Finger Eleven: One Thing Meaning
Song Released: 2003
One Thing Lyrics
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line
[Chorus:]
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one...
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The simplicity of this song and its two chord arrangement are somewhat symbolic of its meaning. It is not in and of itself a love song--although it could be without a doubt. Ultimately, "One Thing" is the one thing we all have: Life. Life is filled with daily decisions...most of which will bring us differently levels of regret. Most lives--even the lives of the most successful men and women of the world--are marked by failures. These regrets and failures can cause us to question ourselves and others--they can fracture our faith and our trust in humanity--whether it be our several acquaintenances or the love of our life. The line between letting our failures and regrets keep us down or deciding to make them springboards to future success or just better decisions is often vague and thin. Coming to terms with this revelation that it is the many choices we have made that has brought us to our current state is sometimes emotionally charged and the feeling brought about by this new knowledge is a difficult thing to articulate. Regardless, we must realize that the theme of the song is marked by the reiteration of the word "if." We can't change the choices we made, but instead see each step as a learning process:
I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time. -
Basically this is what I got.
1) A girl and him are dating and its pretty serious.
2) She wants to get married.
3) Marriage is a big commitment so he cant sleep.
4) He never planned that he would fall in love.
5) When you get married you can't really sleep around.
6) He would have to trades his rock star life to be a husband.
7) If he knew he would love her forever it would be great.
8) He knows what he wants, not to get married.
9) He knows that the relationship will fail because he doesn't want to commit but he doesn't want to think about it because it must suck because obviously he likes the girl but he dosnt know what the future holds.
Basically he dosnt want to trade his future for a girl -
Restless tonight
Cause I wasted the light
Between both these times
I drew a really thin line
He's in bed "restless," having "wasted the light." This is about regret and guilt. "Both these times" refers to the daylight vs the night. The one he wants to approach but is afraid to approach. The really thin line is the line between his fantasy life in bed and the real life during the day. The thin line is the painful boundary when fantasy becomes so intense it compels itself into reality, but fear of rejection or consequence blocks imminent action. There's something melancholic like Hamlet here.
It’s nothing I planned
And not that I can
But you should be mine
Across that line
"Nothing I planned and not that I can" draws this into the Romantic realm, of the precognitive, the urge beyond reason, or even evokes a sense of destiny like the "other half" in Plato's Symposium. There's even a possible connection to the stilnovisti poets. "But you should be mine across that line." "The line," as previously noted, is between the day and the night--reality and fantasy: his passing by during the day with fear to speak up vs both being in bed at night.
If I traded it all
If I gave it all away for one thing
Just for one thing
If I sorted it out
If I knew all about this one thing
Wouldn’t that be something
I believe that the "one thing" is how the desired feels--the hidden "other." The idea of giving everying away for the beloved to just be reaffirmed of the return of affection--the aggrandized emotion--again evokes the stilnovisti and courtly love poems. It also makes sense because the center of the anxiety is about the boundary between wanting to connect and the fear of actually engaging. Nothing would relieve that anxiety more than knowing the "one thing"--the foreknowledge of the other so that you know you won't be rejected.
I promise I might
Not walk on by
Maybe next time
But not this time
"promise" just reaffirms the "thin line." He's talking to his fantasy love in bed alone as though the relationship is already real. "might not walk on by"--meaning he probably will walk on by and knows he will, but will still try to delude himself anyway. "maybe next time, but not this time" This is one of the most critical lines. It means repeated contact. This is someone he is around all the time and expects to have contact with again. Repeated unrequited contact explains the obsession. We have motive.
Even though I know
I don’t wanna know
Yeah I guess I know
I just hate how it sounds
Here we get the feeble attempts to guess at the "one thing"--how the other feels. Each line is a gradual surrender to self-deprecation. The reason why he "doesn't wanna know" is because he expects rejection. He assures himself it will happen, which is why he "hates how it sounds."
