Lyrics for Ballad of Big Nothing as interpreted by EnjOy IncUbus

Ballad of Big Nothing Lyrics
Throwing candy out to the crowd
Dragging down the main
The helpless little thing with the dirty mouth
Who's always got something to say
You're sitting at home now
Waiting for your brother to call
I saw him down at the alley
Having had enough of it all
Said you can do what you want to whenever you want to
You can do what you want to, there's no one to stop you
All spit and spite, you're up all night
And down every day
A tired man with only hours to go
Just waiting to be taken away
Getting into the back of a car
For candy from some stranger
watching the parade with pinpoint eyes
Full of smoldering anger
You can do what you want to whenever you want to
You can do what you want to, there's no one to stop you
Now you can do what you want to whenever you want to
Do what you want to whenever you want to
Do what you want to whenever you want to
Though it doesn't mean a thing
Big nothing

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tubesocks
08-02-2002

Rated 0 
Centers around the oft-heard innocent phrase "you can do whatever you want to." But the innocent phrase of optimism is skewed by the reality that shapes Elliot's life. He thinks he has gone too far away, seen too many things, screwed up too many times and is angry and afraid. Could be about the desire to kick a drug habit - with the second use of "candy" - but not knowing the first thing about how to do it. All that Elliot sees is a patterned cycle that he doesn't know how to escape, so he just keeps on keeping on and becomes bitter at those who live with wide-eyed innocence.

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asknoquestions
04-17-2004

Rated 0 
yeah, what he said

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morrisseyscoot
05-17-2004

Rated 0 
you are free no matter what you do or what people do to you.

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nopoetic
06-20-2004

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i think maybe that this is talking about himself and his family, his sister i think...how he does all these things to worry them and they try to just stop careing but they cant and he just makes it worse and worse on them. by his actions and he doesnt think he means anything to anyone, but his family still worries about him. "candy" means sex. at least thats what i got from it...it could mean anything.

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the green eyes
09-30-2004

Rated 0 
ernt. wrong. you make your own decisions but the song is about drugs.

"all spit and spite you're up all night and down every day"
-you're up all night from coke and down every day from heroin

"a tired man with only hours to go just waiting to be taken away "
-tired from being up all night from the coke and hes waiting to be taken away by the stranger who is a drug dealer. he is waiting for his fix.

"getting in to the back of a car for candy from some stranger "
-candy is cocaine. it is referred to as nose candy and you will take your fix from anybody hence the stranger.

"watching the parade with pinpoint eyes full of smoldering anger"
-you get pinpoint eyes from heroin. they become pindrops.

"you can do what you want to whenever you want to
you can do what you want to there's no one to stop you"
-its your choice to do the drugs. no one can stop you from doing it but yourself

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MarshmallowPeep
10-11-2004

Rated 0 
"all spit and spite you're up all night and down every day"

I think that's more like, you're up all night on amphetamines and pretty much just feel like crap the next day.

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Diskettes
11-23-2004

Rated 0 
I think that it shows his lack of conscious due to drug use. He feels like there is no one to stop him and tell him what is right from wrong, 'so why not just do whatever he wants'.

I'm not sure about the brother reference. Though it sounds like he wants moral support from his family to help him, but their tired of also having to pick him up everytime he goes down.

The word candy appears twice, so the meaning of the two should be the same. But, "throwing drugs to the crowd" doesn't make sense. 'Candy' is meant to be taken in the phrase, "taking candy from a stranger"---meaning->"don't take something sweet from someone unless you know them because of the risk that the sweet is tainted". So he uses the phrase in the beginning as a reference to his music. He's offering something personal and private and the crowd takes it from him, like a little kid taking candy from a stranger. But then he uses it again in reverse. This time he's the little kid whose taking something powerful and dangerous (drugs) from a stranger (dealer).

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precipitate
12-27-2004

Rated 0 
"said you can do what you want to whenever you want to"


the melody in this line is great.

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lipssocoldtheyburn
01-13-2005

Rated 0 
One of my favorite elliott smith songs

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manic_ash
01-26-2005

Rated 0 
'throwing candy to the crowd' could be referring to a drug dealer, trying to push his 'goods'

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diameye
01-27-2005

Rated 0 
Throwing candy to the crowd is probably dealing everybody there fix, and the second candy is version of getting his own fix. And basically saying that whatever your fix is then get off on it, theres no one to stop you..... and that at the end of the day whatever you want ultimately means nothing, except to you that is.

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1 Reply
magdalena5
02-02-2005

Rated 0 
while it's very likely that the much debated "up all night and down every day" lyric is about drugs, it could also just be about depression. Sleeping all day leads to insomnia... etc.

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1 Reply
treehousewizkid
05-27-2005

Rated 0 
I always looked at this song as being about a cynical character whose life has revolved around the cruel manipulation of others. I think it may be autobiographical in nature -- perhaps Elliott criticizing a side himself in the third person -- but it really isn't my place to say.

It seems as if things are coming to a head as this song begins. Our character seems to be reclusive, misleading, and riddled with uncertainty about where he's going. Regardless, rvery action he makes is a 'big nothing' because there's no one there for him to share it with. Life seems to go on as if he never existed.

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Shizzy
06-06-2005

Rated 0 
I think the part that goes "watching the parade with pinpoint eyes of smoldering anger" could refer to how he views the sober world when he gets messed up. Like everyone is leading there lives like they are marching in a parade.

