Joni Mitchell -- Help Me

 

On this week's Reminiscings of Youth, I introduce a singer-songwriter who has been called one of the world's very best and the first Canadian artist to be given the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song last week. Joni Mitchell has her own entry on "TV Tropes" in which a who's who of musicians and singers is listed in terms of who she has influenced over the decades including Herbie Hancock, Annie Lennox and Bjork. I'd also like to add that Taeko Ohnuki（大貫妙子）has been one of her admirers, and perhaps that can be heard through her first solo album "Grey Skies" from 1976.

As has been many a case for the folks featured on ROY, Mitchell was also a regular presence on the radio here in Toronto. One of her songs that I often heard was "Help Me", her single from March 1974. Now of course back in the day, I only recognized the song from her introductory wail "HELP ME!" and the beatnik sort of jazz I heard in the arrangements. I now realize that it was during that particular part of the 1970s that Mitchell was showing some interest in incorporating some of that jazz and jazz fusion into her music. 

"Help Me" has been described as a song about truly helplessly falling in love although the target of the lady's affections is somewhat of a roguish cad. For me though, now that I'm listening to it again many years later, I hear it as a nostalgic song of the city in more innocent times; it could be New York City (although I admit that NYC was far from innocent back then), Toronto or even Tokyo. Although I've only visited the Big Apple twice, I can't help but feel that it's the ideal setting for something like "Help Me" as someone like Joni would be striding down the street, managing to avoid crashing into the other pedestrians as she tries to reconcile the feelings for this fellow. I guess it could be the jazziness pushed through by the bossiness of the saxophone, and I've often put New York City and downtown jazz in the same equation.

On America's Billboard chart, "Help Me" scored a No. 7 so that it became Mitchell's highest-ranking hit, while in her native Canada, it went a notch higher to No. 6. The jazz fusion ensemble L.A. Express backed her up in the recording room. "Help Me" was also a track on her 1974 album "Court and Spark".

So, what else was being released in the same month as "Help Me"? 

Kenji Sawada -- Koi wa Jamamono（恋は邪魔もの）

Finger Five -- Gakuen Tengoku (学園天国）