Foster the People: Helena Beat Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Helena Beat Lyrics
Pulls you down before you know it, it's gone
And you're dead again
I've been places and I won't pretend
Yeah I'd make it out just to fall on my head
Wake up strange and take the walk downstairs
Hit...
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Superb post! I wish i had the writing abilities you had. Anyway, thanks for Iyour tough work, please maintain it up.
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This song is about heroin. Slang for heroin is helena. The part I relate to the best is the not wanting to get out of bed, lost in your head, coming down hard and your joints are all stuck. If you've ever come down off of H, thats exactly what it feels like. Life pulls you down, tie yourself to a chair so you don't fall that way is a reference to shooting up.
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I am confused where people are getting the "kid" theories from. Childhood isn't mentioned once in this song. I think this song speaks of the hardships that people deal with in life from the perspective of a stuggling/recovering alcoholic or drug addict.
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It's about maybe rehab or recovery from something, my guess is emotional pain
"I tie my hands up to a chair so I don't fall that way"
It means he paralizes himself to be unable of doing something, in my opinion, to be unable to hurt himself, maybe cut himself or drug abuse... "I took a sip of something poison but I'll hold on tight"
Doesn't necessarily indicate drugs, it could be that he got hurted by someone yet he will try not to "fall that way".
"You were pacing I was insecure" Someone saved him, or helped him get through a rought time and since the name of the song it's "Helena Beat", I would guess a woman... In the additional lyrics he sings "I comb my hair with a knife, yes I'm alive" You obviously can't comb your hair with a knife, but the closest to that it's to place the sharp edge near your temple... Suicide maybe? "Tie my hands up to a chair so I don't fall that way"
To be honest, I doubt is drug abuse, I think it's about cutting himself or trying to induce pain... "Yes, I'm alive" -
I really don't see how this song relates to the singer's childhood at all.
It does seem to be about drug use, and how it affects his life. Having to pawn off everything he has to get by.
"I've been places and I won't pretend
Yeah I'd make it out just to fall on my head."
This line, and several similar lines, are obviously about attempting to quit but relapsing. -
I think this video has a loose association to the book "Lord of the Flies." First off, in the book, a plane crash landed, and that plane took them away from a warring city. Then they all turned into savages, and eventually killing some of their own. A big symbol in lord of the flies was the pig head, and at around 2:54, a kid is riding a pig head on a stick.
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Some old guy likes to shock him self around kids.
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"Yeah yeah and it’s O.K.
I tie my hands up to a chair so I don’t fall that way.
Yeah yeah and I’m alright.
I took a sip of something poison but I’ll hold on tight."
This chorus indicates that he has attempted suicide but has been rendered unsuccessful but also believes there is hope and will "hold on tight". The lines "You play the game but you kind of cut
’Cause you’re coming down hard and your joints are all stuck."
I think this suggests the same kind of idea with his attempt to cut himself but only slightly cuts himself.
"Yeah, I'd make it out just to fall on my head"
This line suggests that he has attempted to break his cycle of unhappiness (addiction most likely) but has relapsed.
"Hit the pawn up on the corner and pay for my rent"
Someone else is paying for his rent meaning that he is in a bad financial situation. (Not entirely sure.)
So this song is basically talking about a very depressed man who has unsuccessfully attempted suicide and is stuck in "the prison I've been living in".
"You know those days when you want to just choose
To not get out of bed, you're lost in your head again."
His only solace is when he escapes into his imagination to flee from all the misery. -
Drug addiction. The post regarding Helena, Montana is quite insightful, and likely.
The depths of addiction, the challenges of recovery (instrumental), followed by a "transformation," and finally knowing "it'll be OK."
Truly exceptional song with incredibly talented performers. If anyone's interested, the live performances on YouTube are sweet, especially the Dallas show! -
The song is about the party scene. Going out and partying you come home and realize your life away from that is shit. They said so in an interview.
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the video shows us how the world will be, after the Illuminati or NWO (NEW WORLD ORDER)take control of the whole world. Guys, don't you see how the video starts: war, protest, violence, blood everywhere, a man that writes 'HELL' on the wall and the postcard :"Come back soon". Foster the People is trying to tell us that the time has come, and we should be prepared for everything.
The lyrics show it clearly:
Yeah yeah and it's ok
I tie my hands up to a chair so I don't fall that way
Yeah yeah and I'm alright
I took a sip of something poison but I'll hold on tight.
As u might see there's also a little optimism in these lyrics,he sees a light in the end of the tunnel because something stops him from suiciding ; or he is accepting this kind of life, and he can't do anything to change it. Slavery is beginning people, and it's near!!! Soon our voice won't be heard. -
Talking about doing ecstasy. in the music video there are a bunch of kids running around beating up the singer. He keeps getting sucked into doing X, doing drugs bring out the kid in you and the kid in him keeps pulling him into the drugs. ecstasy makes you feel like a kid, and when he puts the mask on its says at the same time "i took a sip of something poison but i'll hold on tight" as in he took the drug and is about to trip. as he takes the mask off he has an old face but his hands are kid hands. drugs stop your mental growth and as an adult at heart you'll never feel anymore than a child with choosing actions that involve drugs.
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This song is talking about doing MDMA or ecstacy. "Sometimes life it takes you by the hair,Pulls you down before you know it, it's gone
And you're dead again
I've been places and I won't pretend
Yeah I'd make it out just to fall on my head" He's saying life would get really hard for him sometimes and he'd turn to drugs to fix the problems. He won't lie and say he hasn't turned to drugs. He overcomes the drugs but then life gets hard and he "fall[s] on [his] head" again or turns back to ecstasy to make it better. "Wake up strange and take the walk downstairs" is talking about waking up after a night of doing MDMA, and not feeling completely there. (just like anybody who wakes up after a long night)
"Hit the pawn up on the corner and pay for my rent
You know that I could not believe my own truth" he has barely any money b/c he uses it on drugs instead of the important things. he can't believe this is what his life has come to. the chorus means he knows doing the drugs won't make anything better, so he "tie[s] [his] hands up to a chair so [he won't] fall that way" as in he know not to get in over his head on drugs with no turning back.
"You know those days when you want to just choose
To not get out of bed, you're lost in your head again
You play the game but you kind of cut
Cause you're coming down hard and your joints are all stuck" is talking about those days you don't want to be in reality and just want to do drugs and be "lost in your head again." he knows his "game" or high is going away b/c he's coming down hard and joints are all stuck, which is an after-affect of taking ecstacy, you can get achy joints.
"I've tried to say that it's not the only way
I never knew if I could face myself to change" he knows the drugs aren't the path to go down and theres better ways to deal with life when it gets hard but its fun and doesn't know if he's willing to change.
"you were pacing. I was insecure
Slip and fall, I'm dodging calls, hug the prison
I've been living in " as in he fell right back into doing ecstasy when he felt insecure around someone. the drug takes away your fears, or problems and make you happy and sociable. so he's right back to hugging the prison he's been living in, or back to his same old secure ways. -
Mercenaries roll up to capture a soldier, (hence the goofy masks) and they start torturing him for information. At the end, when the information is transferred, it symbolizes the information was used to save the young from the messed up corruption of our forefathers.
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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