And now after some thinking, I’d say I’d rather be/
A functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.

The Fleet Foxes “Helplessness Blues” is a great blues song. It shares more in common with “What’s Up?” by 4 Non-blondes than “Blues Run the Game” by Jackson Frank.

Many middle class millennials and gen Xers were sold The American Dream: life will be better for you than it will be that it was for your parents. They went to college, took on too much debt–perhaps due to a bad understanding of financials, or being told they were better students than they were. They were promised that if they spend a lot on college this will make them special and they will get a great job. Well, that hasn’t happened.

In “Helplessness Blues”, The Fleet Foxes argue that perhaps a return to the simple life is where it is at. Maybe work as a farmer growing your own food is a better alternative than a white-collar job. (If only I could afford my own farm!) The song pushes back against the monetary obsession of past generations and suggests that there is a simpler—perhaps communal—life that is waiting for us that would be better.

The Fleet Foxes do harmonies well; that is their signature sound. Combined with acoustic guitars their harmonies are up their with CSNY, Simon and Garfunkel and The Beach Boys.

Helplessness Blues Lyrics

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 everything 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 ’til I’m raw,
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til 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 ’til I’m sore.
If I had an orchard, I’d work ’til I’m sore.
Someday I’ll be like the man on the screen.

Songwriters: Robin Noel Pecknold