I remember hearing this song on WMAK-AM in the seventies on my sister’s Vega radio. The car that she carried a case of oil in the hatchback because it burned it more than gas.
This song was on the great album Court and Spark. Joni tried using LA’s best session players for this but it didn’t work like she wanted. She then used jazz musicians to back her on this album. Joni’s songs can be complicated because Graham Nash once said that she played in so many different open chord tunings…that she made some of them up. The jazz band she used was The L.A. Express, led by saxophonist Tom Scott.
Joni Mitchell not only wrote her own songs but was also her own producer. That is not very common with female or male artists on the whole. This song was Mitchell’s biggest hit that she had. That surprised me…I would have thought it would have been Big Yellow Taxi. I always compared her voice to a slide whistle we had as kids. That’s not a put-down…but she can cover the gambit with her voice from low to extremely high.
Who did she write this song about? Some say it was Jackson Browne who she had just broken up with and some say it’s Glenn Fry. Whoever it’s about she left it open enough so that anyone can relate to it. The song peaked at #6 in Canada and #7 on the Billboard 100.
Prince, who was a huge fan of Mitchell, even mentioned it on “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker” from his 1987 album, Sign ‘O’ the Times.
She said, “Sound like a real man to meMind if I turn on the radio?”“Oh, my favorite song, ” she saidAnd it was Joni singing: “Help me, I think I’m falling”
Joni Mitchell: “A throwaway song, but a good radio record.” “My record companies always had a tendency to take my fastest songs on 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.”
Help Me
Help me
I think I’m falling
In love again
When I get that crazy feeling, I know
I’m in trouble again
I’m in trouble
‘Cause you’re a rambler and a gambler
And a sweet-taIking-ladies man
And you love your lovin’
But not like you love your freedom
Help me
I think I’m falling
In love too fast
It’s got me hoping for the future
And worrying about the past
‘Cause I’ve seen some hot hot blazes
Come down to smoke and ash
We love our lovin’
But not like we love our freedom
Didn’t it feel good
We were sitting there talking
Or lying there not talking
Didn’t it feel good
You dance with the lady
With the hole in her stocking
Didn’t it feel good
Didn’t it feel good
Help me
I think I’m falling
In love with you
Are you going to let me go there by myself
That’s such a lonely thing to do
Both of us flirting around
Flirting and flirting
Hurting too
We love our lovin’
But not like we love our freedom
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Wow! Didn’t see this one coming to be honest with you.. Writing about Frey or Browne. Guess Joni was running on empty between those two guys lol
LOL…yea I didn’t know either.
She’s a beautiful poem. “A Case of You” is my all-time favourite song from her.
Her writing, playing, and singing are different than anyone else…she is an original.
Very good choice, really there’s so many to choose from but it makes sense to point to her highest charter. Another example of an enduring song that didn’t hit top 5. I forgot about her and JB, sometimes her songs were not necessarily just about or inspired by one person.
With most I tried to get a more universal song they recorded…
I’ve learned more about Joni Mitchell since I’ve been blogging. I have heard two of her albums alot…Blue and Court and Spark…the rest not as much.
There’s a couple great albums right there!
Yea but I should know more….which I will as time goes by.
So much music so little time!
I always thought that this could have been a CSN song.
I would have fit them…like Woodstock did.
A great song. ‘Court and Spark’ is the album I know best of hers and the singles were all huge when I was a kid in Ontario, and rightfully so. She’s certainly written some great songs and is one of the most-respected Canadian musicians around the world without a doubt.
She is no doubt…I couldn’t do this without including her. Blue and Court and Spark are the two that I know the best.
Running late today.
It took me a long time to warm up to her, but she has a bunch of songs that I enjoy, and this is one of them.
That is me also. I know two of her albums but I have come to appreciate her much more…reading other blogs help.
I love this song! Court and Spark was the first Joni album I heard and I instantly fell in love with her voice and music. The fact that the girl that played this album to me was a tall, long-haired blonde makes this song even more special!
lol…that woud do it!
Her voice is terrific and her songwriting is also…
To be honest I’ve heard this song but never took any notice of the lyrics. It’s such an ornamented melody line. I really like it.
I do also Bruce.
She’s one of the singer/songwriters who elevate pop music. Much more complex than the average Top-40 fare. Our local claim to fame is that the ice skating photos for her album “Hejira” were shot on the lake here.
Oh that is cool about the lake photos. She is original through and through.
Always loved this song, and bought the 45 single shortly after it came out.
Joni Mitchell, I love her songs. Recently, the movie “Empire of Light” reminded me “you turn me on, I’m a radio”. Great singer. Thanx for this review.
Thanks for reading!
She has an all-over-the-place feel on this lyrically but it touches down and links the backing together. I don’t know the technical term but I hope you know what I mean(!)
I get what you are saying. She also can fit many syllables in some of her songs but it sounds natural somehow.
Joni is jazz at heart but she makes it work for pop songs as well. Tom Scott and the L.A. Express backed her on the Miles of Aisles album set. Joni does it all across all media. One of the greats of our time.
She does cover a lot of ground….just Big Yellow Taxi and this are so different…as well as many of her other songs.
That’s such a great tune, even though at times Joni’s vocals go very high – something I needed to get used to, especially in her folkie phase. To this day, I can only take one or two high-pitched songs at a time. But in this case, the great jazzy vibe more than compensates for the occasionally high singing. She also was a very inventive guitarist, no doubt!
I may have told you this before…but I always thought of her voice like a slide whistle we used to have as kids…it can go high and low within a split second….and I mean that as a good thing.
Yep, I saw you wrote it in the post. Joni Mitchell definitely was more of an acquired taste in my case, but I’ve largely come around, and her vocals no longer bother me to the extent they used to.
I respect her the most for her songwriting….man she makes up some of those tunings….good luck to people covering her lol.
I think it deserves to be her biggest hit. Other people did Both Sides Now first and her version of Big Yellow Taxi is a bit gimmicky. While this song sounds perfect for 1974.
I like Joni Mitchell a lot. Ladies of the Canyon is a great album.
I’ve heard of that one but never heard it. I need to check it out.
Of course the full album is on you tube – definitely give this one a listen. It is incredible.
I will…thanks man!
As close to perfection as any pop song recorded.
My favorite Joni Mitchell album is Court and Spark, with this and Free Man In Paris. I guess Free Man in Paris is my favorite Joni Mitchell song of all time. First heard of her when Tom Rush recorded “Circle Game.”
Didn’t know about the connection to Jackson Browne or Glen Frey. Honestly? Can’t say I care one way or the other. I mean, I know David Crosby produced her first album. I don’t really care if they were romantically involved or not. But that’s just me.