Lyrics for Can't Make a Sound as interpreted by EnjOy IncUbus

Can't Make a Sound Lyrics
I have become a silent movie
The hero killed the clown

Can't make a sound

Nobody knows what he's doing
Still hanging around

Can't make a sound

The slow motion moves me
The monologue means nothing to me

Bored in a role, but he can't stop
Standing up to sit back down
And lose the one thing found
Spinning the world like a toy top
Untill there's a ghost in every town

Can't make a sound

Eyes locked and shining
Can't you tell me what's happening?

Why should you want any other
When you're a world within a world?

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I can do the Frug
03-14-2003

Rated 0 
I really adore this song, everything about it. I'm not quite sure what it means but knowing Elliott Smith it's not happy. MAYBE it's about getting sick of having an image to live up to. not necessarily him, but anyone.

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comatoast
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
wow. yet another elliott smith song that so many people can relate to. i think it's about slowly losing your spark. he's lost the will to go out and be exposed to the rest of the world. he doesn't like it necessarily, but life is so confusing....like this song. and sometimes, when you're not too into the real world, you make your own world within a world. because, life gets so boring when you're quiet.

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Momus
04-12-2004

Rated 0 
Maybe it's about his rise to stardom. He goes from being this average guy with a talent for songwriting (the clown) to this semi-underground superstar (the hero) who seemingly can do no wrong.

"Eyes locked and shining" sounds like some fan looking at him with this unconditional adoration, and him having no clue of why he should be so deserving of some strangers awe.

The final repeated line is a sarcastic lament. Why would you want another, and perhaps more real life when you're finally living in the world you thought you dreamed of.

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dorareever
04-16-2004

Rated 0 
I've always seen it like...it's hard to explain...you know when you think and feel and know so much that you can't express it? when you're going so fast that you are frozen? when extremes touch?

I think that the last line is not sarcastic, but very positive. it's every introvert's idea after all. it's not about dreaming, or illusions, it's about being so full and complete you don't need to look outside for anything. kind an ode to autarchy. yes, maybe a bit solipsistic (sp?), but not negative in itself. I actually read it as very positive. it is for me at least.

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poopdeckpappi
11-24-2004

Rated 0 
it seems the character in this song has become a trgic hero and has lost his/her ability to enjoy themselves...the slow motion of the tragedy is the only high they can get from life conversation is meaningless for they are detached ...they are bored with life nothing is challenging..."standing up to sit back down" actions make no sense anymore the sum is always the same ,mundane...the days keep passing by friendships die from self absorbtion/pitty...eyes staring hopelessly can't anyone see them struggling and help... but why do they need anyone else when you are stuck in your own world you do not need anyone

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mr.pharmacist
12-18-2004

Rated 0 
he's changed, he's quiet coz he doesn't talk to anyone nor want to all that much because he really doesn't want to "the monologue means nothing to me"

he's different now maybe smarter,wiser not so silly stupid frivolous banal. " the hero kiled the clown"

every word make sense to me except the final line

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magdalena5
02-02-2005

Rated 0 
does anyone have any ideas on what the "hero killed the clown" line means? I can't get it out of my head...

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enigmatic_jess
02-04-2005

Rated 0 
my interpretation of it is that it's portraying the triumph of good over evil in his head. he's accepted his introversion and is now content with his own company whereas before he felt he had to act up to everyone's expectations and entertain them i.e be "the clown".

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imajar
02-15-2005

Rated 0 
am i the only one that sees a little bit of a political statement in this line?

"spinning the world like a toy top, till there's a ghost in every town"

maybe its just me, but that hit me most out of anything else in the song

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plaincl0thesman
07-26-2005

Rated 0 
i don't know about that, but this song always leaves me speechless. one of my very favorites.

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schizorage
08-11-2005

Rated 0 
seems like a song about someone who is lonely and depressed and has retreated into himself... elliott is at once the narrator and the subject, as evidenced in the use of first AND third person perspectives on someone who is at least for most of the song the same person...

the only time elliott is a narrator is at the end when he poses the question... which i believe to mean "why would you want someone to share your life with when you've retreated into yourself so deeply that you're avoiding reality?" you know?

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Clitoroid
01-27-2006

Rated 0 
Mr. Smith has suddenly become very depressed, to the point where he cannot talk. He's so depressed, he considers it a good thing because he figures everything he says is stupid anyway. "The hero killed the clown."

He feels all of his social interactions consist of him cheaply toying with everybody until he frustrates them enough to alienate himself "Spinning the world like a toy top. Till there's a ghost in every town."

Also, the SPINNING THE WORLD thing also serves as a double entendred drug reference when he says, "Eyes locked and shining. Can't you tell me what's happening?" Perhaps his drug use was what caused him to deal with others so thoughtlessly.

Finally, in a last ditch effort to justify his crippling depression, he decides the only way to actually feel respect in life is to subvert within himself. That way, he can't disrespect others and nobody can in turn disrespect him. He can always feel the powerful bliss of being a world within a world without anybody cynically making fun of such a narcisistic idea.

