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"Down to Zero"
Song
B-side"Like Fire"

"Down to Zero" is a 1976 song by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. It features pedal steel guitar by B. J. Cole and drums by Kenney Jones of the Faces.[1]

History

The song first appeared on Armatrading's 1976 album Joan Armatrading, which was produced and engineered by Glyn Johns and recorded at the independent Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. It was the first song to be recorded for the album.[2] "Down To Zero" was released as a single, also in 1976, by A&M ("Down to Zero/Like Fire" – AMS 7270), and followed the success of the single "Love and Affection" which had been released in August 1976.

In his review of the album on AllMusic, Dave Connolly cites "Down to Zero" as "[one of] the album's most memorable tracks".[3]

Women's music writer Lucy O'Brien described the song as "a full-tilt rollercoaster ... a masterly analysis of rejection." [4]

Wilfrid Mellers, in his book Angels of the Night, praised the song's "jazz intensity", achieved he says, through its "triplet cross-rhythms". [5]

"Down To Zero" has since been re-released on numerous collections, among them: Live at the Bijou Bijou Club, Philadelphia Superstar Radio Network (1977, promo album); Track Record (1983), Joan Armatrading: Greatest Hits (1987), Joan Armatrading: 25th Anniversary Series (1987), Love And Affection (1996), Joan Armatrading: Master Series# (1999); Joan Armatrading: Millennium Edition (2000); The Best of Joan Armatrading: The Millennium Collection (2000); Joan Armatrading: Best (2001); Classic Joan Armatrading (2001); Love and Affection: Joan Armatrading Classics 1975-1983 (2003); All the Way from America (2004); Joan Armatrading: Gold (2005).

The single's B-side, "Like Fire", also appears on the Joan Armatrading album.

Performances

During the 1970s, Armatrading used the song to open her live concerts, as noted in contemporary reviews.[6] She used "Down to Zero" to open her live seminal concert for German TV (Studio L in Cologne) on 15 February 1979, accompanied by a band especially put together for the tour. The band featured Red Young on keyboards, Rickie Rick Hirsch on guitar, Richie Hayward on drums, Bill Bodine on bass and Lon Price on saxophone. The concert was recorded by WDR and features on the DVD Steppin' Out. Armatrading played the song again, this time as the second opener, with the same band, live at the Rockpalast in Grugahalle, Essen, Germany on 19 and 20 April 1980, in another concert recorded live and featuring on the Steppin' Out DVD. It was during the fourteen months between these two concerts that she became internationally famous, and "Down to Zero" helped her to achieve this. The band that played with her at these concerts went on to perform with her on subsequent tours.

On 5 October 1976 Armatrading performed the song on the BBC's The Old Grey Whistle Test, introduced by Bob Harris.[7]

Armatrading has included the song in many of her shows, almost as often as her top 10 hit "Love and Affection". She played it on her live concert tour "All The Way From America", the album of which was released, with a DVD, in 2004. Following this she rested the song, until including it once again in her 2012 Starlight tour.

Covers

"Down to Zero" was recorded by soul and blues singer Bettye LaVette and issued on her 2005 album I've Got My Own Hell to Raise.[8] The song was also recorded by Lili Añel and issued on her 2007 album Dream Again and later also released, by ESC Records, on her album Life or Death.[9]

The American singer Melissa Etheridge regularly covered the song live when she appeared in clubs in California in the 1980s – one of many Armatrading songs she included in her live repertoire.[10]

Notes

  1. ^ Mayes, p. 59
  2. ^ Mayes, p. 58
  3. ^ "Joan Armatrading", AllMusic. Retrieved 5 November 2012.
  4. ^ O'Brien, p.185
  5. ^ Mellers, p. 218
  6. ^ Black Echoes, p.15
  7. ^ " Early Whistle test details and discrepancies" at missingepisodes.proboards.com
  8. ^ "I've Got My Own Hell to Raise". ettyelavette.com. Retrieved 30 April 2013.
  9. ^ "Down to Zero – Lili Añel". AllMusic. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  10. ^ Luck, Joyce (1997). Melissa Etheridge : Our Little Secret. ECW Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-55022-298-2. Retrieved 14 May 2013.

References

  • Joan Armatrading (1976) A&M Records: AMLH 64588 (sleeve notes)
  • Harvey, Peter. Black Echoes (magazine) "Joan's Gentle Triumph: Individual Armatrading", 22 October 1977
  • Mayes, Sean (1990). Joan Armatrading – A Biography (unauthorised). Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 0-297-81058-8.
  • Mellers, Wilfrid (1986) Angels of the Night: Popular Female Singers of our Time, Blackwell ISBN 0-631-14696-2
  • O'Brien, Lucy (1995) She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Pop, Rock and Soul, Harmondsworth: Penguin ISBN 014023232X
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