Helpless Lyrics
With dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Baby can you hear me now
The chains are locked and tied across the door,
Baby, sing with me somehow
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Have you ever seen, felt, or remembered such a beauty that you were rendered transfixed, weakened, supplicant?
You were, in that moment, "helpless."
As far as I'm concerned, that's exactly what this song is about. It's a hard thing to come from a place you hate all your life and then get out into the world and discover that that place was your home all along.
Actually, I'm reading his boigraphy "Shakey" right now, and he says quite clearly that the song is about a town that he lived in called "Omemee". It was a tiny town with a population of about 200, and it was here that Neil contracted Polio when he was about 5 or 6.
Neil moved around quite a bit as a child, all over ontario and manitoba, so this song has probably been attributed to lots of other towns before, heh.
This song is surely about him missing his hometown, in my opinion.
Think about it.
"With dream comfort to spare In my mind I still need a place to go All my changes were there."
"The chains are locked And tied across the door."
He's referring to the chains of time that have been locked on his past. He is "Helpless" in this song because there's nothing he can do to revert himself back to an earlier age. The only place where his childhood lives is in his mind.
I think he's referring to the place he grew up in. He can't go back there because time has changed him, so the place only lives in his memory.
@mattkid4 I agree! It is an extremely spare, plaintiff, moving and evocative song of memories of lost youth. This is echoed everywhere, from the bitter-sweet reedy harmonica riffs to the strikingly simple and vivid imagery: "Yellow moon on the rise". I would venture to add one supportive point: The birds "Throwing shadows across on our eyes" is a harbinger of the "helpless" inevitable future where the lover is going to be gone and the only way to bring her back is for her to "sing with me somehow". Maybe somebody already made this point... Anyway, love it!...
@mattkid4 I agree! It is an extremely spare, plaintiff, moving and evocative song of memories of lost youth. This is echoed everywhere, from the bitter-sweet reedy harmonica riffs to the strikingly simple and vivid imagery: "Yellow moon on the rise". I would venture to add one supportive point: The birds "Throwing shadows across on our eyes" is a harbinger of the "helpless" inevitable future where the lover is going to be gone and the only way to bring her back is for her to "sing with me somehow". Maybe somebody already made this point... Anyway, love it!
I wonder if it is about the town he grew up in (I think he is from Ontario) and he feels ambivalent towards what he considers his home and wanting to leave.
I wonder if it was about a dying lonely town in which he felt trapped. The "town" could also be symbolic of a bad time in his life-just throwing out ideas
Any other thoughts?
I agree. It is a town that is his foundation. The place he is little Neil. I think we all have them. We go back and we turn 10 years old again. We just can't stay. We have to move on, be who we were intended to be. We need this place and we need to visit it every so often to remind ourselves of who we are and where we came from. It is a respite to moving on. We leave something we love because there is something better and...
I agree. It is a town that is his foundation. The place he is little Neil. I think we all have them. We go back and we turn 10 years old again. We just can't stay. We have to move on, be who we were intended to be. We need this place and we need to visit it every so often to remind ourselves of who we are and where we came from. It is a respite to moving on. We leave something we love because there is something better and where we need to be. But what a beautiful picture he paints with his words.
Blue, blue windows behind the stars, Yellow moon on the rise, Big birds flying across the sky, Throwing shadows on our eyes. Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless
Love your words on this, mikedclovis. Absolutely true.
Love your words on this, mikedclovis. Absolutely true.
watch this shit on The Last waltz with joni mitchell..heaven.
I believe the meaning is more universal than has been invoked. Specifically, I believe that the song is a metaphor for one's life, for one's values, for one's early adulthood. Our views of the world, our prejudices, our values are formed in our adolescence. And there we remained locked forever, chained in as it were! And despite how hard we try, we are helpless to change any of that! Hence, in my opinion, helpless refers to our overall condition vis-a-vis who we are! We are helpless to be someone other than who we are! The house is a metaphor for our values. We can look out through the windows at the blue sky......but we cannot leave our metaphorical house (i.e. our values) !!!
The town is Omemee, Ontario, where Young lived for a few years, as has been stated.
I think the lyrics show both nostalgia for his childhood idyll and sorrow at the effect of the Polio he contracted while he lived there.
Polio leaves its survivors physically weakened for the rest of their lives. The <i>"changes"</i> are both his blooming boyhood in that town and the lasting effects wreaked by the disease.
The specific lines that make me think Polio is a subject are <i>"The chains are locked and tied across the door"</i> and the title and refrain, <i>"Helpless, helpless, helpless."</i>
Less directly, in the previous verse, <i>"Blue, blue windows behind the stars"</i> seem to call to mind an unreachable place of distance and wonder. <i>"Yellow moon on the rise"</i>, while still evoking beauty, suggests the onset of a sinister element. The next lines (<i>"Big birds..."</i> and <i>"...shadows..."</i>) repeat that duality.
Of course I could be wrong. Both those verses could simply refer to his growing loss of innocence and inability to return to the scenes of his youth.
He is not trapped in this town, this town is his life. This about a place where he feels at home, and where he grew up.
"All my changes were there."
a perfect line... shows that this is where Neil Young became Neil Young.
"The chains are locked and tied across the door,"
Again showing the profound impact this place had on him finding an identity which cannot be changed
"Blue, blue windows behind the stars"
possibilities.
Just to get the record straight: Neil was born in Toronto, moved to Omemee while still young, his parents got divorced, and he moved with one of his parents to Winnipeg (Manitoba) out on the prairies (the subject of his newer album, Prairie Wind), where he lived for much of his younger life.
Anyway, this is a great song. Brings back memories of travelling up north to the beautiful Ontario countryside. You can really relate to Neil's inspiration for writing this song.