Foster the People – Helena Beat

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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 in 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 the pawn up on the corner and pay for my rent
You know that I could not believe my own truth
Just show them what I choose, got nothing to lose

Yeah yeah and it's O.K.
I tie my hands up to the 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

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

I've tried to say that it's not the only way
I never knew if I could face myself to change
You were pacing, I was insecure
Slip and fall, I'm dodging calls, hug the prison I've been living in

Yeah yeah and it's O.K.
I tie my hands up to the 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

Yeah yeah and it's O.K.
I tie my hands up to the 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

Yeah yeah and it's O.K.
I tie my hands up to the 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

Send "Helena Beat" Ringtone to Cell


Lyrics submitted by alexbottz, edited by smexybak

Track duration: 04:36


Helena Beat song meanings
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38 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:The song is apparently about drug culture in Hollywood. The whole "tie my hands up to a chair" part of the lyrics is meant to express the uncaring attitude people have about self-destructive habits. Like they're doing all of these drugs and alcohol, thinking it's all great, but they can't even stand, hence the whole "tying hands up to a chair."
    Flag Xmayneon September 20, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Alright, so what I want to know, is why is the song called "Helena Beat?" The name "Helena" and the word "beat" is no where in the song lyrics.
    Flag Xmayneon September 20, 2012   Link
    • 1 Reply
  • -1
    General Comment:Industrialization - modern civilization - has killed the human spirit. This video is a plea to return to our innate goodness, wholeness that we all possessed as children but was stripped away daily by over-marketization of ideas driven for the sole purposes of profit. This is our prison. Some turn to drug addiction. Some wake up and realize the root of the problem is not inherent within us. We were born perfect. Nothing needs fixed.

    Watch the Video this will all make sense.
    Flag hartkp2610on September 16, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song speaks to me as a Broken Heart situation, could Helena be an Ex he's trying to get over?
    Flag marz101on April 07, 2012   Link
  • -2
    General Comment:I think you guys are reading into this way too much.... just sayin'. The band stated that this song was about kids who party hard and take drugs and drink a lot, and then wake up the next morning broke and hungover, wondering what they are going to do and where they are going to go next. Like, now what?
    Flagged AgentNy4non March 13, 2012   Link
  • +6
    My Interpretation:This song is autobiographical. Mr. Foster was a drug addict in his late teens. Tis correct that this song is about a typical drug addict in Los Angeles (as mentioned by another here) which Mr. Foster knows all too well from personal experience. The lyrics bear this out as they describe the emptiness and realization that this lifestyle was debilitating. However, the official video makes this all the more plain. Using imagery of a metropolis in ruins, a postcard suggesting that the city is a paradise as opposed to the actual ugly hell it is for most, and a clan of seemingly hostile children a la Children of the Corn or Lord of the Flies, who represent those who might try to intervene to save an addict from himself. At first they appear hostile and malevolent but in the end they are in fact the saviors, as they have rescued him and restored his lost youth.
    Flagged poet417on January 11, 2012   Link
    • 2 Replies
  • -4
    General Comment:so sad to find out their in illuminati
    Flagged richardpetersonon January 04, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:the song is about drugs, more specifically addiction to them, plain and simple. the references are many... if you have never done 'drugs its hard to miss. @katielynn127 you hit the nail on the head... the last two stanzas say it all... withdrawal... struggling to get thru it... contemplating change (stopping)... falling back into the cycle.


    Flag ceanfon December 16, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is absolutely amazing!

    its not about suicide or childhood or whatever

    its about a heroine addiction or just using in general. Using any kind of hardcore drug, such as heroine you do get "lost in your head.

    The "tie my hands up to the chair so I dont fall that way" part is a heroine reference, when you take heroine, one of the things people do it tie their hands up, so that they dont nod off.

    "Pulls you down before you know it its gone and your dead again" and Cause you're coming down hard and your joints are all stuck" Have you ever been through the come down after heroine? you will feel dead. he is clearly talking about a come down, he specifically says COMING DOWN HARD and hes sore.

    The whole song is basically just walking you through a day of a user. its definitely about heroine.

    Flag katielynn127on December 15, 2011   Link
    • 2 Replies
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I also heard that this song had to do with the party scene, drinking and such. To me, I see it as someone going through a really rough time in life, maybe a break-up or not having enough money, and going out and drinking just to get away from it all. He wants to drink so much so that he doesn't feel pain anymore, but no so much that he dies.
    Flag TheSamHoffmanon December 07, 2011   Link

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