Nobody Loves You

Here’s a new one. Well, a new old one, actually… And a bit different than the last one!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, and, er, something blue…

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Nobody Loves You - A A J Russe

Nobody loves you
Like you really want them to
Nobody needs you
For the good that you know you could do

You wait for the night-time
But the night always comes home alone
So you hang on for the sunrise
But the sun says what you already know

Nobody loves you
Like you really want them to

Nobody listens
’Til the knife is in your hand
And nobody hears you
‘Til it’s too late to understand

There is peace and forgiveness
But only for the guilty or unwise
Where’s the love, my acceptance?
Are you dreaming?
’Cause you always seem surprised

Nobody loves you
Like you really want them to
And nobody needs you
For the good that you know you could do
Nobody hears you
‘Til it’s too late to understand
Nobody loves you
Like you really want them to

Copyright (C) 2014 A A J Russe. All Rights Reserved.

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I originally wrote the song in 2002 sat on a sofa in Tooting, but I only had the first verse and half of the second. I’ve tried finishing the lyrics several times over the years, but nothing really worked - I should have stuck with it when the mood was upon me. I finally managed to complete it April 2014 and started a recording of it… and then that stalled too.

It was written as an acoustic blues on a resonator (in fact, the vocal and the resonator on this version are the guides from the attempt a year ago).

The other day I went to make some space on the recording machine prior to starting something else (even older!) and found it on there, along with some other stalled ideas.

I thought “I’ll give this ONE more go - if I can’t do something with it, I’ll delete it…”

When I opened it up I found a vocal and the resonator, together with two over-dubbed acoustics.

The big problem was going to be a bass part - I think that’s where I got stuck last year. Really it’s a solo acoustic blues with some interesting chords in the first two bars, but I can’t actually play it, or not in a way that I’d be happy to post, anyway. I could possibly wing it live, but not well enough for a “studio recording”.

I’d recorded it with a click because I knew I’d need overdubs to cover up the dodgy bits. But it just didn’t breathe how I wanted it to… My finger got closer to the delete button…

But then I thought - why does it have to be like I’d imagined it when I wrote it?

So I messed with the click track I’d originally used, this kinda trippy-skippy thing that I’d hoped would give me a vibe to play along with… (the original plan had been to leave the drums off afterwards). I started jamming with a bass and hit the same problems I did last year… nothing but root notes worked, and root notes didn’t work…

And then this, er, “groove” started… (I had to play it to Mrs R before I was prepared to actually use it - “grooving” is not naturally part of my musical vocabulary!) … then I knew it was finally time to use the patch called “ADVISORY” on my Bass POD!

The plan was to over-dub some keys, maybe some electric guitars (I’ve been listening to Free a lot since Andy Fraser died the other week), and then come up with a decent slide solo for the middle section. But after I’d put some grand piano, electric piano, and organ on it, I discovered that we were probably done - and the drunken slide part stayed.

All I had to do then was sing a decent vocal and…
er…
Well, we’re stuck with the guide vocal including all its mouth-clicks and stumbles… (and a version of one of the lyrics that I’d rather not have used).

Anyhoo… I really felt like this when I wrote it in 2002… And, strange as it may sound, it cheered me up a lot and made me feel kinda hopeful. The acoustic demo I found the other day didn’t have that feel to it at all… but this version, even though it’s using the same vocal and resonator part, seems to offer me the comforting vibe I felt back in 2002.