Neil Young was sad about getting older at 19
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Today's Morning Edition music is from Neil Young with "Sugar Mountain," which we are playing in honor of his 70th birthday Thursday.
Young was born in Toronto and grew up in rural Ontario. He wrote this song in 1964 on his 19th birthday.
His friend Joni Mitchell said Young wrote it as a lament about getting older. There was a club for teenagers where his first band, The Squires, performed regularly, and he was sad that he was too old to go in there anymore.
Speaking of clubs, the Turf Club in St. Paul will be honoring his birthday Thursday night with a performance by the Neil Young tribute band Broken Arrow.
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