt similar feelings about the subject matter this song deals with.
• Stefanie from Rock Hill, ScThis song is beautiful! It's one of my favorites. I'm 17 years old, and I sang this in my Chorus class when our teacher let us sing any song we wanted for an extra credit grade. I had never performed any of Jonie Mitchell's songs in front of anyone, and luckily every one in class thought it was very good. I was very glad considering that I had been extremely nervous about the whole thing. One of my friends who had also heard the original said that I sounded like Jonie Mitchell. I don't know about that, but I was definitely glad to receive the compliment.

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