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schizorage
08-11-2005

Rated 0 
In my opinion this song is about someone who has issues, and they use drugs to escape those issues, and they have let the problem escalate to the point where the narrator (as well as the subjects brother) have decided to just tell the person "you can do what you want to, whenever you want to" and just break off the relationship, because the subject just doesn't realize the problem is there.

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KrsOm
09-17-2005

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I think... up all night and down every day refers to insomnia and down every day to depression

and "do what you want to whenever you want to" to something he has heard people say but cannot put into use... Its obviously true, but he doesnt do it

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KrsOm
09-17-2005

Rated 0 
I think... up all night and down every day refers to insomnia and down every day to depression

and "do what you want to whenever you want to" to something he has heard people say but cannot put into use... Its obviously true, but he doesnt do it

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diexo
04-10-2006

Rated 0 
i think a few of you have it right.
this song is completely about drugs, and buying drugs.
when it says "to say you're sitting at home now waiting for your brother to call
i saw him down at the alley.."
indicates to me that this is a drug related call. and his 'brother' is actually the dealer. and he is waiting for him to call to let him know where to meet.
"said you can do what you want to whenever you want to
you can do what you want to there's no one to stop you"
It seems that possibly, he really confides in this dealer. probably because of the drugs, but any the case this is the dealer and elliotts point of view on his drug intake/situation.
also
"do what you want to whenever you want to though it doesn't mean a thing
big nothing"
basically he's saying it doesn't matter if he quits, or keeps doing the drugs. it was bound to end soon for him anyways, and he knew that.

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Lloyd
04-12-2006

Rated 0 
Its funny how on all the elliott smith songs everyone sais its about drugs so according to everyone all his songs were about drugs cmon people dig deeper. Dont make everything so clichaye.

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2 Replies
diexo
04-13-2006

Rated 0 
Lloyd,
i didn't see your response for the meaning of this song, so why are you telling people to "dig deeper"?
It's also really obvious that this song is about drugs.

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tagtraeumerin
05-08-2006

Rated 0 
I love this song!
Especially the concentration on the refrain, \"You can do what you want to, whenever you want to / You can do what you want to, there\'s no one to stop you\" plus \"though it doesn\'t mean a thing\", that\'s just so brilliant. It tells us about the correlation of being free and feeling caged - One can handle a lot more things in life, than one would think... sometimes there are these moments in which one can see, that gaps really do not matter, that anything is possible and that there is nobody to hold you back. We could basicly do what we wanted, every day of our lives... still it seems to hard. The gaps not overcomeable... everything is deadlocked. Helpless and strong in the same motion.
Crap, it\'s really hard to explain...
but what I think is: Sure it can be about his drug problems. But it does not have to be. Or you could even take them as a metaphor.. and I think that\'s also what Lloyd meant. Stop being so bullheaded, naive, whatever... maybe songs want to tell us more, than the obvious.

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wellwhiskey
05-14-2006

Rated 0 
People who use drugs usually convince themselves that it isn't wrong and they can do whatever they want to to themselves because it is their bodies. But elliott points out if it doesnt matter what you do, it takes away meaning from everything you do. "It doesn't mean a thing, big nothing"

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coldvoltage
05-28-2006

Rated 0 
i agree that this song is about drugs, but i think there's more to it. i think that the speaker has come to a place where he's not restricted by any kind of moral code, and he realizes that if everything is okay, and everything is right, then there's nothing to fight for, and nothing means anything - "big nothing"

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pompous pig
06-29-2006

Rated 0 
i agree with the nihilism part. well, with the drug part too.

someone mentioned the "parade" reference in an earlier post. elliott uses the parade theme elsewhere on this album; seems to symbolize society and whatever people do to try and hold on to meaning in a seemingly meaningless universe.. so he expresses how drug use can be a viable solution in life, if everything is subjective anyway. on that note, he may be expressing this song with a bit of irony...or maybe not - however you want to interpret it... but, i'd say that Elliott was probably pretty sincere with his pessimistic lyrics....

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namefrequent
07-26-2006

Rated 0 
No one has answered the question correctly with the exception of perhaps one or two thus far. The question asked, "What does this song mean to *YOU?*" *Not,* "What does this song mean to Elliott Smith," or to some other person. Do you know what this song means to Elliott Smith? How presumptuous to speak on his behalf... The fact that he used drugs or seemed to make many references to drugs in his songs is only noted in, like--nearly every article that is ever written about him. To point it out again is really redundant. So come up with something more original... Such as, what does this song mean to YOU? If you are viewing or hearing a song objectively as an outside entity (rather than being immersed in the music itself), then you are using the wrong apparatus for "seeing." So what does this song mean to you? That's for YOU to decide... To speculate over some dead person's inner thoughts that may have inspired this song is a precarious endeavor, at best. Poetry and music reside in the soul which itself is infinite and boundless, a bottomless depth--just like the ocean. Which encircles the Earth. You would have had to travel the entire Earth, therefore, by sea, all the way to the bottom, and covered every square inch--before you could begin to understand the richness and complexity of everything that the soul encompasses, which is given to us in a variety of metaphors be they dreams or non-dreams. If this kind of voyage isn't feasible for you--then an inner voyage into your own soul will do just as well. Take the gift that he has left us and create your own reality.

So what does this song mean to me? Do you really want to know?

http://www.myspace.com/barbiplease

http://www.myspace.com/everyonethinksimanalien

http://www.tagworld.com/elliottsmith

with many links and references to a few select sites that shall, for consistency--remain nameless, forever more.

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