Don't Know Much
Little Hug epistemology: don't know much about anything, idiot that knew it, books can't save me, so what, so what: who's in charge of darkness and light when everything is grey.
Listen: Spotify·Apple Music
ISRC QZNWU2063474 (soundexchange)
Track ten on Little Hug (April 2021), also a standalone single (February 2, 2021) ahead of the EP. Luke solo. Not a cover of the Linda Ronstadt / Aaron Neville ballad; same title phrase, different confession, with incompetence as identity rather than romance.
The verses are a self-portrait of someone who pretended to know and has now gone quiet: an idiot that knew it, frightened, unconvinced that books can save me, with other people’s diagnosis (you wonder if I’m crazy) hanging in the air. The bridge names the coping for what it is, social intelligence as a survival skill (good at reading a room / learn to laugh it off with impunity / easier to say than do), and then opens onto the real question: who’s in charge of darkness and light / when everything is grey. Not nihilism for sport, just moral certainty dissolving with no binary left to stand on. The so what stacks seven, eight, sixteen times, less defiance than surrender, a hook that refuses to learn and only repeats until it tires out.
It’s the same doubt that runs through Derrida Makes a Différance on Masks and Monsters and later The Bent Stick, and an idiot that knew it prefigures I’m an Idiot and Who Am I Really Fooling Anyway. Late on Little Hug, doubt before the named grief of Debby and the comfort of A Little Hug, and the opposite register from MMM’s cartoon certainty.
Written, performed, and mixed by Luke Francis Walton. Mastered by Riley Knapp.
Lyrics
No, I don't know that much about anything Yeah, I'm feeling stupid An idiot that knew it You wonder why I'm quiet No, I don't know that much about anything Is it frightening? Maybe I don't think books can save me You wonder if I'm crazy No, I don't know that much about anything So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah Yeah Yeah I am always acting a fool Normally I'm fueled with anxiety Now and then I try to act cool Falling on my face Yeah, I am good at reading a room Learn to laugh it off with impunity Easier to say than do No, I don't know that much about anything Yeah, I'm feeling stupid An idiot that knew it You wonder why I'm quiet No, I don't know that much about anything Is it frightening? Maybe I don't think books can save me You wonder if I'm crazy So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah No, I don't know that much about anything So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah Yeah, I don't think I'll ever be right What the hell does that word mean anyway Yeah, who's in charge of darkness and light When everything is grey No, I don't know that much about anything Yeah, I'm feeling stupid An idiot that knew it You wonder why I'm quiet No, I don't know that much about anything Is it frightening? Maybe I don't think books can save me You wonder if I'm crazy So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah No, I don't know that much about anything So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what So what Yeah