Circle Game lyrics at Unique You

The Circle Game
Joni Mitchell

Click here to hear children sing a rousing rendition of Circle Game.

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

Alfred Publishing Co. (1966)

Lyricist:, Joni Mitchell.

Source of the video clip.

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Aria's Pick!

Up Close and Personal:

Joni Mitchell (7 Nov 1943)
née Roberta Joan Anderson

And the seasons they go round and round and Joni Mitchell remains "one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era", "a musician's musician"; quite thrilled that she is captured on this musical carousel of time!

Joni Mitchell is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, painter and a player of the piano, guitar and dulcimer who "became associated with the burgeoning folk music scene of the mid-1960s in New York City. Mitchell achieved fame in the late 1960s and was considered a key part of the Southern California folk rock scene."

"Throughout the 1970s, she explored and combined the pop and jazz genres. Mitchell has amassed a body of work that is highly respected by both critics and fellow musicians."

"Mitchell is also an accomplished visual artist. She has, through photography or painting, created the artwork for each of her albums and, in 2000, in an interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, described herself as a "painter derailed by circumstance"."

"A blunt critic of the music industry, Mitchell had stopped recording over the last several years, focusing mainly on her visual art, but in 2007 released Shine, her first album of new songs in nine years."

"Joni "Mitchell was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. In 1995, she received Billboard's Century Award. In 1996 she was awarded the Polar Music Prize. She has received five regular Grammy Awards during her career, with the first coming in 1969 and the most recent in 2000. She received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002, with the citation describing her as "one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era" and "a powerful influence on all artists who embrace diversity, imagination and integrity."

"Her home country Canada has bestowed a number

Joni Mitchell's Word of Music & Art (mouse over/click)
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of honours on Mitchell. She was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1981, and into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2001. In 2002 she became only the third popular Canadian singer/songwriter... to be appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada. She received an honorary doctorate in music from McGill University in 2004, and, in January 2007, she was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. On June 29, 2007, Canada Post featured Mitchell on a postage stamp. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her #60 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. The album Blue was listed by Time magazine as among the "All-Time 100 Albums" in November 2006."

Genre: Folk, pop, rock, jazz, world music

Source: (1)