Skip to main content

Memory Lane - Reel Big Fish 'Nothin' (from Turn the Radio Off)

By
Back in '96 I fell in love with a Ska band Reel Big Fish  I heard 'Everything Sucks' from a CMJ New Music Monthly CD, and bought Turn the Radio Off as soon as I could.  At the time, I had heard nothing like it.  I was introduced to Ska/Reggae in high school but the Mighty Mighty Bosstones were really all I knew, and were heavier and less sophomoric.   I had listened to a little Bob Marley but at the time, that seemed so far removed for me. The tracks were incredible.  For the album, I have every track rated with 5 stars in my iTunes.  It's excellent on the disc, it's excellent live, and the songs just get in your head.   One song for example, 'Nothin', it's simple, it's fast, it's repetitive, BAM it's done.  

Lyrics for 'Nothin' by Reel Big Fish

everytime i try so hard i get
nothin' (nothin')
they say try and you won't fail, i
get nothin' (nothin')
i did all that i could i got nothin'
(nothin')
i tried so hard, for nothin' (nothin')
i never wanted it that way, guess
there was nothin' i could say
i don't know what i want. but i know
i don't want this
i give up, i give in, i know i'm
never gonna win
i know it's really not your fault
i'm gonna blame you anyway
you say you're sorry, but i know it
won't do no good
i give up, i give in, i know i'm
never gonna win.


after a modulation around 1:20 the excellent part b follows


i don't $#&%!# care, 
i don't $#&%!# care
i don't $#&%!# care, anymore
i don't $#&%!# care, 
i don't $#&%!# care
i don't $#&%!# care anymore

it's gonna be all right
i don't $#&%!# care, 
it's gonna be all right
i don't $#&%!# care
it's gonna be all right
i don't $#&%!# care anymore
cause i don't $#&%!# care
cause i don't $#&%!# care
cause i don't $#&%!# care anymore
cause i don't $#&%!# care
cause i don't $#&%!# care
cause i don't $#&%!# care anymore

Now imagine yourself in a foreign country away from your friends, and you have this song stuck in your head.  The second half only.  And the folks you are hanging out with ask you to sing what you know.  What would you do?  I did what I was asked and sang what I remembered, but no luck.  I have no idea why they didn't know it or walked away laughing at me??

A live version of 'Nothin' by Reel Big Fish from YouTube (EXPLICIT)



More on Reel Big Fish later this summer... they're definitely a summer band!!

Enjoy!
Labels:

Comments

  1. The Great GazooApril 7, 2011 at 12:50 PM

    Great lyrics. Did Dylan write that?
    If you enjoy this ear candy, I strongly urge you to educate yourself. Stop wasting time with the JV stuff, & go to the source & get the Trojan Ska box sets. Or get your hands on some Lord Tanamo, Jackie Mittoo, Carl Malcom, or Maytals.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Premier Single : Birds Over Arkansas "Forgotten Lights"

By
Philly/CT band  Birds Over Arkansas ' is currently recording their full length release as a follow up to their 2014  Behind The Lights  EP.  Root Down In The Shadow is proud to debut the first single from this release, "Forgotten Lights." "Forgotten Lights" was first teased in an exclusive release for a RDITS house show in March featuring BOA , Kevin Killen , Chelsea Mitchell , and Max García Conover . Finally ready for the masses, "Forgotten Lights" is helplessly watching a loved one slip away into dementia. The song starts as a mellow Americana groove, and the split at the outro introduces the progressive rock elements to bring in the lyric "the flame blew out again." This was the pivotal point in the lyrics, signifying the change from someone who was slowly losing their faculties who has now seemingly become a different person. The switch from the easy, mellow groove to the frenetic time signature embodies this. Scott Haskitt - ...
1 comment
Read more

Root Down Is A Sometime Thing...

By
From the desk of Root Down: Greetings Friends!  It's been a bit, how've ya been? What's new? I've been gone for some time and I feel that I owe everyone an explanation of where I've been.   Honestly, I haven't gone anywhere. Since I've last posted, I've still been frequenting my favorite record store, been hitting up local shows, hosted a few house shows, traveling for special shows, and making music a large part of my life.  What I haven't been doing is losing countless hours fretting over knowing every new artist, tweeting, and losing sleep editing articles that spend less time getting read than I spent writing.  I can definitively tell you that I'm DONE attempting to make Root Down In The Shadow "a thing" in the music world.   I don't need Twitter followers, a lively blog, or anyone else's validation to share my love for music. It doesn't help my enjoyment of music to follow a shit-ton of bands on eve...
Post a Comment
Read more

New Release Q&A - Sonja Sofya answers some questions for "Patterns We Know"

By
The buzz has been all about Sonja Sofya and her new album The Patterns We Know .  Tonight Sonja Sofya and band take to the stage at Boot & Saddle in South Philly along with a great line-up featuring Arc Divers and the dove and the wolf. Right off the top we have some great reasons to expect great things from this album, such as produced by Ross Bellenoit at Turtle Studios and excellent musicianship by guitarist/producer Ross Bellenoit, bassist Jonathan Colman , and drummers Matt Scarano and Jonas Oesterle . But we at Root Down In The Shadow wanted to dig further and see what Sonja had to say about the album. Here's 3 questions we had for the songstress Sonja Sofya: RDITS: What was the impetus to make a full length record and why did you pick the people you worked with? At a certain point, playing and writing as much as I was, it felt like the logical next step, but I waited for a while, trying to find the "perfect" time to go into the stud...
1 comment
Read more