The Story Behind The Song: Joni Mitchell’s poetry in ‘Help Me’
“I’m freaking out because this is a dream come true.” These were the words that Celisse Henderson uttered before taking the lead on vocals and guitar on Joni Mitchell’s ‘Help Me’ at the Newport Folk Festival in 2022. She wasn’t the only one freaking out, and living their dream, that day. Joni Mitchell’s shocking return to the stage prompted an outpouring of love, awe, and respect for the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter from all those in attendance, as well as from all of us online who watched the clips and reports as they were posted. Mitchell’s performances of ‘Both Sides Now’ and ‘A Case of You’ from the festival instantly became the definitive renditions of either song and the benchmark against which any new versions must be measured.
The spirit of the day, and of all of Mitchell’s subsequent live shows (or Joni Jams, as they are known), was collaboration. The spirit of the show was positivity, connection, love, gratitude and helping one another. When Joni Mitchell asked Celisse to help her sing ‘Help Me’, it was in service of giving the best delivery of the song possible. “Thank you, Joni Mitchell,” Celisse said before starting to sing, “For your existence.”
The inclusion of the song in the setlist was almost as surprising as her appearance in the first place. Despite being Mitchell’s biggest-selling single ever – and her only single to have made the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 when it rose to number seven, also topping the easy-listening Billboard Adult Contemporary chart – she has rarely played the song in concert. Before the Newport performance – of which, admittedly, she is more merely present than actively participating – Mitchell had not played the song live since 1983.
But it is an important song in Mitchell’s career and is something of a lynchpin which connects her early singer-songwriter sensibilities with her later shift into much jazzier territory. The second single from her sixth album, 1974’s Court and Spark, ‘Help Me’ is a hybrid track which shows off the best of both sides of Joni Mitchell at once. The song begins with a burst of Mitchell’s trademark open-tuned guitar work and immediately reminds the listener of what a great singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell is, but unusually for one of her songs – at least at that time – she is soon joined by a full band.
The sound of her acoustic guitar is quickly supplemented, and then drowned out, by slick electric piano, smooth brass and woodwinds; a funky and insistent rhythm section of drums and bass, and tasteful, soulful lead guitar lines. ‘Help Me’ is the first Joni Mitchell song that really swings. It’s part blue-eyed soul, part Tapestry-era Carole King Laurel Canyon-style soft rock, and part smooth jazz.
Up until then, most of Mitchell’s material had seen her supporting the weight of her words and voice alone, with just her acoustic guitar or piano for accompaniment or, in some cases, an intimate and acoustic group backing her up. Having initially enlisted the help of Los Angeles session men who had worked on records by James Taylor and Warren Zevon, but without getting the desired effect, Mitchell turned to the jazzier lineup of Larry Carlton (electric guitar), Joe Sample (electric piano), Tom Scott (woodwinds, reeds), Max Bennett (bass) and John Guerin (drums). Against this more full band backdrop, Mitchell proved that her voice is just as adept at commanding your attention with an electric group as it is when she performs by herself.
Speaking on his Strong Songs podcast in 2022, Kirk Hamilton described ‘Help Me’ as “a hummingbird of a tune hovering between commitment and flight, tumbling and falling past love and toward freedom”, which is as beautiful a description as a beautiful song such as this one deserves.
Those lyrical themes of commitment, love and freedom are expressed in true poetic style, with deceptively simple lines hiding more complex meanings and emotions beneath the surface, but they are also reflected in the music itself. The presence of the open-tuned acoustic guitar reflects Mitchell’s commitment to and love for her core sound and audience, but the introduction of the freer jazz elements indicates the direction she is about to jump off into with her work.
Mitchell didn’t think as much of it as that, calling it a “throwaway” track in one interview, but at least admitting that it’s a “good radio record”. Reflecting on both this song and the singles from her career more generally, Mitchell has said, “My record companies always had a tendency to take my fastest songs on an album for singles, thinking they’d stand out because they did on the LPs. Meantime, I’d feel that the radio is crying for one of my ballads.”
The song was nominated in two categories at the 1975 Grammy Awards, for ‘Record of the Year’ and ‘Best Female Vocal Pop Performance’ at the 1975 Grammy Awards, although it lost out to Olivia Newton-John’s ‘I Honestly Love You’ in both. It is regarded by many as one of Mitchell’s finest works, but fans might be surprised to find out about the icon’s disdain for it.
Whatever Mitchell herself thinks of it, whatever awards it does or doesn’t win, and wherever it gets placed on any number of best-of lists, ‘Help Me’ is a phenomenal piece of music from one of our greatest ever singers and songwriters.
