In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
There is a town in North Ontario
Dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
Babe, can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Baby, sing with me somehow
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
Dream comfort memory to spare
And in my mind I still need a place to go
All my changes were there
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
Babe, can you hear me now?
The chains are locked and tied across the door
Baby, sing with me somehow
Blue, blue windows behind the stars
Yellow moon on the rise
Big birds flying across the sky
Throwing shadows on our eyes
Leave us
Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless
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The town is Omemee, Ontario, where Young lived for a few years, as has been stated.
I think the lyrics show both nostalgia for his childhood idyll and sorrow at the effect of the Polio he contracted while he lived there.
Polio leaves its survivors physically weakened for the rest of their lives. The <i>"changes"</i> are both his blooming boyhood in that town and the lasting effects wreaked by the disease.
The specific lines that make me think Polio is a subject are <i>"The chains are locked and tied across the door"</i> and the title and refrain, <i>"Helpless, helpless, helpless."</i>
Less directly, in the previous verse, <i>"Blue, blue windows behind the stars"</i> seem to call to mind an unreachable place of distance and wonder. <i>"Yellow moon on the rise"</i>, while still evoking beauty, suggests the onset of a sinister element. The next lines (<i>"Big birds..."</i> and <i>"...shadows..."</i>) repeat that duality.
Of course I could be wrong. Both those verses could simply refer to his growing loss of innocence and inability to return to the scenes of his youth.