Helplessly Hoping

Album: Crosby, Stills & Nash (1969)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • A track from the first Crosby, Stills & Nash album, "Helplessly Hoping" was written by Stephen Stills. It's a great example of alliteration, something he learned about in high school English class:

    Helplessly hoping
    Her harlequin hovers nearby


    Stills explained in the liner notes to their 1991 boxed set: "This song was inspired a long time ago by my 10th grade English teacher in Tampa, Florida. She was a real knockout, so much so that she got all the football players to stand up and read poetry, trying to impress her with how sensitive we were and how much we loved this awful stuff. Some of it must've rubbed off on me."
  • Neil Young, who was Stephen Stills' bandmate in Buffalo Springfield, contributed guitar to this track. Young joined the band for their next album, making them Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young.
  • This is one of the songs Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young played at Woodstock, which was just their second gig. They didn't go on until 3 a.m. on the last day, hours before Jimi Hendrix closed out the festival in the morning.

Comments: 2

  • AnonymousIt was written By Joesph"Gold Hill" Richards with a co'-writer. Stills BOUGHT THE SONG and put his name on it! Common practice on the 60's and 70's. Joey played it for Judy Mahan immediately after writing it. Stills was visiting Mayhan when Joey played it for them.
  • Mark B. Stoned from Desperate Hot Springs, CaAnother amazingly beautiful song by Stephen Stills.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Little Big Town

Little Big TownSongwriter Interviews

"When seeds that you sow grow by the wicked moon/Be sure your sins will find you out/Your past will hunt you down and turn to tell on you."

Millie Jackson

Millie JacksonSongwriter Interviews

Outrageously gifted and just plain outrageous, Millie is an R&B and Rap innovator.

Don Dokken

Don DokkenSongwriter Interviews

Dokken frontman Don Dokken explains what broke up the band at the height of their success in the late '80s, and talks about the botched surgery that paralyzed his right arm.

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17

Martyn Ware of Heaven 17Songwriter Interviews

Martyn talks about producing Tina Turner, some Heaven 17 hits, and his work with the British Electric Foundation.

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In Songs

Sending Out An SOS - Distress Signals In SongsSong Writing

Songs where something goes horribly wrong (literally or metaphorically), and help is needed right away.

John Lee Hooker

John Lee HookerSongwriter Interviews

Into the vaults for Bruce Pollock's 1984 conversation with the esteemed bluesman. Hooker talks about transforming a Tony Bennett classic and why you don't have to be sad and lonely to write the blues.