"You Got Nothing I Want" was a 1981 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the first released from the album Circus Animals. One of the band's heaviest and most aggressive songs, it was written by singer Jimmy Barnes in response to the treatment they received at the hands of a record company executive during a U.S. tour earlier in the year. Don Walker said, "After we came back, Jim wrote 'You Got Nothing I Want' more or less as a personal tribute to Marty Schwartz."
"You Got Nothing I Want" was also the first song on the album and representative of the different sound Cold Chisel was attempting on Circus Animals in a conscious effort to move away from the slick commercial pop rock of East. Allmusic describes Barnes' vocals as sounding like, "a buzz saw blade that's flown loose and ripped through a bunch of parked cars." It spent 19 weeks in the national charts, peaking at number 12.
Producer Opitz said, "Musically, 'You Got Nothing I Want' was inspired by the Rolling Stones' 'Start Me Up'. The Stones Tattoo You was Australia's number one album when we entered the studio and Mossy would tune up by playing the riff. I'm sure if you put the start of 'Start Me Up' at the start of 'You Got Nothing I Want' it would work perfectly."
A video clip was made for the song. Directed by Peter Cox, who had previously directed the "Cheap Wine" video, it featured the band miming in the wooden-floored Paddington Town Hall.
On the 2007 tribute album Standing on the Outside: The Songs of Cold Chisel, "You Got Nothing I Want" was covered by Alex Lloyd.
Famous quotes containing the words you, nothing and/or want:
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—Eleonora Duse (1859–1924)