This last passage explains the psychological mechanism that keeps him in this place. The dark side of fantasy is evolution into a waking nightmare. Each time he fails to speak up every day, he just reaffirms the inadequacy he feels when he's alone, "restless tonight." -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I work on rotation: 3 weeks in, 3 weeks out. I don't see my family for 21 days on end. To me, the song's about that last night before leaving. I wish I could make the decision to stay, I wish I could figure out another way to make a living and stay at home with those I care most about. The last night before every flight out, I wish I could not walk on by. And maybe the next time will be the last. But not this time.
I wish I could make that decision for my family, I wish I could give up everything I work for, travel for and sacrifice for just for that one thing: staying home.
I wish I didn't know I have to go, but every morning the day of my flight, I can't ignore it.
I know that leaving hurts my family. But I can only hope that a man is not judged solely on the worst thing he's ever done.
Wouldn't that be something. -
This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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I think this song is about a man who feels he wasted his life...and he wishes he could change that fact.
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I think that the song could basically be put to any situation and have a meaning to anyone. But it seems to me when he says:
If I traded it all
if I gave it all away for one thing
just for one thing.
Maybe he isn't talking about material things but his own life...would he give his life for a cause that he belives in or a person he loves. The way he emphisizes the word "All" may be just the way he arranged the song or he is saying "all" in a more powerful way b/c he is referring to his life when he says it. He would trade or give his life for something or someone. -
I think it is about a guy who has been with a girl who he has been with for a long time. He meets this other girl who falls in love with and can't choose between the two because he's been with the same girl for so long. So he stays with her and regrets it. I think it's about picking your paths in life and wondering in the end if you should have chosen the other one. I think he would've been happier with the other girl.
-
I'm going with a cocaine or meth or oxy contin addiction. I was addicted to cocaine and oxy contin and this song explains a ton. I would bet on cocaine though. Every verse could easily point to addiction to cocaine.. It starts by saying
"restless tonight cause I wasted the light"
"craving at night, cause I used all my coke"
"I drew a really thin line, it's nothing I planned"
" I did a tiny line of coke to feel normal, I never planned I would be addicted to cocaine"
he is losing everything in his life, his wife(or g/f) and family. He would think, if "I give it all away for one thing, wouldn't that be something" he would think of giving everything up in his life to be with his new spouse, his cocaine.
It goes on and says:
"even though I know I don't want to know
yeah I guess I know I just hate how it sounds"
even though he knows that he is addicted to cocaine, he refuses to believe it. Then he accepts that he is an addict, but he hates how it sounds, I'm an addict/ cokehead
thats what I think, cause not just me but millions of people are addicted to a drug(alcohol is a drug!) and choose there drug instead of thier life and loose everything, but if they truly knew about the drug and knew where they would end up, they would give it up. -
The beauty of this song is that even though it is sung by a young man in the 2000s, it is truly genderless and timeless. The simple lyrics are a sounding board for people's deepest thoughts and convictions.
In my mind's eye I see a man fed up with the trappings of aimless materialism and cheap, meaningless relationships.
He meets an enigmatic stranger who has cultivated Christ-consciousness and invites the man to follow. The man is wondering to himself whether to give up his numbing yet painful way of life for a new life that's in no way safe, yet nourishing to his body, mind and soul.
He's weighing his options--what if he traded it all for one thing? He has found a pearl of great price--why not give up a life that leaves him feeling empty so he can possess something that will open his heart to the beauty that surrounds him?
I don't know if I "cracked" the song, but in my experience this is how the lyrics speak to me. -
This song is actually about a guy who knocked up his g/f and is stuck between the sword and the wall, trying figure out what is the best thing to do.Either he "trades it all" and marries the girl and has the baby or he gets her to have an abbortion. The part that gives it all away is "It's nothing I planned..."
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I think this is about a guy who knows in order to get the girl he wants he has to give up his cocaine habit. Hence "the line". He knows the truth but just can't do it.
That simple. -
This song is probably about waiting for the right moment to declare your love to somebody, about liking someone and wondering if this love is worth giving up everything else for, including making sacrifices in other areas of your life, even sacrificing your dignity to tell them so and risk rejection.
Or it's just about waiting for the right time to have sex.
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