Helena seems to be a woman in this song, but Helena, Montana is Colin Meloy's hometown, so it's a metaphor. Maybe a comment on the contradiction of drinking too much being okay, but smoking weed being too "out there" for straitlaced, Catholic Helenans.
Our Lady of the Rockies is a large statue of Mary overlooking Butte, Montana. (Talk about a hard-drinking town.)
Helena seems to be a woman in this song, but Helena, Montana is Colin Meloy's hometown, so it's a metaphor. Maybe a comment on the contradiction of drinking too much being okay, but smoking weed being too "out there" for straitlaced, Catholic Helenans.
Our Lady of the Rockies is a large statue of Mary overlooking Butte, Montana. (Talk about a hard-drinking town.)