Day 7: Nobody's Listening (Song-a-day January)

 

Day 7: Nobody’s Listening
By David Coile

Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025

Lyrics:

Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
Nobody's listening

There's no one listening to the words I say
There's no one listening to my mind at play
There's nobody listening, there's nobody listening

There's no one listening to the radio
There's no one listening to my manifesto
There's nobody listening, there's nobody listening

There's no one listening on this frequency
There's no one listening to this prophecy
There's nobody listening
Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
Nobody's listening

There's no one listening, but they have their taste
They turn up their noses at the human waste
But nobody's listening, there's nobody listening

There's no one listening, but they all can see
We're out of touch with our humanity
And nobody's listening, there's nobody listening

There's no one listening to reverberations
There's no one listening to the declination
There's nobody listening
Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody
Nobody's listening

I want you to listen, gonna bend your ears
To tell you a story full of joy and tears
But nobody's listening, there's nobody listening

In the tone-deaf kingdom there's a one-eared king
No message for you, he just keeps on laughing
And nobody's listening, there's nobody listening

Nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody, nobody...

***

Details: This is from day three of Timmy Riordan's Fearless Songwriter challenge (the first of six week-long challenges where he gives a writing prompt everyday). The prompt for today was "Nobody Listening". This made me wonder, "if nobody's listening, what would I play?"

My first thought was writing an instrumental, but I wasn't feeling that technical today. Then I started imagining a DJ at a college radio late at night on a holiday when all the students are away-- what would they play? Probably something a bit experimental or off-kilter. So I see this as such a DJ that's playing esoteric music and spouting off their theories on politics and culture.

I've also been writing songs to contrast all the previous songs written this month. I was lacking something with a drone, so that's what I went for with this tune. The vocals are a growling whisper, which is really hard on my voice, so I'm glad I got this recorded in one take.