Helplessness Blues album cover

Fleet Foxes – Helplessness Blues Lyrics

Folk

I was raised up believing
I was somehow unique
Like a snowflake distinct among snowflakes
Unique in each way you can see

And now after some thinking
I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me

But I don't, I don't know what that will be
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see

What's my name, what's my station
Oh just tell me what I should do
I don't need to be kind to the armies of night
That would do such injustice to you

Or bow down and be grateful
And say "Sure take all that you see"
To the men who move only in dimly-lit halls
And determine my future for me

And I don't, I don't know who to believe
I'll get back to you someday soon you will see

If I know only one thing
It's that every thing that I see
Of the world outside is so inconceivable
Often I barely can speak

Yeah I'm tongue tied and dizzy
And I can't keep it to myself
What good is it to sing helplessness blues?
Why should I wait for anyone else?

And I know, I know you will keep me on the shelf
I'll come back to you someday soon myself

If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm raw
If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore

And you would wait tables
And soon run the store
Gold hair in the sunlight
My light in the dawn
If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore
If I had an orchard
I'd work till I'm sore
Someday I'll be
Like the man on the screen

Comments (9)

  • Curt Hobbs
    LIKE
  • Maurice R. Miller
    Gives me the chills.
  • Victoria Martinkus
    so good!
  • Kevin Colbert
    good song.
  • Kelvin Hildebrandt
    I just heard this song on Folk Alley. I plan to grow an orchard, and I know the dizziness of which this songwriter speaks. Very moving song.
  • Gina Ødegaard
    Lovely, lovely, lovely.
  • Farideh Alagheband
    This song, it's lyrics speaks magnitudes for people like me who are desperately searching for ways to change their lives in order to do something of personal significance for a living...for example by helping the planet/environment/nature. It moves me in more ways than I can possibly express. Beautiful!
  • Diana Barnes
    On my copy of the CD it goes...'unique in each way you conceive' not: ' can see'. It looks as if it's written by a one-legged spider with a scratchy nib, but I can work out bits here and there! I love this song, especially the unaccompanied intro.
  • Nolan James Russett
    yes