This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
It's a hopeless situation
And I'm starting to believe
That this hopeless situation
Is what I'm trying to achieve
But I try to run on
It's all or none
All or none
Here's the selfless confession
Leading me back to war
Can we help that our destinations
Are the ones we've been before?
I still try to run on
But it's all or none
All or none
To myself, I surrender
To the one I'll never please
But I still try to run on
No, I still try to run on
But it's all or none
All or none
And I'm starting to believe
That this hopeless situation
Is what I'm trying to achieve
But I try to run on
It's all or none
All or none
Here's the selfless confession
Leading me back to war
Can we help that our destinations
Are the ones we've been before?
I still try to run on
But it's all or none
All or none
To myself, I surrender
To the one I'll never please
But I still try to run on
No, I still try to run on
But it's all or none
All or none
Lyrics submitted by Stephen_Flow, edited by Mellow_Harsher
All or None Lyrics as written by Stone Gossard Eddie Vedder
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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The Night We Met
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
Mountain Song
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Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
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How would you describe the feeling of being in love? For Ed Sheeran, the word is “Magical.” in HIS three-minute album opener, he makes an attempt to capture the beauty and delicacy of true love with words. He describes the magic of it all over a bright Pop song produced by Aaron Dessner.
Plastic Bag
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“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it.
“I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.
I agree that it's about love. It's really easy to bring Bush into it if you want, and I can see the argument for it. The music, which is all important in Pearl Jam's level of maturity, seems to hint towards a more heart-felt song. I see it as an unrequited love as well, perhaps a newly unrequited love, though. Like the person he loves fell in love with him for a short time then fell apart again. Now he knows that it's all of love, or none. It's one of those situations where you either have all of it or none of it, there is no in between.
Love or life. Yours or Vedders's. It's all or none. For a person who's critical of himself.
I think we should always ask ourselves where we are, where we're going, And if we're unhappy about one aspect of our life, even if we tell ourselves sweet lies, if we try to run on, We can't escape our demons. Let's face them with perspicacity. Cause it's all or none.
I want this song to be played at my burial. Note only for the lyrics, but also the tension in it. Honestly. Incredible song.
I think this song is about a man who loves a girl, but she does not feel the same for him. He knows this but he loves her and tries to be with her anyway. He surrenders himself to her, but he knows the outcome. He knows that its a helpless situation, but he still tries. It's really a sad song.
war can be used as a metaphor though... war w/ a loved one... i think justiceforall303's comment is accurate.
Yeah, its about life. Going around in circles, having to fight the same battles over and over, but still trying to get away from them.
i think its about bush, like most of the album, written in his character.
alright, i think it's about Bush, too. Because of this part:
"here's the selfless confession leading me back to war can we help that our destinations are the ones we've been before? "
..about the ones who have been in war by Bush or died by Bush.
I love this song!
Like justiceforall said, I think it is about unrequited love, but I think it goes a bit deeper. I think it is about a friend in love with a friend.
CAN WE HELP THAT OUR DESTINATIONS ARE THE ONES WEVE BEEN BEFORE? I think this line means that they have already gone through conflict together as friends.
It's about life.
This songs sums up the current situation with my ex gf- see I love her but she doesn't love me. I was treated badly by her but I still stuck by he because i truly loved her. I kept asking her to go out with me or i'd ask her to think bout it but she never did lol...:( anyways- it means that to me