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cokfight666
02-12-2006

Rated +1 
i think this is about drug addiction and what it has done to him"i have become a silent movie
the hero killed the clown" is how drugs have made him separate himself the clown being him and the hero being the drug "can't make a sound" is how it makes him feel "nobody knows what he's doing
still hanging around" no one knows why he is still alive"the slow motion moves me the monologue means nothing to me" im guessing the drug makes him feel like hes in slow motion while the monologue is the speech his friends and family give to him about his condition"bored in a role, but he can't stop standing up to sit back down and lose the one thing found spinning the world like a toy top
till there's a ghost in every town" he wnts to syop cant resulting in him losing the one thing he loves his girlfriend this happens more than once resulting in his relationships (the ghosts) dying whereever he goes "eyes locked and shining can't you tell me what's happening?" kind of self explainable
"why should you want any other, when you're a world within a world?" why should he stop when he disconented

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BenG
03-22-2006

Rated 0 
Another superb Abbey-Road sounding song by Elliott Smith. It envelops you... so smooth and yet so sad...

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carmenadrift
10-20-2006

Rated +1 
"i have become a silent movie"- speech is futile, i have nothing to say, "the hero killed the clown" perhaps this is about a woman he cared for who moved onto another, the other man is viewed as the hero, he is the clown, the one fumbling for her affections, failing.
"nobody knows what he's doing" "still hanging around" yes what is the clown still doing here, what is he still trying for, he has been taken from the picture, eliminated, what is he still hanging around for> this can be also for why is he still trying at life, he should give it up.
the "slow motion moves me, the monologue means nothing to me" the emptiness of living, mechanical actions, useless, meaningless words, experiencing the pain of life as if it is dragged out, slow motion, never ending.
"bored in a role but he can't stop, standing up to sit back down" - tired of himself and the way he is, the part he plays in the world, the part he plays in his life, feels like there is an inability to overcome certain things about himself, then the back and forth motion of it all- standing up only to sit back down- making progress only to regress back to the previous state. ( this can be applied to addiction, or relationships). and "lose the one thing found" lose the one thing between standing up and sitting back down that was gained, lose the one thing that he finally thought he cou=ld hold onto (in himself,the world, or another person).
"spinning the world like a toy top till there's a ghost in every town" - to me this is the way he perhaps travels the world physically or mentally trying to find something of meaning, instead everything exposed bare, spinning the world like a toy top, as if carelessly, like a child playing with a toy, as if he has given up already internally and all this search these attempts are again empty actions, and turn up already what he knew they would- nothing, for eventually whatever had meaning, whatever seemed alive to him remains in the end as nothing but the ghost of that thing. (ghost of a relationship, experience, the ghost of a feeling, the remains that haunt him, because they are a cold, inpalpable memory).
"why should you want any other when you're a world within a world" - to me this is as if he should believe this, he wants to, and yet its not possible to. believing this would make him happier perhaps, it would lessen the need of another, of someone else, if he is so abundant, if his internal world is so full, why should he ever have to look to another to fulfill anything within him, to make up for any empty spaces? i see this last line as yes a bit sarcastic, ironic, sad. if only that idea were true. if only. maybe it would spare all the pain. but even then there is this thought behind it that feels lonely. and this is the irony.

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julian333
02-06-2007

Rated 0 
I am in agreement with the theory that he doesnt need anyone other when hes stuck inside himself. Ultimately is is an amazing song though he is an especially talented lyricist.

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demimondaine
03-28-2007

Rated 0 
Why should you want any other
When you're a world within a world?

C'est incroyable!!

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H.B.
07-23-2007

Rated 0 
The slow motion moves me.
The monologue means nothing to me.

Does it get any better than this?
I think the fuck not.

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H.B.
07-30-2007

Rated 0 
I'm living this song right now.
And I hate it.

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ferdinand
08-02-2007

Rated 0 
hero killed the clown

means that somthing worng hapening

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sadistic
11-29-2007

Rated 0 
Though the last line kind of throws me off when I listen to the song, ironically enough its my favorite line of the song, but it's overall amazing. God, I love Elliott.

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halfright
11-30-2007

Rated 0 
I have always paired this with the previous song "I'd Better be Quiet Now". Thus "the hero killed the clown" is him retreating into himself, not being the clown who rants and pleads over a lost love, but the hero who keeps quiet. Unfortunately, it is almost unbearable to be the hero, and he is left with just meaningless motion, "standing up to sit back down". Then he asks himself why he is not enough in himself, "a world within a world". Absolutely incredible song.

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blerocs
12-08-2007

Rated 0 
When I heard the song, hero and clown were two types of attitude for me, that I find also in myself. Hero is the one, who, dunno, looks for justice, learns how to makes things right, and clown is the one who would laugh at the world.

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schmoozyduh
12-30-2007

Rated 0 
i've always thought of this song as directly related to the movie "Laugh, Clown, Laugh." it's only really the opening that reminds me of it...it's a silent movie starring lon chaney, and he and another man fight for the affections of a girl. lon chaney is the clown, who ends up dying.

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Send
01-06-2008

Rated 0 
One of the biggest songs ever written. I really connect this song with the book "One Hundred Years of Solitude". To me this sing contains so much that I don't know where to start. It really bridge the gap between multiple realities if you ask me.

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