So this has been.my favorite song of OTEP's since it came out in 2004, and I always thought it was a song about a child's narrative of suffering in an abusive Christian home. But now that I am revisiting the lyrics, I am seeing something totally new.
This song could be gospel of John but from the perspective of Jesus.
Jesus was NOT having a good time up to and during the crucifixion. Everyone in the known world at the time looked to him with fear, admiration or disgust and he was constantly being asked questions. He spoke in "verses, prophesies and curses". He had made an enemy of the state, and believed the world was increasingly wicked and fallen from grace, or that he was in the "mouth of madness".
The spine of atlas is the structure that allows the titan to hold the world up. Jesus challenged the state and in doing so became a celebrated resistance figure. It also made him public enemy #1.
All of this happened simply because he was doing his thing, not because of any agenda he had or strategy.
And then he gets scourged (storm of thorns)
There are some plot holes here but I think it's an interesting interpretation.
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
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
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This song was written in response to Niel Young's "Sugar Mountain."
The last verse is a little jacked though... Here's the way it is supposed to be:
"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"
I remember listening to this song holding my son when he was just 3 days old and tears of joy rolling down my cheeks. One of the happiest days of my life that I will never forget. I wish Joni would finish it someday and take the lyrics past 20...to 50 or 60 perhaps. Oh what a tale that would be :)
oh my god, i remember when i first heard this song, i was at camp, and i remember thinking that i had never heard a more beautiful song, not even from celtic thunder or celtic woman. i still stand by that today
Agree with ericbob503, severely underrated track, one of my favourites of Joni's. For me, this song relates that all-too common sensation of wanting to slow down the hands of time, of how the young want to be older, and how the old want to be younger. "Youth is wasted on the young" as the old adage goes. I find it reassuring too, after all, this song would seem quite daunting if it was not for the mention of "dreams", that there will be plenty of them, even if they do lose a bit of grandeur the older we get.
Beautiful song.
It's a great song about moving on in life and growing up. I quoted ti for my friend who was sad about moving away and how everyone changed when she left, and it helped some.
this is such a great song..i heard it for the first time on the television show "providence"..i would love to adopt it as a graduation song.
at 16... cartwheels turn to carwheels.. good song about growing up... way underrated
LOVE that line.
LOVE that line.
LOVE that line.
wonderful song. i agree w/ punk_in_canada, it would make the perfect graduation song
It's a really great song about the cycle of life, and being desperate to grow up to fulfill your dreams, only to grow up and lose the grandeur of the dreams that once drove you. It would be a great graduation song, actually, its just a song about time and how you feel you want it to quicken... Then it goes too fast and you need it to slow down.
This is a response to Neil young's Sugar Mountain, which is about not wanting to grow up and move on in life. Joni Mitchell thought that if you're life ended when you became an adult, then that would be a pretty dull existence. So she wrote Circle Game to show that life is always moving forward and you can't stop it.