I’m Ledyard Campbell. I’d like to do for you a song, about a song.
Go with me, if you would, to a Saturday night in a small, one hotel town somewhere in the US where people might go for a weekend to escape the city. In the bar of the hotel there is a warm and friendly group of strangers. At the end of the room a grey-haired man gulps the rest of his drink, puts down the glass on the bar and steps up on a stage at the end of the room.
The old man gently sat down in his hard backed chair,
Slowly looked around the room, as he ran his hands through his hair,
Sat back and picked up his guitar,
Ordered up another drink from the bar.
He said, “I know most of you folks are strangers, come to visit our fair town.
Stay’in at this old hotel, ‘cause there’s no other place around.
Stopped by this bar to see what was going on.
Sit back, have some drinks, while I sing for a song.”
Then he started in on an upbeat, sang an old Clapton song,
Sipped his booze played some rhythm and blues, even did a little sing along.
He sang some songs about loving, and some about war,
But the best of all, they’ll all recall, was a song they’d never heard before,
Called Nothing to Lose, no nothing to lose.
You can give all you’ve got when you’ve got nothing to lose.
He said, I’ve been in and out of millions, had dollars wall to wall,
But I’ve never been false illusioned, I knew I’d leave it all.
I came in this world with nothing, I’m leaving with nothing more,
And
Nothing from nothing is nothing,
One thing sure
I’ve got nothing to lose, no nothing to lose.
You can give all you’ve got when you’ve got
Nothing to lose.”
He sang through the evening, but when the sun came through the door,
He got up, slow and stiff, said, “I just can’t sing anymore.”
Looking back on that evening, they all will recall
That
Nothing from nothing is nothing, nothing at all.
You’ve got nothing to lose, no nothing to lose.
You can give all you’ve got when you’ve got nothing to lose.
No, nothing to lose, you can do as you choose.
You can give all you’ve got when you’ve got
I can give all I’ve got cause I’ve got
You can give all you’ve got when you’ve got
Nothing to Lose.
@Alll rights reserved, Ledyard Campbell LLC February 22, 2024