One more little one
I'll go down and stay down
Sleep the rest of the day
Dreaming music to calm down

And stay down and keep evil away
I can see you asleep
Changing your shape
Dissolved in some dream

As a new one appears
To take you along where you've never been
The moonlight tonight seems to belong to me
'Cause I never go to sleep
I keep it company

One hit wouldn't matter a bit I'll
Stay down and think
What's here to find
If it's good or?

And I won't know the fact that I'm dying
If I seem to be reckless with myself
It's the fault of no one
All things have a place

Under the moon as well as the sun
One more
Little one I love you



Lyrics submitted by dragonflower44

Track duration: 03:14

"Little One" as written by Steven P. Smith

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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Little One song meanings
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35 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:And that major chord at the end is totally him getting high...because when all's said and done it feels good.
    Flag bunnywheespereron December 31, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Definitely about drugs, without a doubt heroin. Go down, stay down...down is a term for heroin. Also this is blatantly not a song about a stimulant. Another case for this song being about heroin is if you listen to the song "Junk" by Paul McCartney and Wings, it is very similar musically, especially the weird little guitar riff both songs share. And "junk" is also a term for heroin.
    Flag bunnywheespereron December 31, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Elliott clearly says in interviews that his reference to drugs in his lyrics are just metaphors for attachment to deeper desires and don't necessarily literally mean drug use even if it's ok if people want to take it that way. I have reason to believe (see my other posts on his lyrics) that he was aware of the rhythms of 'things that change invisibly' in a way drugs can shortcut you past religion to seeing and experiencing. But I think he was able to be in such a place somewhat without them even if they were aids for this course - yeah I think he was a saint coming from and going to another place...and because his candle burned so bright he almost forgot it was twilight, 'there is no nightime here...it's only a passing phase.'

    So centrally I think what he is talking about here in this twisted lullaby is that If we wake up then we no longer need to go through dark reoccurrence here but this will be our last life we have to repeat here, and then we can leave, it will be the last little one. Little one also means 'initiate' in esoteric traditions behind religions. He is contently (?) singing this is his last life as it is for those who learn how to constantly be in a state of De Ja Vue. When you were around him he almost awoke this in you. notice there is a higher voice singing along in the background all the same words on this song with him if you listen close, a second voice....Buddha taught our re-incarnating lives are not different peoples in different times but variations of our own life here we are living over and over lost in like 'the butterfly effect' or 'ground hog day' based on different decisions and are like pearls on a thread, the thread being our true self that keeps falling asleep into these different pearls until it learns to be independent of the sleep of them. Once one finds out how to get out of them then one only has one life left, one more little one, to accomplish it in (the life one figures it out in)(the pearl of great price).

    one mold... 'little one
    I'll go down, stay down-sea (/stay down and see/scene) the rest of the day'
    [incarnating down here as only the awake know they are doing in these molds/us. This is his spirit speaking to his little one: his soul, that he's bringing down here into the physical mold]
    dream new music to come down, stay down and keep evil away (left higher voice: /people away)
    I can hear you sleep
    changing your shape (/shade)
    dissolving (/dissolve in) some dream (/tree)
    as a new born/one appears to take you along [puer aeternas, and he sings this like a lullaby to a sleeping child]
    where you've never been [he is seeing his sleeping self reincarnating back into this physical life, changing without his volition and remembrance. by the distance created from seeing this though a new one is forming thereby, a soul (real one, born of fire, a baptism of fire above and not of this earth) to take him 'where you've never been' out through the friction]
    one, two, three, four, five, six, seven souled [there is an extra word here you our interpretations here are missing. He says 'souled.'people sleeping sell all 7 of their souls, the 7 fold nature of man, not knowing that they are such. They don't go out from here]
    the moonlight tonight, it seems (/scenes) to belong to me
    'Khazai's,' ..even those who can not see (/cause I 'even' those who cannot see/'scene' - ie can't create their own scenes)
    they need some company
    [our essence is what must ascend through and beyond the power of the moon according to the Hindu's if we wish to leave from our spirits languishing endlessly in this solar system. people noticed a blue light about him like the moon and he was aware of it and used it to help people who can't see the spirit world but who still need some company, they need someone who can emotionally be where they are so he used his control of the moonlight to connect to us. Jim Morrison said some strange powerful emanation of the moon seemed to come down just before they started making their first album and getting noticed - like he was plugged into some greater energy and was just serving a function. 'Penetrate the moonlight that the city sleeps to hide.'...and he talks about waking worlds up and beyond the side octave through the tides and beyond the Moonlight drive here.]
    One hit (/hid) wouldn't hurt a bit
    I'll stow/slow down to sea/to seed, unless there's a fire/find/flight (left higher voice: 'unless there's the Day')
    it fits, good ship, you won't know what I won't know when I've found that I have died (left higher voice: 'that I have flyed')
    if I seem to be rid, plussed with myself it's the fault of no one
    all things have a place under the moon as well as the sun [we are functions, mere bio mechanisms, for the moon and we are solar gods depending on which we ultimately gravitate toward in length of these reoccurences here but we are both as humans here in existence for a bit]
    one more..little one I love you

