Entertainment For Lively Minds
Songs about... um... nothing.
I've got a one-off radio show coming up in a couple of weeks, and our theme for the day is... nothing. Couldn't think of one. So have decided that "nothing" will actually be the theme for an hour of music.
Anyone able to come up with any suggestions? "Nothing" in the title is fine, but that's too easy. I just did a search for exactly that and have found oodles. I'm after songs that may be ABOUT nothing, or that have some subtle reference hidden somewhere in the lyrics.
To be honest, very tenuous links are fine - if it's a killer song, I'll find a way to justify playing it!
If I end up using any of your suggestions, full credit will be given and you'll be famous. For about 10 minutes. In New Zealand.
How can you possibly resist??
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Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Zero
Also "Zero" by Smashing Pumpkins.
Possibly their greatest song. A vast riff. Stop-starts. Yowling. More vast riff. It's basically just a riff, this song. And it's fucking marvellous.
Dreadful video, sadly. Just shut your eyes. All the welly of the music lost if you watch it, IMO.
Thousand Yard Stare
0-0 After Extra Time
Ride - Going Blank Again
Wide Open Space by Mansun
The lyrics were written with the intention of being meaningless.
Heaven
How about some Talking heads and 'Heaven'...
"..It's hard to imagine that nothing at all
could be so exciting, could be so much fun.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens.
Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens."
Stretching a point, maybe,but....
You Haven't Done Nothing , by Stevie Wonder.
Also who did that song called Apparently Nothing ?
Young Disciples..
about 1992.
Ride
Going Blank Again
Otis Redding - (Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay
Je ne regrette rien...
...
Ooh! Quick...before Dave Amitri gets here!
Del Amitri, Nothing Ever Happens
Ah yes,
Contains the line
Del Amitri sticking it to The Man there.
It's also dated,
startlingly, by the line:
'and secretaries turn off typewriters and put on their coats...'.
Still love it though.
The Ramones
I Wanna Be Sedated
Brilliant!!!
I really appreciate these suggestions - you're very clever, you lot...
Bob Dorough's "My Hero, Zero"
A brilliant kids' song.
PS And "Nothing" by Depeche Mode.
Another vote for Depeche Mode's "Nothing"
It's a corker.
The Beach Boys
This came immediately to mind
Contains none too precise directions to Chez Wilson
You could use as bumpers...
... between the above songs, Coheed and Cambria's various silent pieces, A Lot of Nothing I-XI, from their album In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth:3. Each is only a few seconds long, so no 'dead air' problems, I would have thought...
Brian Eno
Julie With
2 / 0,0
2 / 0,0,0,
William It Was Really
William It Was Really Nothing
There's always
Nothing by A. Blank Generation by Richard Hell + the Voidoids (got a brilliant intro, that record).
And, for Doods, Apparently Nothing was done by The Young Disciples.
Feeling pretty smug about this ...
... but I'm pretty sure when Pink Floyd were "laying down tracks" for DSOTM they called everything "Nothing". Nothing Number One, and so on. Maybe it was Leckie asking Mason what a song was called, and he said "call it nothing". So anything from DSOTM.
You're also forgetting
"Empty Spaces" by the Floyd...
No,
I'm not.
Did someone say
someth...nah, nothing...
A sad git writes...
I believe it was echoes which was developed from an original called Nothing. It's finished title before Echoes was settled on was "the return of the son of nothing"
Yes, I was a teenage floyd obsessive.
Wasn't it Return To The Sun Of Nothing?
And when they played it live first time there was an electrical issue that killed all the fish in a lake. Don't be sad be proud!
You could be right about the album
but I think before "return of the son of nothing" there was the original "nothing".
Sad? Obsessive? In a good way, surely.
A Song about someone
who, by his own admission, does not exist.
Aztec Camera
Oblivion
Hole In My Shoe - Traffic
Hole In My Life - The Police
Hole In Your Soul - Abba
Hole In The Ground - Bernard Cribbins!
Public Enemy - She Watch Channel Zero
Thousand Yard Stare - No Score After Extra Time
Already
bagged Thousand Yard Stare but nice to know that someone else ghas heard of them. One of my favourite albums of all time that debut.
Sorry , didn't see that
mind you, it deserves two mentions as it's ace
Something Good
"Nothing comes from nothing - nothing ever could"
Depends on how you feel about dedicating airtime to songs from Julie Andrews musicals.
...or 60s movies
and 'Until you find the love you've missed, you're nothing'
The Egg
Nothing
She's Not There by The Zombies
I'm Not Here - Bob Dylan
Nothing Fills The Hole
(up to 1:50)
Sigur Rós
had an album called ( ). I think every track was called Untitled ... but probably not too radio-friendly.
