Lyrics for Helplessly Hoping as interpreted by DustinGC

Helplessly Hoping Lyrics
Helplessly hoping her harlequin hovers nearby
Awaiting a word
Gasping at glimpses of gentle true spirit he runs
Wishing he could fly
Only to trip at the sound of goodbye

Wordlessly watching he waits by the window and wonders
At the empty place inside
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams he worries
Did he hear a good-bye?
Or even hello?

They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other

Stand by the stairway you'll see something certain to tell you
Confusion has its cost
Love isn't lying it's loose in a lady who lingers
Saying she is lost
And choking on hello

They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other

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ZinbobDan
04-03-2003

Rated 0 
i don't know wat it means...she wants to leave even though it's in neither of their best interests...i just LOVE this song...but how are they three together? o well...

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ZinbobDan
05-04-2003

Rated 0 
oh, and it's been years since i head this song (since i lost the album :(...but i think the words go: "helplessly hoping her harlequin ~hovers~ nearby, ~awaiting~ a word...wishing he could fly..."

yea, just those two words i think need to be corrected...that's it...someone else bitch at me if i'm wrong but that's the way i've been singning it since i was 6

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ZinbobDan
05-04-2003

Rated 0 
oh, and it's been years since i head this song (since i lost the album :(...but i think the words go: "helplessly hoping her harlequin ~hovers~ nearby, ~awaiting~ a word...wishing he could fly..."

yea, just those two words i think need to be corrected...that's it...someone else bitch at me if i'm wrong but that's the way i've been singning it since i was 6

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zarumba
06-11-2003

Rated 0 
I don't think there's much meaning to this song. Stills was just having fun with alliteration. I recall somewhere that he dedicated this song to his high school English teacher.

And ZinbobDan is right about the lyrics.

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jeffknowles1
11-30-2004

Rated 0 
Yes zinbobdan is right. (A harlequin is a clownish doll.) But there is something to this beautiful expression of a dead love. While there is no metaphor deeply hidden, i think that the lyrics are a poetic illustration of two romantics ailing from loosing each other.

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Dcheal
02-05-2005

Rated 0 
i thought it was wishing he could fly, not hide. Really like this song

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polythenepam
04-08-2005

Rated 0 
'They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other'

this is one of the prettiest things i have ever heard...i love csn

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GypsyJana
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
I do too! Really nice to see the passion for their songs like I have. Their music is a part of me, always will be. I listen regularyl, my sons love them too, after being brainwashed. Peace & Love

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tenneseejed
08-05-2005

Rated 0 
i think the "they are one together" part is about them (the song was written before neil young joined) i mean they are one person because the harmonize so well, two alone who wants to see a cs or sn concert, three together of course, and its like they were made to be in a band together.

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moeburn
12-11-2005

Rated 0 
This song describes my relationship pretty well. A man helping himself to a woman's bad dreams and he worries.

One person trying to save another person's tattered life, and the other person trying to save their life by forcing them away.

Just trying to save eachother's life.

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sucapitan
07-28-2006

Rated 0 
i went to the CSNY Freedom of Speech tour last night,..they are amazing, best 3.5 hours of my life. this song was great, especially since they dragged it out forever.

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abbraccilo
08-16-2006

Rated 0 
perhaps i'm looking too hard to find a meaning, but i am wondering about the "one person, too alone, three together and for each other"...what does that mean? And how is he "helping himself to her bad dreams?"

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sillybunny
08-18-2006

Rated 0 
Once upon a time there was a lady helplessly hoping her harlequin was hovering nearby because she felt rather stupid and scared being out on such a long limb. Gasping at glimpses of gentle true spirit, he wished he could fly only to find she was already gone. Wordless he waited at the window, wondering at the empty place inside—helping himself to her bad dreams because they were hard to shake. No goodbye? Not the last time. Plenty of hellos—but not lately. She is one person but she is two. They are three once they get their act together—fat chance of that …
Stand by any stairway to see confusion has its cost because love isn’t lying—it’s loose in a lady who lingers saying she is lost and choking on hello quite often. They are for each other …
No happily ever after?
Not so fast—how intriguing would that be?
My man rain—at the window pane—knocks and listens and knocks again—my man rain …

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csn fan
12-26-2006

Rated 0 
I always thought it was about a man and a woman are individually one person two when they are alone and together they can be three if the woman was pregnant

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littlewing
01-26-2007

Rated 0 
maybe it's a play on words...maybe supposed to sound like "one person, two alone, free (three) together..." idk but i always felt like it'd make more sense if it was supposed to sound like free instead of 3...

