Helpless - C.S.N. & Young
Déjà Vu [1970]
there is a town in north ontario
with dream comfort memory despair
and in my mind i still need a place to go
all my changes were there
blue, blue windows behind the stars
yellow moon on the rise
big birds flying across the sky
throwin' shadows on our eyes
leave us
One of the most hotly awaited second albums in the history of whats now termed Classic Rock -- right up there with those by the Beatles and the Band -- Déjà Vu lived up to its expectations and rose to number one on the charts.
Those achievements are all the more astonishing given the fact that the group barely held together through the estimated 800 hours it took to record Déjà Vu and scarcely functioned as a group for most of that time. Déjà Vu worked as an album, a product of four potent musical talents who were all ascending to the top of their game coupled with some very skilled production, engineering, and editing.
There were also some obvious virtues in evidence with the addition of Stephen Stills's former Buffalo Springfield cohort/rival Neil Young augmenting the C.S.&N. threesome. Neil Youngs addition to the lineup added also to the groups level of virtuosity, with Young and Stephen Stills rising to new levels of complexity and volume on their guitars. Young's presence also ratcheted up the range of available voices one notch and added a uniquely idiosyncratic songwriter to the fold, though most of Young's contributions in this area were confined to the second side of the LP, where the exquisitely harmonized "Helpless" is recorded which is an all time personal favorite of mine.