Lyrics for Nothing As It Seems as interpreted by Trent

Nothing As It Seems Lyrics
Don't feel like home. He's a little out.
And all these words elope. It's nothing like your poem.
Putting in. Inputting in. Don't feel like methadone.
A scratching voice all alone it's nothing like your baritone.

It's nothing as it seems. The little that he needs. It's home.
The little that he sees. Is nothing he concedes. It's home.

One uninvited chromosome. A blanket like the ozone.

It's nothing as it seems. All that he needs. It's home.
The little that he frees is nothing he believes.

Saving up a sunny day. Something maybe two tone.
Anything of his own. A chip off the corner stone.
Who's kidding? Rainy day. A one way ticket headstone.
Occupations overthrown. A whisper through a megaphone.

It's nothing as it seems. The little that he needs. It's home.
The little that he sees is nothing he concedes. It's home.
And all that he frees. A little bittersweet. It's home.
It's nothing as it seems. The little that you see it's home.

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  • 38 Comments
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chikito
08-02-2002

Rated 0 
I think this is a great song... pearl jam always was my favorite band.


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SwornToTheBlack
08-19-2002

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i have a very strong feeling that this song is about someone who has seeked help for a drug addiction. he goes to a clinic and feels homesick. "putting in imputting in dont feel like methadone". the part that speaks the most is "who's kidding? rainy day, a one way ticket headstone. occupation's overthrown. a whisper through a megaphone". this says that he is in so much pain, and screaming within, but nobody understands or hears him. he's lost everything and is left with nothing but a second chance.

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paranoidandroidhead
09-09-2002

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I like SwornToTheBlack's idea about this song, but I don't see how the line "One uninvited chromosome, a blanket like the ozone" fits in. I love that line, though, I'm trying to figure out what it means in context. Someone help me out!

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justiceforall303
03-10-2003

Rated 0 
"One uninvited chromosome"
I know that mentally retarted people have one extra chromosome...and when you read the song over again it may have new meaning.
just my opinion

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dontpanic42
04-04-2003

Rated 0 
I think "one univited chromosome" is referreing to unwanted pregnancy. Like the speaker wasn't planned and wasn't wanted by his mother. I don't know about the "blanket like the ozone" though

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PJNed
05-09-2003

Rated 0 
Downs Syndome explanation speaks loudy to me. "A chip off the old cornerstone." I actually think this is a nice song about a mentally challenged kid who sees the world differently and needs very little to be happy.

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riffiting
10-19-2004

Rated 0 
Im pretty postive this song is about down syndrome.
"one uninvited chromosome...etc"
"a blanket like the ozone" refers to how that one chromosome protects him from the world and how hard it can be. it also chokes off any deep knowledge connection he could have with others.

He has a harsh startling voice that will never be poetic and he just wants something for himself.

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BarbedWireSocko
10-26-2004

Rated 0 
I hadn't thought about it before, but the Downs Syndrome is starting to make sense. They use the word Home a lot, and that will give you the feeling of being safe, and protected.

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Jammer Of Pearl
01-24-2005

Rated 0 
AWESOME SONG! ...one of my favorites from PJ!

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Regos the Sane
04-14-2005

Rated 0 
Most of the lyrics are unnecessary. "One way ticket headstone" sums up one of the most gratuitously depressing songs ever recorded.

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x543xbrix
07-22-2005

Rated 0 
i agree with sworn to the balck. eddie did have a drug addiction before he was in pearl jam.

'With little money or goals, he had begun sinking into a shadowy world that brought out his survival instincts. "There is a thing that happens when you are not as priviledged and you start hanging out with a seedier crowd because you can afford to do the same things," he says. "And all of a sudden the big night out is sitting in somebody's trailer, smoking something or getting hold of something to put up your nose." "It is real easy to get into the lower depths and get intertwined. But I was always aware of that kind of thing. . . . I didn't want to be put on a leash by any kind of conservative, constrictive parent." "I didn't want to be in that world, but I also didn't want to be in the web of this other thing. I was getting swallowed up in it, but something made me realize it was time to get away or I was going to be just another loser." '

something i came across in an article i was reading

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i love JF
08-02-2005

Rated 0 
did ed really take drugs before in pearl jam
i have deep feelings for that man
ok about the song i can see the realtions with the downsyndrome and i believe it has a good piece in the song and if its true that ed took drugs the other part i think is about how he was saved from it and how he struggled but made his way through or it could be his own personal problems when younger than drug usage hence home in the song and i dont think he was one for home. seems like a strong word in his voice when he sings it

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MarcyBoy
10-01-2005

Rated 0 
When I listen to this song I think of a homeless man trying to make his way in the world. He is a bum on methodone all alone on the streets no one cares. His birth is unnessessary and unwanted. He obviously has no possessions, no prospects... he is stranded (looking towards a happy life is joke) and the only thing to look forward to is death. This guy might be a relatively normal human being but just made a few bad choices in our structured society. All that separates him from the rest of us is that he lacks a home and possessions.

