<P> "Sugar Mountain" is a song by Canadian folk rock singer and composer Neil Young . Young composed the song on November 12, 1964--his 19th birthday--at the Victoria Hotel in Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay), where he had been touring with his Winnipeg band the Squires . Its lyrics are reminiscences about his youth in Winnipeg, Manitoba . </P> <P> The first known recording of the song was made on December 15, 1965 for a demo record at Elektra Records in New York City . The first formal release was a recording of the song made on November 10, 1968, as part of a live performance at Canterbury House in Ann Arbor, Michigan . This recording was released as the B - side of Young's 1969 single "The Loner" (and again as the B - side of the "Cinnamon Girl" the following year), but was not collected on an album until the 3 - LP compilation Decade was released in 1977 . A CD / DVD release of recordings from the Canterbury House performance, Sugar Mountain - Live at Canterbury House 1968, was released November 25, 2008 as part of Young's ongoing Archives Performance Series; this release includes the first - ever stereo mix of "Sugar Mountain" itself . </P> <P> Young recorded the song again in February 1969, as part of a series of live shows at the Riverboat in Toronto; this version is included in the 2009 Archives Performance Series release Live at the Riverboat 1969 . Still another live rendition is included as the first track of Young's 1979 album Live Rust . </P> <P> In a concert at the Albert Hall in London on October 29, 1970, Joni Mitchell, who was already friends with Neil Young by the time he wrote this song, opened her song "Circle Game" with this speech: </P>

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