Anything by Nada Surf
The delightful band praised by Leedsboy further down the board.
Another kids' song
and a fine one it is too. Cute vid as well...
[they might be giants - zeros]
Clyde McPhattter - Without Love There Is Nothing
Great voice, corking moniker
A.M. 180 by Grandaddy
Contains the lines:
"But I’d be fine
Wasting our time
Not doing anything here
Just doing nothing"
Surprised it hasn't been mentioned already
Pipped at the Post
Just about to suggest that - looked it up on Youtube - and there it was already.
There's several contenders by Jethro Tull...
...the best of which (vis a vis Phil's brief) is '0 to the power of 10 = Nothing At All' from 'Minstrel In The Gallery (1975).
Honourable mentions to Nothing Is Easy (1969) and Nothing To Say (1970).
One of Gilb's finest
John Cooper Clarke - Nothing
Great piece of work and only about 40 seconds long.
The Specials
Do Nothing
Bob Dylan
Like A Rolling Stone
Just for the line "As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes"
Or perhaps
Nothing was delivered?
Good one to end on.
Or perhaps
Nothing was delivered?
Good one to end on.
Soundgarden
Black Hole Sun
John Cage - 4' 33
.
Always a pleasure to, er, hear that one
Something Similar by Maria Mckee
Ends with the line... "We are all collecting dust"
Nothing but the best
"All of this and nothing" - The Psychedelic Furs
"Love In A Void" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
2 corkers that fit your bill.
Van der Graaf Generator..
Refugees (1969)
nothing to do nor say
nowhere to stay
...
nothing to think
it doesn't mean a thing
Very obvious but
all the same it's a great song and it's all about 'Nothing' - from the musical A Chorus Line. The Original Broadway Cast recording sung by Priscilla Lopez is the version I'd go for.
You
beat me to it!
Ain't Nothin' Goin' On But The Rent
I loved this tune when I was a student in the 1980s
Always happy
to assist a fellow broadcaster
Dusty Springfield & The Pet Shop Boys - Nothing Has Been Proved
Ben E. King - I Who Have Nothing
Bros
Bros - I owe you nothing
I already have my tin hat on.
surely the winner
Beaten To It
I can't believe it's this far down the thread!
You and me Both,·Wayfarer
thought it would have been the first one.
The Music man
I'm Only Sleeping
HJH
John Lennon
was quite expert writing meaningless songs during the later Beatles' years.
I Am The Walrus
Hey Bulldog
I Dig A Pony
Come Together
All cleverly seem to be meaningful and are sung with some venom but the lyrics are nonesense. Apparently, he was sick of the 'pseuds' misinterpreting his songs and the things he said.
Even earlier, how about Nowhere Man and Good Morning, Good Morning?
War, huh, yeah,
what is it good for...?
Nothing
Billy Preston - Nothing From Nothing
Radio Show you say?
Lets Rock!
Bachman Turner Overdrive - You Aint Seen Nothing Yet
Amazed no ones posted this yet
Sinéad O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U.
Puts a new slant on the song -
turning it from "there's nothing like you" (in a good way) to "you're like nothing". Like it!
More Dylan
Nothing was delivered
And I tell this truth to you
Not out of spite or anger
But simply because it’s true
Now, I hope you won’t object to this
Giving back all of what you owe
The fewer words you have to waste on this
The sooner you can go
Nothing is better, nothing is best
Take heed of this and get plenty of rest
When you got a heartache
More Lennon
In 'Strawberry Fields Forever' in which of course, 'Nothing is real...'
Elton John
Too Low For Zero
Warning: contains a bloke on guitar with appalling 80s hair, a backing singer taking a break from the Tour de France with appalling 80s hair and another backing singer with..er...simply dreadful 80s hair.
"Nothing" by The Fugs, rather too obviously
"Monday, nothing
Tuesday, nothing
Wednesday and Thursday, nothing
Friday for a change a little more nothing
Saturday once more nothing"
And I find that after all these posts
no-one has yet mentioned the Townes van Zandt song Nothin', brilliantly covered by Plant & Krauss on Raising Sand or go with the Townes original on Delta Momma Blues.
I stood there like a block of stone
Knowin' all I had to know
And nothin' more
Man, that's nothin'
Just doing nothing...
Nothing's Boy
is a spoken word track (feat. Ken Nordine, of "Word Jazz" obscurity) from H.P. Lovecraft II. Short and very psychedelic.
Ken Nordine = cast iron genius
... "what time is it?"
