Lyrics for Help, I'm Alive as interpreted by strykerchick

Help, I'm Alive Lyrics
I tremble
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive

Can you hear my heart beating like a hammer?
Beating like a hammer?
Help, I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender

Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help, I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart still beats...
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

Help, I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender

Come take my pulse, the pace is on a runaway train
Help, I'm alive, my heart keeps
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

If you're still alive
My regrets are few
If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart still beats...
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

Help, I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer

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Udaho
11-18-2009

Rated 0 
I'm going to use
my very favorite word here
and say that this song is "catchy"
I love it and it's very addictive.
Like the more you hear it the
more you think about it, so you want
to hear more of it. A vicious circle
I mean cycle. hint hint..

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aenima007
11-03-2009

Rated 0 
This song reminds me how their sound has gradually become diluted over time, but it still holds up pretty well. They always find a way to cleverly disguise the 'four catchy chords' in their songs with bridges or changing the time signature here and there.

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Scissors333
10-26-2009

Rated 0 
This lyrics are official, from the booklet or something????
'casue i really hear:

"They're gonna hit me a while..."

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byte
10-24-2009

Rated 0 
This song is about how you're better off being dead than alive. That's why if you're alive, you need help, because it's a bad situation to be in. It's hard to be soft and tough to be tender, because the people of the world will eat you alive! It's about the battle of life, the suffering and hardship that everyone has to live through to survive and get where they're going, get what they need.

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pixidelight
09-28-2009

Rated +1 
This song reminds me of the struggle of being with a controlling person, and then realizing you have a right to your own life and being alive. When you break out of one of these relationships it feels so amazing, but you know if you let that person in at all or slow down (or stumble) your break from them they will consume you and pull you right back to being a voiceless zombie (being eaten alive). I remember my anger towards him and trying to break it off without hurting him. It was "Hard to be soft, Tough to be tender" It the end my anger won out.

I remember waking up and listening to my ex-fiance and I was thinking " Hey I'm here! I have my own thoughts! There is someone in here" I felt so trapped and like I was in this prison, rattling the bars.

I remember the judgment I received from both him and family when I started to live my own life. Leaving him, I was a little reckless with my heart and health. None of it seemed to matter, because I was free and I was alive.

I remember my anger towards him and trying to break it off without hurting him. It was "Hard to be soft, Tough to be tender" It the end my anger won out.

I wish I had, had this song then. Because at the time I went from such a low caged feeling to such a high free feeling that it would have been nice to relate to someone.



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Shades Of Grey
08-24-2009

Rated 0 
I think on a larger level this song keeps with the theme of the album. This album was self-produced by Metric - they broke from their label to produce what they wanted to produce.

I think this song describes wonderfully what it's like - the fear and anxiety - to strike out on your own, to do your own thing.

I think the 'you' that is being referred to is, well, us. The fans. If we remain faithful to the band, despite the obvious change and growth that their music has gone through, then they have no regrets.

My interpretation of the track 'Sick Muse' (which is where the Fantasy idea comes from) says all I need to say about the theme of the album: about them wanting to write their songs from the heart instead of to follow a trend or fill a slot.
They had to be 'hard' and 'tough' to move on, to change, and write the songs they wanted to write - showing their 'soft' and 'tender' side.

'If my life's still mine, what shouldn't I do?'
Why should they have to spend their lives following someone else's directives. They want their music to be their own, and it should be.


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SundriedSmile
08-19-2009

Rated -1 
ZOMBIESSSSSS!!!!1!

You're all way over interpreting this. Sometimes people get inspired about things like running from zombies or secret agent men and they just write a song about it. And maybe that's not what it's actually about, but that's the metaphor for how she's feeling. Great writers do shit like create completely disassociated images and settings to say something without.....saying it. John Donne and Shakespeare are all over that.

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Lyndsey084
07-26-2009

Rated 0 
I was searching for the meaning of this song and came across a review of the the whole album. The author argues that it's all one story about a relationship that is not quite over. I can see where he's coming from. It's too long to post here, but I think he has an interesting interpretation of the whole record.

Here's a link: http://www.teganandsarabanter.com/jude-austin/metric-fantasies

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ronmascara
07-23-2009

Rated 0 
I love this song but like a hammer? Wtff?

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audio9
07-02-2009

Rated 0 
"If i stumble
they are going to eat me a live"

People in general are unforgiving.

"can you hear my heart etc..
hard to be soft
tough to be tender"

Personaly i'm taking this as a break up. they did something wrong and they won't forgive them. they try to be soft and tender.

"If you're still alive"

They are wondering if their partner still loves them.

"My regrets are few"

they messed up.. couldn't be "tender", everyone makes mistakes. They don't regret their actions.

"if my life is mine
what shouldn't i do"

Basicly repeating what was said earlier, don't be scared to be yourself if someone is that unforgiving do what ever you want.

