Joni Mitchell's 1974 song "Help Me", from her album *Court and Spark*, is widely believed by biographers and music writers to have been inspired by her relationship with jazz-fusion drummer John Guerin, whom she was involved with around the time the record was written and recorded. The track became one of Mitchell's biggest commercial successes and is frequently discussed for the way its lyrics capture the excitement and anxiety of falling for a "player" — someone unlikely to commit — reflecting the turbulent romantic period she was going through in the early 1970s.

Mitchell has never explicitly named the song's subject in public, so the John Guerin connection rests on biographical accounts and the surrounding context of her life at the time rather than a direct confirmation from the singer herself. "Help Me" reached number seven on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it her only top-ten hit, and it remains one of the most closely analysed songs in her catalogue for the way it blends confessional songwriting with a jazz-tinged pop sound.

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