Yellow moon on the rise

"Helpless" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter and the original American Idol, Neil Young, and most famously recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young on their 1970 album Déjà Vu.

The song was simple, at its core effectively the repetition of one melody over a descending D-A-G chord progression, with Young in the foreground singing the verses and the chorus, Crosby, Stills and Nash providing the "helpless" refrain, and instrumentation coming in the form of acoustic guitar, pedal steel guitar (played by American musician and songwriter best known for being the lead guitarist and vocalist of the psychedelic rock band the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia), and piano.

It later became one of the most revered songs from the Déjà Vu album, and has remained a live favourite of Young's for over thirty years. Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer and songwriter K D Lang recorded a version with a lush string section for her 2004 album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. Australian musician, songwriter, author, screenwriter, and occasional actor Nick Cave also recorded a slightly nasal rendition of this song for the 1989 Neil Young tribute Album, "The Bridge". Hmm.

See you backstage this Wednesday at Tuck Shop from 8.30 pm for a Quiet start to the new year.