Lyrics for All Or None as interpreted by Stephen_Flow

All Or None Lyrics
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...

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justiceforall303
05-05-2003

Rated 0 
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.

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Little_Baby_Nothing
06-08-2003

Rated 0 
i think its about bush, like most of the album, written in his character.

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High_heaven
05-01-2004

Rated 0 
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!

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Stephen Flow
10-07-2004

Rated 0 
war can be used as a metaphor though... war w/ a loved one... i think justiceforall303's comment is accurate.

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flipflingo
10-11-2004

Rated 0 
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.

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Jag3892
03-02-2005

Rated 0 
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.

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Sempre
04-29-2005

Rated 0 
It's about life.

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metalhead18
05-09-2005

Rated 0 
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

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tom65
06-17-2005

Rated 0 
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.

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grooveman
08-12-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with tom65. I don't think that this song is about any sort of relationship in particular, just life. And I also think the second verse, at least, has a purposeful subtext, tying in with the entire albums Anti-Bush sentiment.

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Whalebone
09-11-2005

Rated 0 
I'd have to relate this to my current relationship. I think of the song as being reflexive and he is asking himself why he isn't giving 100%. He feels too fickle. If he doesn't give all he won't have anything. His fickleness comes from his feeling that he will never be happy with anything he has. He is trying hard to keep this relationship going but his own inhibitions prevent him from doing that. It's a hopeless situation trying to make this long distance relationship work and if he isn't 100% committed to it, it just won't work.

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Regenstone8
12-05-2005

Rated 0 
Hmm...I see it a bit differently. I see a man talking to himself, about himself. Imagine to begin a day...along the lines of Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried to Live." You begin a day and say to yourself, today will be different; today I will do all that I have to do, all the way (i.e. study/work for 18 hours straight, write the great American novel, solve an archaic math problem). Imagine you put yourself up against a seemingly impossible standard, but since its you, you can do it. And then you fail. And the next day fail yet again.
So here's the speaker of the song, and this is his hopeless situation. He tries and tries, and never quite manages. In his mind, however its All or None. Either he manages to do that seemingly impossible thing, or to hell with it, he won't do a thing.
At the end, he comes clean with (surrenders to)himself; that is, with the one he can never please (since he has such high expectations of himself).

I think this tends to quite common with high achievers. I had a friend who said that either he would get the best job available for someone in his field, or he would quit his life and go join the French Foreign Legion for 5 years; its All or None.

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MamasanScar
12-19-2005

Rated 0 
This song seems to follow Pearl Jam's fixation with troubled families. One family member is trying to fix things, but they keep spinning out of control. The other members don't see the problem. The situation seems so hopeless and he's been fighting for so long, he doesn't even know what he's working towards anymore.

The selfless confession is when he tries to open up to the rest of his family, but it's so painful that it leads back to more fighting. To him, no matter how hard he tries or works things end up in the same place.

All these things going on destroy his self-worth. If he can't get along with his family, what good is he? His struggle is internal, so only he knows he has given up.

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xdvr
02-24-2006

Rated 0 
I'm rather torn between two points of view.

I'm not quite sure it's aimed at Bush. Bush would never confess that he's a shaved monkey in a suit, while the organ grinder plays on and that the whole Iraq thing was about Oil not about justice. So I think that paints that out of the picture.

I definitely think it's about a relationship, but in what capacity I'm not quite sure. It could be friends and family or be the end of love. The music is very introspective, and I think he's almost blaming himself for everything going wrong.

I think he's trying to sort things out by telling her the truth, that he's not feeling as much as he once did (The selfless confession - which I'm not convinced is that selfless, as obviously he wants to sort things out and that would benefit him as well) and it just starts yet another arguement because nobody likes being rejected and it's just making matters worse.

He's also saying he can never please himself, in which he is just blaming himself yet again.

The whole All Or None is that he doesn't want to be in this halflight - he wants it like it has been where they're all happy or not at all.

Best song on Riot Act, dripping with emotion. The brushed drumming is wicked, totally subdued and fitting.

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richie8092
03-28-2006

Rated 0 
"to myself, i surrender
to the one i'll never please"

this was one of my favorite lines when i thought it was"to myself, i surrender
to the one i'll never BE"

this was a great line that i can relate to and i just found out like a week ago it wasnt

i thnk eddie changes this line from please to be on the beneroya hall cd, listen to it

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platus
04-10-2006

Rated 0 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This song is about depression which is a common result of perfectionism.
'All or None' is a psychological term used to describe this kind of thought-pattern (Not settling for 'mediocrity').
"i surrender :: " (to depression) "for the one I'll never please" (himself).
"can we help that our destinations :: are the ones we've been before" is a reference to ageing, and looking back at our life missing the young years of who we were.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
platus 2006.

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CCDevlin
05-23-2007

Rated 0 
I think Regenstone is on point here. To me also this is a song simply about a mans attempts to get his life together. He keeps failing to get organized. This song is not about war litteraly... remember Vedder is a poet so alot of his keywords are metaphorical. War is just the war within yourself to fight and have discipline.

Hearing this song I am once again amazed with the purity of Vedder's empathy. Its one thing to place yourself in the mind of a war victim or something but its another thing to read the mind of someone in a very specific gap in society, with specific and complex emotions. And Vedder breaks them down so simplefied in this song. Better than people who are living it could ever explain it.

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JeffAment
07-25-2007

Rated 0 
I gotta also agree with Regenstone. That's a really refreshing point of view I can really relate to.

Taking a step back. What's going on here is truly great. You can really see the beauty in Eddie's lyrics, how people relate them to something that means something to them. Truly empathetic. Alright for Pearl Jam!

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left the porch
08-02-2007

Rated 0 
This is one of my favorites from Ed. I think it's about pursuing a girl and a meaningful relationship even when you know things will never work out the way you want them to. But it's all or none - you might as well still try and just hope that something remotely good can come out of it rather than sit back and think how you should have done more.

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CCDevlin
08-13-2007

Rated 0 
this song sounds like someone with borderliner syndrom. All or none... acting on impulse .. making the same mistakes over and over and surrendering to yourself every single team... leading you back to war asin building up your life, your moral etcetera .... and going back the same way.

amazing lyrics and music (mike's solo is of the purest kind of emotion)

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Poo_Town
09-09-2007

Rated 0 
This song reminds me of when i had this dream where for some reason i had to run, but i couldn't. I didn't have the strength. Maybe Eddie had the same dream too, and decided to write a song about it

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abarton214
02-23-2008

Rated 0 
I've had recurring dreams of that poo town. Eddie Vedder easily makes this my favourite pearl jam song with his pain staking vocals and disheartening lyrics.

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Grunger1810
10-22-2008

Rated 0 
I think that this song is about life all the struggles and you never seem to get anywhere and that you spend your whole life trying to make sense or return to what has already happned
can we help that our destinations
are the ones we've been before?
and I don't know about this so don't yell at me but in depression you get this all or nothing thinking where you think I'll either get everything or I'll end up with nothing and because your depressed you can't see that there is a middle and that you are never truly happy or proud of yourself and you feel that you are constantly battling with your mind
to myself, i surrender
to the one i'll never please
and they want to end this way of thinking but they can't and they still try to carry on

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