Circle Game - Joni Mitchell: Do Lyrics Age?

 

Songs I Love:

Circle Game
(With reference to the lyrics please.)

This song's been recorded by more than 200 international artistes but it wasn't much of a hit for the singer-composer who recorded it.

I have no comment about its popularity but love the lyrics and what it meant to me then and how different the lyrics are today with a senior's mindset. 

Some lines connected well:

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.

It's natural but commonplace that we should think back and regret painfully that certain aspects of our life could have turned out differently?  But go along that line and we could end up psychologically perturbed and be in a tumble. So just be happy with our lot? For me, yes.

At Carnegie Hall in 1972; singing with her audience. Video by Hannah Green. Thank you

In the composition, written by one of the greatest Canadian songwriters ever, Ms Joni Mitchell described the young man in question as one who's turned sixteen springs and sixteen summers. He's like my grandson and other children announcing with pride, "No I'm not twelve, I'm thirteen, a teenager." It's like hey I'm no kid anymore. But the advice:

Take your time it won't be long now, Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down. Yes, drag your feet or wish you were 48 instead of 84. So as the years go by and the boy turned twenty his dreams would have lost some significance. 

For me, at this age, as one of the painted ponies that go up and down, there are hardly any more dreams, except that the grandchildren would grow up safe and have a full life. Hopefully for them: There'll be new dreams and maybe better dreams and plenty, Before the last revolving year is through.  

Joni Mitchell was one lady I thought I could meet during my long stay in Winnipeg, Manitoba but never did. Not during the mid-80's.

She's born on the 7th of November 1943.

Happy Birthday, Ms Mitchell.

Hong Kong singer, Agnes Chan and Penny Lim with Silver Stones from Singapore, recorded this song. 

A few Asian singers recorded this song. Just for reference, below is a shorter list of singers who have recorded Circle Game:

Tom Rush
Buffy Sainte Marie
George Hamilton IV

Cornelia
Penny Lim and The Silverstone
The Travellers

Ricky Ely
Ian Campbell Group
Tokyo's Coolest Combo

Agnes Chan
Maureen McGovern
Ian Campbell Group 
and others.

A Carousel of Life where painted ponies go up and down in the Circle Game.

Connect Circle Game Recordings: http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2009/05/dr-agnes-chan-beauty-brains-bopper.html

http://singapore60smusic.blogspot.com/2009/06/singapore-malaysia-hong-kong-and-other.html

An original article.
Google images and gif.

Children's Day: Remembering 'Nobody's Child'

SONGS I LOVE:

Usually, Singapore celebrates Children's Day on First October but from 2011 onwards it will be on the first Friday every October. So for this year, it's on the 5th. Just as we honour the children, we must also remember the impoverished and homeless ones around the world.

1969 hit Nobody's Child by British singer *Karen Young (image 4) highlighted the plight of a blind and unwanted child in an orphanage. The song originally written by Cy Coben and Mel Foree was first recorded by Hank Snow in 1949 and had been covered by artistes that included George Sheridan and three of the Beatles.

Another group called The Traveling Wilburys that had Bob Dylan as a member recorded the song for a benefit (image 2). Asian artistes included Agnes Chan and Irene Ryder, both from Hong Kong on Life Record and Pon EMI Regal. 

Singapore has two versions, one on a Philips Product Long Play by 60s stars, Heather and The Thunderbirds (image 2, details below**) and the other by Lisa Lim and The Stylers on Amigo Records (image 1).
Nobody's Child: Cy Coben and Mel Foree.

(Refrain) I'm nobody's child I'm nobody's child /Just like a flower I'm growing wild/No mommy's kisses and no daddy's smile/Nobody wants me I'm nobody's child...

As I was slowly passing an orphan's home one day/I stopped there for a moment just to watch the children play/Alone a boy was standing and when I asked him why/He turned with eyes that could not see and he began to cry...

Some people come for children and take them for their own/But they all seem to pass me by and leave me all alone/I know they'd like to take me but when they see I'm blind/They always take some other child and I'm left behind...

No mother's arms to hold me or soothe me when I cry/Sometimes it gets so lonely here I wish that I could die/I'll walk the streets of heaven where all the blind can see/And just like the other kids there'd be a home for me...

