Young wrote this in 1964 on his 19th birthday (November 12), just after leaving his band The Squires. The song is about losing the idealism of youth, making reference to his advancing years in the line, "You can't be 20 on Sugar Mountain."
As told in Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History, Neil Young wrote this song in a room at the Fort William's Victoria Hotel in Ontario. And just around the corner from this event would be his meeting Stephen Stills for the first time. Said Young of his time kicking around Ontario with his new friend, "Mainly, he was the funniest person I'd met in years. He didn't have another gig until next weekend, so he stayed in Thunder Bay and we played and he took us to see buffalo. We lived on A&W cheeseburgers and root beer. Very Canadian."
Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game" was inspired by this song. As she explained to a live audience at The Paris Theatre in 1970, "Neil Young wrote this song that was called 'Oh to live on sugar mountain' which was a lament for his lost youth. And I thought, God, you know, if we get to 21 and there's nothing after that, that's a pretty bleak future, so I wrote a song for him, and for myself just to give me some hope. It's called 'The Circle Game.'"
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.