Italian pop
Preisencolinensinainciusol by Adriano Celentano. A 1970s song with nonsensical pseudo-English lyrics, so literally about nothing; but what a groove it has! Quite addictive and with some fun TV spots.
Television - Ain't That Nothin'
If it were me...
I would end the show with the Pythons, worth it for so many reasons and fits the bill with the closing monologue. If you can't remember it go 2min 32secs - "what you lost? - NOTHING!"
Leave them with a smile.....!
Good luck
The Who - Let's See Action
Despite the title
Nothing is everything, everything is nothing.
How long
is this show again? ;-)
Good point
but they may ask for a series with music this good!
Nothin'
Townes Van Zandt. Can't believe it's not in the list.
Disbelief confounded
As it is already here with a quote.
More
In case you've got a 17 hour record show to fill...
The Beatles - Nowhere Man (Again)
Manic Street Preachers - Little Baby Nothing
Billy Preston - Nothing From Nothing
Elliott Smith - The Ballad Of Big Nothing
Lauryn Hill - Nothing Even Matters
Love Is All - Busy Doing Nothing
Richard Ashcroft - Why Not Nothing? (Good one to start with...)
Wild Nothing - Gruesome Castle (from Tribute to the Wake)
Ocean Colour Scene - No One At All
Have this, if only for the mighty afro, and lack of nihilism:
The Mighty Fall
"What's this song about?"
"Erm...nothing"
Camper Van Beethoven
- Take the Skinheads Bowling, "had a dream last night, it was about nothing".
Sex Pistols 'Pretty Vacant'.
Also 'Shake n Vac' by Snuff. Like, erm, yer know 'vacuum'.
and
'Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now' by Starship.
It's just a song about ping pong
Actually I have no idea what this song is about - but I like to think it's about nothing, a glorious blast of it by Operator Please, who were very bracing when they appeared on Later last year.
The 'Ooooo - Amazing Journey
"Nothing to do, nothing to say, nothing to hear"
He started out with nothin'
And he's still got most of it left...
nothing much happening here
'Clothes Line Saga' Bob Dylan
After a while we took in the clothes
Nobody said very much
Just some old wild shirts and a couple pairs of pants
Which nobody really wanted to touch
Mama come in and picked up a book
An' Papa asked her what it was
Someone else asked, "What do you care?"
Papa said, "Well, just because?"
Then they started to take back their clothes
Hang'em on the line
It was January the thirtieth
And everybody was feelin' fine.
The next day, everybody got up
Seein' if the clothes were dry
The dogs were barking, a neighbor passed
Mama, of cource, she said, "Hi"
"Have you heard the news?" he said with a grin
"The Vice President's gone mad"
"Where?" "Downtown." "When?" "Last night"
"Hmm, say, that's too bad"
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it," said the neighbor
"It's just something we're gonna have to forget"
"Yes, I guess so" said Ma
Then she asked me if the clothes was still wet.
I reached up, touched my shirt
And the neighbor said, "Are those clothes yours?"
I said, "Some of them, not all of them"
He said, "Ya always help out around here with the chores ?"
I said, "Sometime, not all the time"
Then my neighbor he blew his nose
Just as papa yelled outside
"Mama wants you to come back in the house and bring them clothes"
Well, I just do what I'm told so I did it, of course
I went back in the house and Mama met me
And then I shut all the doors.
The Strokes
The Strokes Ask Me Anything
The chorus is "I've got nothing to say" sang repeatedly!
The Hee Bee Jee Bees - "Meaningless Songs (In Very High Voices)"
Not specifically 'about nothing',
but these two from Donald Fagen express ennui better than most, I feel:
How about Jethro Tull's "0^{10} = Nothing At All"
(Of course, if the All Blacks lose to Australia, or even worse to France in the final, you've not got a problem - collapse of government, failure of the economy and general "end of world" woe will have descended in NZ)
'Doh -
- just seen that someone more on the ball than me posted this earlier!
Nix
...Stevie Nix
Nil (sson)
Nada-lie Cole
If you can find a recording of King Lear
you could play these lines (Act 1, scene 1):
LEAR ….Now, our joy,
Although the last, not least; to whose young love
The vines of France and milk of Burgundy
Strive to be interest; what can you say to draw
A third more opulent than your sisters? Speak.
CORDELIA: Nothing, my lord.
LEAR: Nothing!
CORDELIA: Nothing.
LEAR: Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
or The Scottish Play
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
busy doing nothing - Beach Boys
Best ever song about losing - then finding - a phone number
http://youtu.be/UCXFLxCARRs
Does...
Travels in Nihilon by XTC count?