    - sincerely, 'a crash credit card registered to Smith, not the name that you call me with.'
    Flag Commagene12on June 18, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment: to me, this is the perfect description of a cocaine binge nearing its end, the juxtaposition of the sweet, lazy, fatigued melody with harrowing lyrics... it brings to mind the near come down.. your heart still racing but your head empty from fatigue... when you know you should stop and just go to sleep but you don't want to come to terms with that... everyone else might already be asleep/coming to, and you want to hold on to that feeling, convince yourself 'one more little one', when you know the time you'll have to face reality is drawing near... you bargain with yourself "one more little one--- then ill go down, sleep the rest of the day"... i think the melody/lyric combination is as is, not because he's found some beauty in drugs, but because he's experienced the state so many times, its like coming to terms with/ finally recognizing an addiction (it's no longer for fun, a party, or creativity.. it becomes too familiar for that, and you finally accept that you just want to savor the sin and you don't care) "if its good shit you wont know, and i wont know the fact that i'm dying"... its sad and perfect




    Flag alyssalowon November 16, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:like basically every other song on From a Basement, this one is about/heavily references heroin.

    others have done a good job of interpreting most of the song, but another significant line is "one, two three, four, five, six, seven" which refers to the seven seconds it is supposed to take heroin to hit the brain after injection.
    Flag candytalkingon March 15, 2009   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think Dixeychik is on the ball here. The song seems to have to do with heroin, the "spiritual" state it creates, and crucially the acceptance of that state and the balance within it. The "all things" line illustrates the idea it isn't just one element of his life, it is the overbearing state through which all else is experienced, the good bad, highs and lows. In sickness and in health as it were.

    The song isn't about blame, if not comfort in the situation then it has a certain degree of acceptance, and the feeling of being close to the end. The dreams, the changing shape are experiences heroin can offer in peace and exclusion from life and redefinition of yourself within the bubble it offers. I can't see in tone or lyrical content how the song would specifically be about crack. Crack is more chaotic, more of a distraction and too fleeting, even if the use of that particular drug plays into the lifestyle the focus of the emotion in this track couldn't be acheived through it. Crack is imbalance, heroin on the other hand has the capacity for balance and even some kind of objectivity through detachment.

    It still isn't completely at peace and includes thoughts like "one hit...", the thoughts that go through a junkie's head, but delivered with not ironic darkness like the line "the fix is in" in Alameda, but acceptance they have a place in all of this, and a sense that even when he's fooling himself, he knows what it is.

    I think a lot of you have some good ideas about this song and I reckon a lot of them may play into it in some capacity, its a rich song in that regard, Elliott's generally are.

    Peace
    CC
    Flag cafecaligulaon March 05, 2009   Link
  • +1
    My Opinion:i doubt it's about crack. we can agree it's about addiction, i guess.

    The one thru seven part strikes me as an unfinished lyric to be replaced later, a la "Scrambled Eggs"-->"Yesterday". Sadly, the finished verse never arrived :(
    Flag unchienandalusiaon February 06, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I'm sorry to disappoint all of you, but its clearly that the lyric of this song its about crack. What else can be the little one that change your shape (talkink about the body getting thin), dissolve in some dream, as a new one appears (when the crack burn and dissolve in the ash causing pleasure when you smoke one and then another), to take you along where you've never been ( having incredible sensation with the pipe, its like unbeliveable), one two three four five six seven (the fix makes you having more than one, you always want more than one to dont fall, and its the worst fall that exist), the moonlight tonight seems to belong to me ( you feel so good that the hit that tune you lest all night), cause.....even those who cannot sleep
    They need some company ( when you use it you dont feel lonely you are awake with the sensation of a company that wont left you alone). Thats for sure that "the little one" (of course that means crack) its the most strong sensation that who which have never tried wont know and never will understand the feeling. Thats why this is a love song that said in the end "I love you"

    one more little one
    i'll go down stay down
    sleep the rest of the day
    dream new music to calm down
    stay down and keep evil away
    i can hear you asleep
    changing your shape
    dissolve in some dream
    as a new one appears
    to take you along where you've never been
    one two three four five six seven
    the moonlight tonight seems to belong to me

    cause.....even those who cannot sleep
    They need some company

    one hit wouldn't hurt a bit i'll
    slow down sleep
    what's there to find [take]?
    if it's good shit you won't know
    and i won't know the fact that i'm dying
    if i seem to be reckless with myself
    it's the fault of no one
    all things have a place
    under the moon
    as well as the sun
    one more
    little one
    i love you

    Post Reply
    Flag vadovergaraon December 30, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:...i'm starting to think basement was... sort of elliott's goodbye to the world...

    kings crossing
    fond farewell
    little one
    memory lane

    and the song his family took off called suicide machine... i think he was ready to go...

    sad thought.
    Flag NewMoonon August 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:...this is about overdosing on heroin or another drug

    If it's good shit you won't know
    And I won't know the fact that I'm dying
    Flag NewMoonon August 06, 2008   Link

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