| Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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One thing I love about music and art in general is the beauty of how everyone interprets it differently and takes something unique and personal to just them away from it. Art nurtures many souls in this manner and allows each individual to relate to the subject matter in their own way. As for my own thoughts and interpretation, it seems to me that song's opening is a perfect reflection of the recent "Hipster" mentality that has swept our nation. Everyone buying into this attitude is obsessed with their own uniqueness and the belief system that the best place to have in the world is no place at all. Many of my friends have become infected with this mentality starting out with harmless choices like "going green", becoming "vegan", getting rid of superfluous possessions (which-there is no problem with any of these things alone) but have then chosen to take things to an unbelievably unhealthy extreme and now live as homeless individuals. They live out of their cars and on other people's couches and all by their own choice--not by necessity. This mentality is a life style choice for them and it has served to degenerate my generation into such an uninvolved, selfish, self-focused society that masquerades as "minimalist" and "environmentalist". To have a steady or well paying job is the cardinal sin for the Hipsters as is owning a decent automobile or home. This idea is so backwards from the American Spirit and the kind of attitude America was founded on that it is embarrassing and pitiful. What I love most about this song is that, it seems to me, the singer may once have believed as the Hipsters do, but now see's that he does not have to chose between his own uniqueness or a drab life, but he can be a unique individual who is ALSO a unique "cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me". He is singing the truth of a life of true balance, one that is unique and special and useful to everyone and also ultimately his Creator, not just himself any longer. The music seems to pick up and get happier as he sings this because he knows this is the truth and somewhere within THIS idea is what he has always searched for. He has not found his defined place yet, but he is realizing what he was made to be is also where he was made to go. He leaps out into this adventure with eyes becoming unhazed with every word and he gets excited about finding his unique place in the working world that will not be as a heavy burden to him but rather a pleasure and a needed service to the world around him. The next stanzas talk about how he is angry at the warring injustice and threatened freedoms he see's in the physical and political world and that he knows he is right in his anger. At the same time, he realizes that these injustices and threats do not call for a with drawl from society, but rather a continued sense of pushing forward, of fighting for what he knows to be true and remaining firm. As he goes farther along this journey, he sees the good mixed with the bad, sometimes so mixed that it is nearly impossible to decipher which, so he does not always know who or what he can believe, but he remains vigilant in his commitment to keep searching and not allow himself to be dragged down by others. I hope he will soon realize that his Creator is the only one he can ALWAYS believe in and trust. In this there is unimaginable security and lasting true purpose. In the stanza where the music changes again and he sings "If I had an orchard, I'd work till I'm raw..." he is dreaming of the simple life he deeply longs for...untainted by the politics and lies and hurts of the world--the only hurt in this life would be the sore muscles and raw hands acquired from the life of peacefully tending his own apple orchard. He dreams of having his wife run a quaint restaurant or store and her deriving the same pleasure from it that he does with his orchard. In the last line, "Some day I'll be like the man on the screen..." he is holding on to his dreams of what his own true personal completeness means to him, whatever that may be. In the same way, we all hold on to that picture of ourselves we see in our head and long to be like because we know, in our heart, it's who we truly are. This is where the singer's journey finds it's momentary resting place, caught still between where he used to be, and where he has yet to go. |
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