**PSY 112 275 Philips: Heather - Harvey and The Thunderbirds, 'Birthday'. Side One: I'll Never Fall In Love Again, Birthday, Nobody's Child, Early In The Morning, Special Delivery, The Ballad of John and Yoko. Side Two: Wonderful World, Tracy, With A Little Help from My Friends, Train, Romeo And Juliet, Time Is Tight. To read about The Thunderbirds click

Labels below.

Image 1, 2: Andy Lim Collection.

Image 3, 4: Google.

*There is an added Karen Young biography and connection on the Comment page. She had passed on in 1991. Click Comments below.

Christmas Songs 60s Asian Music Collection

Christmas songs are popular internationally and likewise in Asia, especially in *Singapore in the 60s, the number of Christmas albums that floods the market during the season is innumerable. Many of these melodies are recorded by Asian singers but most are just covers of yuletide songs.

.The vinyl by Agnes Chan (image) is a good example. But it is a little different since the songs were pressed when she was singing in her teens. The child-like rendition of the four Christmas goodies on this EP is like the baubles on the tree, tinkling and cheerful.

.This parcel - LIFE/EP 2124 - has the title song, All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth, Mr Mistletoe, Rocking Around The Christmas Tree and The Little Drummer Boy. All songs were arranged by Wallace Chow, designed by LRIL and printed by KMIL, PJ.

Rocking Around The Xmas Tree (sidebar) was written by Johnny Marks and originally recorded by Brenda Lee in 1958.

.*Large majority of English Language speakers.

Image from YouTube by: justiniong 1120/December 22nd 2008. Vinyl & article: Andy Lim Collection.

(1) Penny Lim Silver Stones Chinese 60s Music

Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and other South East Asian countries have their fair share of lady singers in the 60s. They are young, pretty and talented and steal the limelight. These singers include, SK Poon, Sakura Teng, Rita Chao, Theresa Teng, Agnes Chan, Lena Lim and a host of others.

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But these singers paved the way for others and these late 60s ladies have managed to press vinyls to their names too. Penny Lim is one and the image shows that she has recorded with The Silverstones.

In this particular Sakura Records release, she sings covers by Western pop singers with such hit classics like Butterfly by Jim Ed Brown (a French song translated into German and English), Circle Game (1968) by Joni Mitchell, All Kinds Of Everything (1970) by Dana and Sweet Dreams, which I have no knowledge about. Couldn't have been by the Eurythmics. Most of them sing in both Chinese and English.

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Certainly an accomplished group, The Silverstones use the echo chamber to advantage. Is it possible to differentiate them from the Stylers?

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Image/Original Article: Andy Lim Collection.

Dr. Agnes Chan - Bopper With Beauty & Brains!

She would probably be an early Singapore 70s influence as her first hit was during that period but what intrigued me are the two new unscratched vinyls* I found in Sungei Road and the fact that she has a PhD. from Stanford University.

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Agnes Chan began singing and playing the guitar for fund raising events during her junior high years in Hong Kong. When she recorded a cover of Joni Mitchell's, "The Circle Game" with her elder sister, actress Irene Chan, it became the greatest hit on the island. She was only 14 and soon became a celebrity throughout South East Asia.

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Chan was taken to Japan by a Japanese singer/songwriter in 1972 and recorded her first Japanese pop hit, "Poppy Flower." She became an overnight sensation and a teenage idol. In 1973, Chan's third single, "Splendor in the Grass" earned her the Japan Record Grand Prix "Rookie of the Year" award. She is also known in Japan as, "the fairy who came from Hong Kong."
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There was a controversy about her motherhood and career so she wrote a thesis on the conflicts of working mothers and earned her Stanford PhD in 1994. She also added steadily to her public portfolio, writing newspaper and magazine columns, appearing on television news and game shows and raising money for charitable causes.

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*$2.00 for above vinyl (image) and EP 2124, which is Agnes Chan's Christmas classics, "All I Want For Xmas...", "Mr Mistletoe", "Rocking Around The Xmas Tree" and "The Little Drummer Boy". They are both on Life Records and the Xmas EP was arranged by a Wallace Chow.

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YouTube: agnes chan nobodys child (recorded at age 15, Hong Kong, 1971)

(Information from Agnes Chan websites, Wikipedia and Stanford University Alumni pages.)