Forbidden Beat

Song details

Bad Religion original
Yes
First released
1988
First release
Suffer (album)
Songwriters
Greg Graffin, Brett Gurewitz

Lyrics

Forbidden Beat

There was a boy who had too many toys and an ache inside of his bones. He sought extrication through chemical vocation and now he answers to Jones. It's deadly and alluring, the sound of pounding heat, Enslaving all who dare succumb to the temptations of the forbidden beat. Thinking today of what I want to say, thinking of inhibition and vice. What they call straight I do relegate as I cautiously saltate along. It's deadly and alluring, the sound of pounding heat, Enslaving all who dare succumb to the temptations of the forbidden beat. It thunders away at first light of each day and the simpleton lifestyle evolves But soon enters dusk as the last surrey rusts and a new day upon us results. It's deadly and alluring, the sound of pounding heat, Enslaving all who dare succumb to the temptations of the forbidden beat. Forbidden Beat [x7]

Versions & recordings

Grouped by recording

4

Song statistics

Archive coverage at a glance

48release versions
#117

117th most featured song

43documented shows
#123

123rd most played song

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Song Interpretations

What do you think this song is about? Share your interpretation and explain your reasoning.

7

legacy memberFeb 9, 2014
very clever songwriting here , shows that brett is a genious.

it's about addiction and the effects and struggle of it.
Recard86Jun 7, 2011
I think i read somewhere greg saying this song was about punkrock; the forbidden beat. Although for a while i got crazy ocd thought and thought this was about wife-beating haha, i always got a creepy feeling when listening to this song and sometimes had to skip it because of that. Yeah i'm an idiot
WarstubJun 7, 2011
'Jones' always makes me think of Floyd Jones from Philip K. Dick's novel [i]The World Jones Made. [/i]
theWizardsBakerJun 12, 2009 · edited Sep 5, 2010
This song is clearly about addiction; drugs or other: Jones is another name for Heroin -- "Fixin' for a jones" so to speak.
Brett's being clever here, using it as though it's a person's first name.
legacy memberSep 4, 2006 · edited Sep 5, 2010
I think it's much more likely that it refers to the Straight Edge movement that was becoming big in punk rock at that time, shortly after Minor Threat's demo in '84.
legacy memberDec 26, 2004 · edited Sep 5, 2010
Is about someone succumbing to the forbidden beat: by doing drugs.
legacy memberJul 11, 2004 · edited Sep 5, 2010
This is about the abuse of heroin, and more specifically, probably autobiographical in Brett's case. The forbidden beat refers to opium poppies (as beat is another term for crop) and it is about how a bored young man from a middle class background could self destruct when abusing this drug.