"Helpless" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Neil Young, recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their 1970 album Déjà Vu. "Helpless" was originally recorded with Young's band Crazy Horse in early 1969, before Young's new CSNY bandmates convinced him it would suit them better. The song was simple, at its core effectively the repetition of one melody over a descending D-A-G chord progression. The group found difficulty deciding on an arrangement and many different versions of the song were recorded before the group finally decided on the slow-paced version that appeared on the album. On this final version Young was in the foreground, singing the verses and the chorus with his bandmates providing the "helpless" refrain, while the instrumentation came in the form of acoustic guitar, electric guitar, piano, bass and drums. It became one of the most revered songs from the Déjà Vu album, and has remained a live favorite of Young's for over forty years. An alternate mix of the CSNY version was released on Neil Young's The Archives Vol. 1 1963–1972. It features Young playing harmonica and electronically-treated percussion. The "town in North Ontario" referred to in the opening line of the song is often presumed to be Ontario native Young's hometown; Young himself cleared up the rumors in a 1995 Mojo interview with Nick Kent: Omemee lies just west of Peterborough and 128 km northeast of Toronto.
Personnel
David Crosby–harmony vocals
Stephen Stills–harmony vocals, guitars, keyboards
Graham Nash–harmony vocals
Neil Young–lead vocals, guitars
Additional musicians
Dallas Taylor–drums, percussion
Greg Reeves–bass
Appearances in media
It appeared on the background of Paul Schrader's 1979 crime drama, Hardcore, in a scene filmed in Los Angeles.
Cover versions
Folk singer Buffy Sainte-Marie recorded a cover version for her 1971 album She Used to Wanna Be a Ballerina.
It was arranged in 1984 by Japanese musician Yukihiro Takahashi, and it was sung by Bill Nelson. It is collected in album.
In 1980, Canadian band Fosterchild recorded a version of the song on their album On The Prowl.
In 2004, k.d. lang recorded a version with a lush string section for her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel.
Nick Cave recorded a rendition of this song for the Neil Young tribute album, '
In 2004, Canadian band Cowboy Junkies recorded a studio version for neath Your Covers, Part 1, a bonus disc of covers that accompanied some orders of their album One Soul Now; a live version appears on their 2006 album Long Journey Home.
In 2007, Patti Smith covered the song on her album Twelve.
British artist Mike Rosenberg covered this song with Old Man River on their One For The Road tour in 2011 and Rosenberg has since covered it himself whilst busking around Europe
In 2017, Canadian vocalist Eleanor McCain released her version of the song on her album "True North"
In 1992, Minneapolis band Trip Shakespeare released a cover on their EP "Volt."
In 2010, Moby covered the song on his "iTunes: Live from Montreal" release.
In 2018, Australian singer-songwriter Angie McMahon released a cover version as a single.
In 1994, Lori Yates covered the song for the Neil Young Tribute Album ''.
Live cover performances
Ryan Adams performed a duet version with Gillian Welch at Nashville's Exit/In
Over the Rhine recorded a live version during a winter 2001 concert at Cincinnati's Taft Theatre, which was released on the band's 2002 rarities compilation, "The Cutting Room Floor."
