"Cling to Nothing"

When I was still pretty young, my mom gave me a small spiral notebook of staff paper. Now I could write my own music! Imagining myself to be a young Bach, my first composition was, appropriately, “Prelude.” I doodled off a few little more piano pieces, including “Lovely Stroll,” which mom, a longtime church organist, played one Sunday as an offertory—the first public performance of one of my original compositions.

Meanwhile, a family tradition was using outdated, and therefore unsellable, calendar pads from my grandpa’s store. All of us in the family had a good stockpile of these old blank calendar refills, which found new life as stationery, shopping lists, memos, etc. I often used them for writing little poems, some of which later became songs. Most of those projects of my youth are long gone.

The first “real” song I remember writing—words and music—was “Away From You.” It was simple and stupid, but it was a start. In the mid-1908s, I revisited some of my earlier songs and gave them sometimes dramatic rewrites. “Cling To Nothing” is a head-to-toe makeover of “Away From You.”

I remember writing these lyrics in the library at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where I was foolishly earning my BS in Finance. I actually took many classes at U. Mass that I greatly enjoyed, but my Major courses were dull dull dull. Since leaving college, I have never held a finance job of any sort.

Cling to Nothing

© Brian Hutzell 1987

Young amusements, like building blocks
Make a fortress of a great big box
Let imagination run wild
And it works for awhile
Till some tragic age and you come to that stage
You can't run away to the games that you played

Cling to nothing (if you can)
Cling to nothing (if you must)
Cling to something (better just)
Cling to one thing
Cling to childhood (if you want)
But if you could (give it up)
Cling to nothing (if you can)
Let it go

'Long in high school, camaraderie
Then in college: fraternity
Friendships formed for pleasure and fun
Last until the party's done
But work comes along and points must be won
New cohorts are found in the business crowd

Cling to nothing (if you can't)
Use your buddies (trade 'em in)
Choose your company (keep in mind)
There is one thing
Cling to family (if you must)
Keep it friendly (better just)
Cling to one thing (leave the rest)
That's success

With an empty scrapbook, no one can tag you
If they give you that look, you know you're in
Look at what you've gone through
Now was it worth it?
If you could, would you do the same again?
Or would you be more aware of the chorus of voices you lost
Have you thought of the cost?

Clint to nothing (if you do)
Cling to nothing (should you have)
Clung to something (that you had)
Come to wondering
Cling to nothing (if you can)
Cling to nothing (what you have)
Comes to nothing (cling to that)
If you can

Cling to something - even one thing
Better than nothing
Cling to something
You've been working, getting dirty
Never shirking
Now you're hurting
Was it worth it?
If you nurse it, you can turn it into pearl
If you cling to something