“Nothing to Say” by Soundgarden

Soundgarden’s songs, even the ones by other artists that they tended to cover, aren’t necessarily the easiest to decipher. They were one of those bands who sorta specialized in the art of saying plenty yet utilizing as few words as possible. And as the title of this song (“Nothing to Say”) suggests, this is one of those tracks.

And what appears to be going down is that the vocalist is addressing someone he has a tumultuous relationship with. So the advice he is giving this person is an idea akin to the less he or she says, the better. 

Or put differently, the implication is that harsh words of the ‘four letter’ variety have contributed to the discontent that may exist between them. And accordingly, it’s not like the narrator is taking a self-righteous approach to the situation. Indeed he has also been told that his own “words are out of balance”. 

So to the contrary, he too is exercising authority over his tongue. In fact there is only “one thing” he has to say pertaining to the matter at hand. And that is the aforementioned advice that he is imparting onto the addressee.

So this is a pretty interesting song. It takes a unique approach to what is actually a common relationship dynamic, the exchanging of toxic words. And the conclusion the vocalist seems to have come to is that it’s better not to say anything at all than to rather speak something that can have an adverse effect on someone whom he is associated with.

A Very Special Song

This song holds a very special place in Soundgarden history. It was the B-side to their very-first single, 1987’s “Hunted Down”. But more importantly, according to Kim Thayil this is the track which resulted in the band receiving their very first record deal. And that would have been with a label called Sub Pop, the company that put this song out.

Accordingly this track was featured on Soundgarden’s first EP, which also came out in 1987 and is entitled “Screaming Life”.

Who wrote “Nothing to Say”?

The aforementioned Kim Thayil, who served as Soundgarden’s lead guitarist, is one of the co-writers of this song. And the other would be the band’s frontman, Chris Cornell (1964-2017). 

And the other two members that rounded out the group at the time were bassist Hiro Yamamoto and drummer Matt Cameron.

Soundgarden

Soundgarden is a classic name in the world of rock music. It is believed that they have sold in excess of 30,000,000 records around the world. Having formed in 1984, they only released one album during the 21^st century, that being 2012’s “King Animal”, which peaked at number 5 on the Billboard 200. 

Actually they remained a popular group, even though it took them nearly two decades to come out with said album. (They were on hiatus from 1997 to 2010). 

And by all indications they would have remained one of the bigger names in the genre, if Chris Cornell hadn’t claimed his own life after a performance in 2017. This event sort of thrust Cornell and by extension Soundgarden into that type of cult status reserved for rockers who die prematurely. 

But at the same time, it effectively ended the band’s tenure as a group, and they once again disbanded, this time it would seem permanently, in 2019.

Recording of “Nothing to Say”

The producer of this track is Jack Endino, who handled said responsibility throughout the entirety of “Screaming Life”. And this song, as well as the rest of the project, was recorded in Soundgarden’s hometown of Seattle, Washington, at a venue called Reciprocal Studios.