"i get whereever im going
i get whatever i need"

Basically saying i don't need you, life goes on.









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1 Reply
42 steps
06-26-2009

Rated 0 
Another song I've heard around a lot lately.

If you're still alive
then my regrets are few

seems to sum it up for me.

Everything else appears to be a recognition of life's condition (living) as temporary and violent (as in the first stanza) - a predator-and-prey thing. Everybody save yourself!

She does what she needs to do to get by. Her only true regret for her part in this all-encompassing-heart-pounding terrifying exhilarating scenario is if she has damaged (or killed) the person to whom she's speaking.

Not necessarily what the song's REALLY about. Just what I take from it.

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1 Reply
soextinct
06-21-2009

Rated 0 
This song always reminds me of Kodocha (the manga) for some reason. I love it.

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SaintBroseph
06-15-2009

Rated 0 
She was playing Left 4 Dead.

Love this song.

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brokenfix
06-12-2009

Rated 0 
So many awesome comments! I love this site more and more with every page I go to. Yes, the Zombie interpretation is the best. But I also saw someone say it was about panic attacks and WOW. I couldn't agree more.. it has certainly begun to mesh that way for me ever since this one hit my gym playlist.. it has become something of a theme song for me and my newly discovered anxiety disorder..

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pinacolada
06-04-2009

Rated 0 
i think this song is about a panic attack, at least thats how i interpret it.. in the chorus the lines say how she can get wherever shes going and whatever she needs, but she still feels like her heart wont stop beating

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Astebbing
06-03-2009

Rated 0 
Ok, well if you had any question as to what this song is talking about, Emily Haines explained it in a video interview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C9HANU35_s


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farnhamassoc
06-03-2009

Rated 0 
if when performing you ever get the feeling you want to be dead You will understand this song.

It has great cord changes that match the feelings you have when you are not sure if you are the best at what you do. But you really have nothing to worry about

the sketchy ups and downs in the changes match the lyrics and successfully relate to the feelings you get when you are facing failure or success.

Great Song either by pure thought or dumb luck. I am guessing a brilliant person wrote this. Those musical cords are masterfully placed.

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missme
05-31-2009

Rated 0 
Living life to its fullest and not being eaten up by your past and regrets...

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thenightstartshere
05-28-2009

Rated 0 
great motivation song..love it

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LoveIsAPlace
05-04-2009

Rated 0 
This song is about Emily Haine's nerves about moving to a new place-where she wrote Fantasies-and even though it sounds like a song about a post apocalypse world with zombies, it's not. It's about how it feels to live in a new place with new people and new faces. Fantasies is wonderfully basic for Metric.

"Take my pulse the pace is on a runaway train" means her heart is pounding because she's afraid. That's literal.

"If you're still alive" If you haven't died because of my absence.
"My regrets are few" then i don't regret doing this.
"If my life is mine" If this truly is MY life,
"What shouldn't I do?" Then why shouldn't i do what i want?
"I get wherever I'm going" I get wherever i want to go on my own without anyone's help.
"I get whatever I need" I get what i really need on my own.
"While my blood's still flowing" while I'm still alive--moving hasn't killed me.
"And My heart's still beating like a hammer" And my heart's still pounding because I'm nervous as hell.

I tremble
They're gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They're gonna eat me alive

-- If I mess up, the people in this strange, new place, are going to socially eat me alive. And i'll be nothing here.


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2 Replies
shockdelica
04-20-2009

Rated +1 
Oh I'm mad for her gentle voice...

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CountingCoup
04-08-2009

Rated 0 
New to this arena

I think this song is more about the experience of feeling alive when you have chosen to be exposed from your personal safety net, whatever that might be to you.

There is a freedom of taking risks, if only for the moment, and your body responds to that of your heart, metaphorically and literally.

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mumblecoreeee
04-03-2009

Rated 0 
i think this song could about preforming sober for the first time in a long time. i think the first verse is her saying how scared she is to preform sober.
i think the title is referring to her really feeling and being "alive" without drugs.

and perhaps the lines.

"If my life is mine
What shouldn't I do?
I get wherever I'm going
I get whatever I need
While my blood's still flowing
And my heart still beats.. "

are about drug use and how she's asking why does it matter if she does drugs because she's still living and breathing.

*shrugs*

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2 Replies
fishquawk
03-09-2009

Rated +4 
The zombie interpretation is obviously the best interpretation.

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AnotherYear1
02-01-2009

Rated 0 
I think she was very lost when she wrote this, with no idea what direction to take her life in. It's that scary thrill of a new beginning of sorts, she says "help, I'm alive" because she has the possibility for a whole new life in front of her, and this opportunity scares her, makes her heart beat "like a hammer". She is looking in on life from the outside in this song, afraid to jump in as the people might "eat her" alive. My opinion, anyway.

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2 Replies




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