Artists in Arms: The songs Joni Mitchell and Neil Young wrote about each other
Joni Mitchell and Neil Young are two of the finest songwriters to emerge out of the 1960s and ’70s. While they share their homeland of Canada, there has often been speculation that the pair enjoyed a more intimate relationship, too. Such connections are always made between two songwriters who have seemingly shared circles for most of their careers. Whether or not the pair had a romantic interaction or didn’t is not really of our concern, because their friendship prompted two sweet songs and one incredible band instead.
Mitchell and Young are two experts on the themes of love, having gifted the world with some of the most tantalisingly beautiful ballads in history. Sharing their life’s love stories throughout their careers and their records, there is even reasoning to think that they also shared their personal relationship, with two tracks standing out as being penned by each songwriter about the other. Mitchell is said to have written the song ‘The Circle Game’ about Young while his not-so-secretly-titled but very rarely performed number ‘Sweet Joni’ is clearly aimed at the folk singer.
While their names are now enshrined in the world of music forever, when the two artists first crossed paths, they were just two musicians emboldened by a new decade and a new generation of creators, hoping to make it a new world of folk. They were foundational moments for both songwriters and just so happened to be shared with one another.
In Toronto back in 1964, a young Joni Mitchell was a member of a very small but growing folk scene. Another member of that scene was Neil Young. The two performers met in 1964 at the Fourth Dimension folk club at the University of Manitoba and encountered him again in the Yorkville district of Toronto in 1965. At the time, the aspiring musicians were desperate for club experience and any spotlight going would be gladly welcomed, but both were struggling to make an impact in their fields with a new wealth of folk talent.
At this time, duos were forming across the land, with Simon and Garfunkel perhaps the most notable. We could dream about what a combination the two performers could have made, but they were intent on taking different paths. Mitchell would take her talents towards songwriting and began penning some of the decade’s anthemic folk music, while Young aimed for the top on his own performing merits.
The young Mitchell was happier to take a backseat as long as she was still creating. She composed songs for Gordon Lightfoot and Judy Collins as well as a bunch of other hits, including a track about her then-21-year-old-friend Neil Young. The track pictured a man scared of growing old – a recurring theme in Young’s own work and is delightfully posied as a reflection of a future about to be lived. It’s built out with Mitchell’s always confessional lyricism but gilded with a golden edge sharpness that slices through the chaff to deliver a poignant take.
‘The Circle Game’ was written in response to Young’s own track, ‘Sugar Mountain’, a track penned when he was just 19 years of age. Not so far away from Young’s later collection of work, the tune lamented the loss of his teenage years and the seemingly impossible challenge of growing old with value. In a decade that seemed to be crafted only for the young, the songwriter’s issues with growing old seemed to land heavily on his shoulders.
Introducing the song in 1968, Joni Mitchell said: “This is a song that’s been recorded by a couple of friends of mine, so maybe you know it a little better than the other ones.”
Mitchell continued: “And if you do – if you know the chorus, wow – just sing along, ’cause it’s a chorus about people and growing old and growing young and carousels and painted ponies and the weather and the Buffalo Springfield.”
By 1968, a lot of time had passed, and the two Canadian stars had grown immensely in a relatively short time, both personally and professionally. While Mitchell had gotten married and divorced, moved to Britain and been furiously writing, Young went south to the US and began work with Stephen Stills and Buffalo Springfield. Mitchell would reconvene with the singer around this time and make a connection that would benefit his career forever.
Mitchell, having divorced her husband Chuck Mitchell a few years prior, headed to Florida, where she met and quickly fell for David Crosby. The former Byrds man had already seen colossal fame in his short career, owing largely to the band’s covers of Bob Dylan, and he’d gathered a tight network of friends that included some of the music industry’s most influential players. Mitchell landed Crosby the role of producer on her next LP, and on the first day of recording, an engineer told them that Buffalo Springfield were recording next door. Crosby, who would soon fall foul of Mitchell’s acerbic wit when wronged, would be gifted the opportunity of a lifetime.
Recognising her old friend, Mitchell made an important introduction, “You’ve got to meet Neil Young,” says the singer, before adding: “I know him from Canada. He’s in the Springfield. He’s so funny. You’re going to love this guy.” It was the first meeting of Crosby, Stills and Young and the start of their iconic band. It’s plain to see that Young and Mitchell’s lives will forever be intertwined, and in 1973, Young paid homage to Mitchell as she had done to him with a song.
On March 20th, 1973, Young sat down at his piano during a performance in Bakersfield, California and let out one of his most touching songs, ‘Sweet Joni’. Young has rarely played the song since, and it remains one of the unattainable tracks in his catalogue. It’s difficult to understand the track as anything but a lilting love letter. Not only is it flecked with some of Young’s more vulnerable lyrics, but his few performances have always been delivered with a lump in his throat. It is perhaps this song which leads people to assume that he and Mitchell shared a romantic relationship.
The duo have continued to be friends both in and out of the public eye, exchanging performances and helping musically to create one of the sweetest friendships in music.
Judging by the song Neil Young wrote for Mitchell, there may well have been a time when it could have been more. But, for now, we have the mesmeric songs they wrote for each other.
