I didn’t expect to do this post so soon.
I mean, it’s not the normal person’s soon. It’s still Nick’s soon, but for now, I’ll take it. Last year in an answer to me asking about him doing an album of various BSB remixes like what he does on his Who I Am tour for Show Me The Meaning and We’ve Got It Going On, he mentioned how he’d been seriously thinking about re-recording his very first solo album Now Or Never with his “grown up” voice. He’d include songs we never heard, and songs he only had as bonus tracks in other countries. (*cough*Forever Rebel*cough*- A girl can dream.)
But given that Nick has been working on his as of yet unreleased but ever growing solo album, I accepted the fact it’d be awhile before it came to be. I was okay with that. He sounded pretty sure about doing it so I had faith we’d see it become a reality someday. But just this month while he was up in Seattle on one of his off days between tour dates, he posted this beautiful reel that got me thinking about the song that launched his solo career all over again.
He’s already re-recording it.
Like many fans, I can admit I take Help Me for granted. It’s just embedded into the Nick Carter persona at this point. Remembering at sixteen that it caught me off guard that my favorite boybander was suddenly in a music video, with a guitar releasing a pop rock song in a leather jacket. I’d known he loved rock music for years. Still, this was our first real outing with him playing around even slightly in that genre, you know? It caught a lot of us off guard. Once I got past that initial shock, this was a song I related to a lot as an angsty teenager. Lyrically, it speaks at being at an age where you’re still trying to sort it all out. Isn’t that the mindset of everyone in their teens?
When you come of age, life gets confusing. Looking back, I get why Nick at the ripe age of 22 was so in tune with the song. When Now Or Never came out, he was at an age most people were in college trying to find themselves. He’s talked in the past about this being his “rebellion” against being in the Backstreet Boys, the only thing he knew at at that point. This album, this era, was his way of discovering himself. Help Me, specifically hits that message home.
Help me,
Figure out the difference
Between right and wrong, weak and strong
Day and night where I belong
Help me,
Make the right decisions
Know which way to turn, lessons to learn
And just what my purpose is here
Isn’t it easy to see why so many of us connected to it? As a fandom, a majority of us grew up with Nick. We’ve all been in a space like this. That space where we had to sort out what we wanted from life, which way we wanted to go, and asking for that help because we just weren’t sure. Of all his songs with maybe the exception of I Got You, it’s struck that chord in a way few other of his solo works have. It’s so relatable. Knowing we just need to find our way through these confusing roads we have to call life, but that you don’t have to do it alone.
You can ask for help and find that path together.
I feel like that’s what’s been happening the past couple years.
We all know why.
If you haven’t seen him on his latest tour yet, he’s been talking about it both in Soundcheck Parties and during the show itself how this song has been taking on new meaning in recent years. That’s why I wanted to deep dive into this song now, and look at it with new eyes. I don’t know about you guys, but I think I get what he means. We all know Nick’s had a lot of ups and downs the past few years. I’m beyond proud of this fandom in the way we’ve rallied in positive ways to show the love and support for him. But because of that rollercoaster he’s had, these lyrics do take on some new meaning. I think it’s funny how music can do that. This song has been out for twenty two years and now we’re able to get something else from it that maybe wasn’t there before.
You love me, for who I am
No angel, just an ordinary man
I think those lyrics right there?
They suddenly mean more than ever before, with him and with us. With re-recording a song, you can vocally take it to new places. You can put new meaning just by singing lyrics a different way or adding nuances that just weren’t there before. I’m excited to see his new take on the first single he ever released without the Backstreet Boys. While I’ll always say that Backstreet Boys hold my heart first and foremost, at the same time Nick as a solo artist has layers that the Boys can’t always have as a group. This right here is an example of what I mean.
It’s actually one of my favorite things from Nick as a solo artist.
I don’t know when we’ll get the full Now Or Never re-recording. Getting Help Me in the semi-near future? It’s like revisiting an old friend from high school and finding out that bond is still there. In a way isn’t that what we’ll be doing? I know it’ll have me thinking of sixteen year old Rose, rushing out to buy the album and playing this song over and over again repeatedly on her discman. Only now I’ll be rushing to Spotify to hear an old song I’ve long known by heart, now shiny and new again.
As a long time fan of solo Nick?
The thought just makes me smile.
Forever Rebel 