My first memory of this song goes back to 1970-something. My parents had an argument that escalated quickly. My mother hurried me into her caramel brown Oldsmobile, and we sped to the house of one of her then-new friends, who she took a ceramics class with. Within minutes of arriving at this person’s home, my mother and her friend were smoking, laughing, and listening to “Help Me” on a splendid Hi-Fi chrome turntable. The song’s title and Ms. Mitchell’s sonorous singing of it seemed to help cast a spell on my mother, as I saw her laugh so hard that she cried. Her friend did, too, and they both asked me if I liked Joni Mitchell. I said yes. Then we all ate our respective weights in Breyers Butter Almond ice cream. Here’s to the ways that music can alleviate pain and tension and transform both into joy. May we all be so fortunate to find something that cures what ails us: a good friend; a great tune; a mouth and belly rejoicing the presence of sweetness; braids of smoke drifting above a shimmering salamander orange ceramic ash tray.