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EternalJam
12-08-2005

Rated 0 
The sense that I get from this song is that it might have something to do with a gender identity crisis. I think the never-ending bleakness of the song hammers in the hopelessness. The "nothing as it seems" is that even though he may look one gender from the outside, he's really another on the inside. The "home" that he needs is feeling at home in his own body. The uninvited chromosome is the y in xy (male) where he should have been xx (female). The "blanket like the ozone" gives me impression of something very fragile, that if it goes neglected, will cause death. "Chip off the conerstone" - I take as a chip off the old block, (boy just like his dad), but with the gender identity conflict, on the inside he's quite different - "who kidding, rainy day, a one-way ticket headstone". "occupations overthrown" - this is tough, I see it as social constructions around gender - to be male you should act and think this way, if female, another - he wants those forces - "occupations", overthrown. The scratching voice, the whisper, inadaquate words, a complete and utter outsider, with no voice, no hope, "the little that he frees" is either "nothing he believes" or "a little bittersweet", again reinforcing the unachievable end. He doesn't want to be judged from his external appearance, like as iceberg where 90% of the mass is under water. , "the little that you see...it's home."

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marigold16
02-02-2006

Rated 0 
ok, the down-syndrom theory works... but the song's too dark to be about it... can it????

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marigold16
02-02-2006

Rated 0 
by the way: awesome, absolutely amazing theory, EternalJam!

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N0 C0DE 79
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
I know that PJ aren't really into doing drugs, I mean I know they've smoked pot and such but they aren't consumed by it, but does any one else notice the Pink Floyd drug induced texture to the song, just the way it progresses and sounds, It made me think of them...And I've heard the thought before so I was just wondering if anyone else picked it up... anyways

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marigold16
02-13-2006

Rated 0 
oh, in reflection to eternaljam's theory, i figured out what the 'blanket like the ozone' is.

forgive me if i'm wrong, but the ozone holds things in right? or protects them. well that uninvited chromozone is holding his true self in, or protecting it from everyone else.

that could be it...

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madame
04-23-2006

Rated 0 
one of the best from pearl jam

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tami4
05-07-2006

Rated 0 
This song always makes me cry

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BostonPJFan
06-22-2006

Rated 0 
Does anyone else think that the beginning of this song (before the singing starts) has a pink floydish kind of feel to it? the way stone is strumming his guitar with mcready's lead in the background reminds me of something like that, i dont know...

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glorifiedg79
07-19-2006

Rated 0 
MarcyBoy is right. This song is about being homeless. It's just like Even Flow. Not about Eddie. Jeff wrote this. Not a gender crisis. Maybe a down-syndrome man but I cant imagine him using methadone. The blanket is the street, the sun. he has no home. and that's all he wants is a home. he was abandoned.

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michaelru1651
10-20-2006

Rated 0 
For one, drug and alcohol addiction plays a huge meaning to the band. Their good friend (forgot his name) died of a heroin overdose right as the band was formed. Mike McCready has also struggled his whole life with alcoholism.
As for the lyrics, and coming from a recovering heroin addict, nearly everything in the song seems to fit. Heroin is like a blanket and that chromosome? heroin addicts form a receptor in the brain to accept opiates making them physically different (in the brain) from non addicts.
Need anything else? would be happy to go lyric by lyric

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12barsofsoul
10-24-2006

Rated 0 
I'm with michaelru1651. I think its about addiction. Pearl Jam been around long enough and have seen their friends like Andrew Woods and Layne die from drug addiction. I don't really get the connection with down syndrome. I can see how it can be about being homeless but...drug addiction fits a little bit more properly in my opinion.

I think the person in this song finds that comfort in drugs which probably parallel the comfort of home. Maybe he's a homeless drug addict and the drug is a surrogate home.

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nic000
10-27-2006

Rated 0 
Hey paranoid and droid or wateva... this song could be about someone with downs syndrome, people with that have 47 chromoZomes instead of 46... one uninvited chromozome.... Sweet song. HAUNTING

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