“Help Me” (Joni Mitchell)

Yesterday’s classic song of the day, “Both Sides Now,” was written by Joni Mitchell and a hit for Judy Collins, AKA Sweet Judy Blue Eyes. Today’s classic song of the day is pure Joni Mitchell through and through, her biggest hit ever. We’re talking “Help Me” from her classic Court and Spark album. This track, released as a single in March 1974, peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Billboard’s Adult Contemporary chart. It is a terrific piece of music.

“Help Me” is a twisty, turny kind of song that skates through several different time signatures, plays around with the underlying keys, and includes lots of jazzy extended chords. The chord progression in the verse runs A – Em7 – GMaj7 – FMaj7, then goes FMaj7 – CMaj7 – GMaj7 before it migrates into a very cool turnaround of C – A – C – DMaj7 – BbMaj7 – FMaj7. It’s kind of hard to tell where the tonal center really is, which is fine. It’s a definite precursor to Ms. Mitchell’s move into full-fledged jazz with Mingus and other albums after that. In fact, I think a lot of her unusual tunings and chords are more easily explained when you realize that even though Joni Mitchell started out as a folkie, she’s really a jazzer at heart.

The lyrics of “Help Me” are all about a woman who finds herself falling for a guy who she knows is bad for her. She wants to be rescued or talked out of it or whatever, but not really. It’s all there in the words:

Help me, I think I’m fallin’ in love again
When I get that crazy feelin’, I know I’m in trouble again
I’m in trouble ’cause you’re a rambler and a gambler
And a sweet talkin’ ladies man
And you love your lovin’ (lovin’)
Not like you love your freedom

As to the song’s jazz inclinations, you also sense it by the musicians Ms. Mitchell chose to back her on this track. The musicians on “Help Me” include bona fide West Coast jazzers Tom Scott on sax and flute, Larry Carlton on guitar, Joe Sample on electric piano, Max Bennett on bass, and John Guerin on drums. That’s a hip little band, no matter how you look at it.

Court and Spark was a helluva album; I had the quadraphonic version and played it through all four speakers of my audio system at least once a week during my high school and college years. “Help Me” is also a helluva song, one our little band played at every wedding reception and dance we did back then. The song is clever and sophisticated, both lyrically and musically, something that really stood out even in a era that was growing increasingly interesting, musically.

“Help Me” and Court and Spark came out almost 50 years ago but they both sound just as fresh today as they did back then. Joni Mitchell has long since proven herself a musical treasure, and this song—and this album—cemented her reputation as a daring musical innovator with a lot of interesting things to say.