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lemon147
04-17-2007

Rated 0 
is "they are one person, they are two alone, they are three together, they are for each other" meaning that the two of them have a strong relationship which forms its own persona, but they are still their individual selves also. so when they are together there are the two of them and the extra persona formed by the joining of both of them? (man i'm bad at explaining things) anyway, just a thought :)

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tspencer
11-25-2007

Rated 0 
I always thought this was about a woman who wanted more from the guy she was with. "harlequin" meaning Harlequin romance novels... she's hoping that her "true love" is hovering somewhere nearby but she so scared that it's not true (a.k.a the bad dreams).

He is "running" wishing he could "fly", or in other words, be the man she wants him to be (one of those amazing, unrealistic men from those harlequin romance novels.

But in the end he knows hes not the man for her, and he is just keeping her to keep himself happy ("empty place inside", "helping himself to her bad dreams")

The chorus is describing how they are together, but so alone, and seem to be diving themselves into 3 different people: one who is in love, one who is isn't, one who needs to get away.

The comments on love are supposed to be an ironic twist on the fact that love isn't lying to them, its simply falling apart with the woman who should be leaving in the first place.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it?

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guitardon3
12-28-2007

Rated 0 
Helplessly hoping her harlequin (the guy) hovers nearby
Awaiting a word (some indication from her about their prospects together)
Gasping at glimpses of gentle true spirit (he see’s her appealing qualities) he runs
Wishing he could fly (spirit being typically viewed as an air-borne quality, maybe he could catch her if he could fly)
Only to trip at the sound of goodbye (which certainly takes the wind out of his sails)

Wordlessly watching he waits by the window (he can see her but is separated from her) and wonders
At the empty place inside (loneliness and yearning inside himself)
Heartlessly helping himself to her bad dreams (maybe if he could take her troubles away things would be different)
he worries
Did he hear a good-bye?
Or even hello? (now he doesn’t know if he missed a cue from her or not)

They are one person (they have the same dreams and fears – they are one & the same)
They are two alone (they are both separated from each other)
They are three together (if they were 2 people together, they would be 1 couple. 2 + 1 = 3)
They are for each other (at least in his mind)

Stand by the stairway you'll see something certain to tell you
Confusion has its cost
Love isn't lying it's loose in a lady who lingers (he can envision it in her, and she hasn’t actually turned him away yet)
Saying she is lost (she is offering excuses)
And choking on hello (and can’t bring herself to risk it and say yes to him)

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ranceyoung
01-14-2008

Rated 0 
Lemon147 is right...they are one person(bc they are together and have the same dreams)...they are two alone(of course)...they are three together(bc he adds one person and two alone together to get 3)...and then fo(u)r each other is just good songwriting.

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gershwingirl85
01-25-2008

Rated 0 
I was discussing this with a friend last night and she's thinking the chorus (one person, two alone, three together, four each other) might be a reference to Judaism. She's a religion minor. I've not had a chance to look into this so I don't really know.

I remember hearing sometime back (and I could be confused about this) that one of the band members is Jewish.

Just throwing that idea out there. I think guitardon3 is on the right track, though.

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FezBoy
01-25-2008

Rated 0 
This seems to me a song of unrequited love. A "helplessly hoping" young man, a "harlequin" to the object of his desires.

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tadamori
01-29-2008

Rated 0 
i like the analysis of the 123s. 3 together. It makes sense cause romantic love is supposed to link people to a higher spiritual force. ie"this love is bigger than the two of us.." Im not religious, but like i guess some people would call that a link to God . so I could also see the relation to the Holy Trinity

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Spiznuds
02-12-2008

Rated 0 
I agree that its "too alone" and that they are "three together" because as a couple they are more than the sum of their parts individually.

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AndreAndre
09-14-2008

Rated 0 
i always thought this part:

'They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other'

could be about the holy trinity idea of christianity. not that i necessarily think it IS about that, just could be.

i think the song is mostly stream-of-conciousness and doesnt mean anything in particular, although it does seem to vaguely describe a pair of lovers growing apart.

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AndreAndre
09-14-2008

Rated 0 
but now that i think of it,

'They are one person
They are two alone
They are three together
They are for each other'

could well be CS&N describing themselves, one (musical) person, two alone (meaning incomplete with all three not present) and three together, obviously. i love how they make it seem like theyre singing 'four', then with the next word you realize it was 'for'.

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