"There is a town in North Ontario..."
Neil Young's "Helpless" is a masterpiece and a showcase of beauty in simplicity. There is nothing complex in this song at all. It is a masterpiece of simplicity. The song plays over an unchanging three-chord progression and the lyrics do nothing but describe, in simple terms, the feel of Neil Young's childhood town(s).
Unlike a lot of his other songs, there are no complex metaphors...
... no loud distortion
... no political messages
...
just a longing for that comfortable feeling of childhood.
It's pure beauty and I love playing this song.
Fun fact: Neil said, in a Mojo interview in 2015 about the song, "Well, it's not literally a specific town so much as a feeling. Actually, it's a couple of towns. Omemee, Ontario, is one of them. It's where I first went to school and spent my 'formative' years. Actually I was born in Toronto..."
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