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"You Got Nothing I Want" is 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, which 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. 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.

Reception

Allmusic described Barnes' vocals as sounding like, "a buzz saw blade that's flown loose and ripped through a bunch of parked cars. The boys come crashing in through the window like a bunch of rowdies with hell-raising on their minds, cranking out the guitar rock rottweiler."

New Zealand music magazine Rip It up described the song as, "a crunching rocker, and one wonders why he's contributed so few songs to their repertoire".

Andrew McMillan wrote in RAM, the song was, "complete with single camera clip and appropriately brutal delivery. Without compromising their own concept of a rock'n'roll band, they spat at the acknowledged life-support system with defiance."

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

1. Michael Lawrence (1998). Showtime: The Cold Chisel Story. Belmont, Victoria: Michael Lawrence. p. 205. ISBN 1-86503-118-6.
2. David Kent (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970-1992. St Ives, New South Wales: Australian Chart Book. p. 72. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
3. Mark Opitz; Luke Wallis; Jeff Jensen (2012). Sophisto-Punk. North Sydney: Ebury Press. p. 108. ISBN 9781742757933.
4. "Peter Cox". mvdbase.com. Retrieved 7 March 2011.
5. Cold Chisel - Vision, DVD liner notes
6. Adrian Zupp. "Circus Animals". Allmusic. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
7. David Perkins (1 April 1982). "Records". Rip It Up. No. 57.
8. Andrew McMillan (5 January 1984). "The Final Salute". RAM. No. 226. p. 33.
9. Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 68. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
10. ^ "National Top 100 Singles for 1982". Kent Music Report. 3 January 1983. Retrieved 22 January 2023 – via Imgur.

• Cold Chisel songs
• 1981 songs
• Warner Music Group singles
• Songs written by Jimmy Barnes
• Song recordings produced by Mark Opitz