Call Me For Nothing
Driveway Music
Driveway Music
Call Me For Nothing
Another song that grew out of What They Call You For.
The Question
What would it feel like to be wanted when you aren't useful?
What They Call You For was about being needed. This song came from wondering what it would feel like to be wanted without having to be useful first.
How this became a song
After I finished What They Call You For, I realized it had left more than one question behind.
The first became Who Carries Me:
Who carries the person everyone else calls?
But there was another question underneath it.
What would it feel like if somebody called and didn't need anything?
No problem. No favor. No emergency. Just because they thought of you.
Somewhere in there, that became Call Me For Nothing.
There's only one problem.
I can't sing.
So this is Call Me For Nothing — or at least what it might sound like if I could.
Lyrics
Read the lyrics
Verse 1
You call when the car won't start
Call when the rent comes due
Call when it's two in the morning
And you don't know what to do
Call when your heart gets broken
When you need somebody there
I know how to be the answer
I know how to show I care
But every now and then
I look down at my phone
And wonder what it'd feel like
If you called me just because
Chorus
Call me for nothing
Tell me you ain't need a thing
You ain't gotta have a problem
You ain't gotta need fixing
Call me for nothing
Say you just thought of me
No favor
No emergency
Nothing wrong
Nothing you need done
For once
Call me for nothing
Just because
Verse 2
I don't mind being dependable
I don't mind showing up
I've been that man so long
I don't even think about it much
But sometimes when we're talking
I'm already waiting for the turn
That little pause before you tell me
What you called me for
Maybe that's on me
Maybe I've made it easy too
To believe the best thing about me
Is what I can do for you
Chorus
Call me for nothing
Tell me you ain't need a thing
You ain't gotta have a problem
You ain't gotta need fixing
Call me for nothing
Say you just thought of me
No favor
No emergency
Nothing wrong
Nothing you need done
For once
Call me for nothing
Just because
Bridge
Ask me what I'm watching
Tell me what you ate
Tell me something stupid
That could've probably waited
Stay on the phone
When there's nothing left to say
I wanna know what I sound like to you
When I don't save the day
Break
I know you know what I'm good for
I just wonder
If you know me
Final Chorus
So call me for nothing
When everything is going right
When the car starts fine
And your heart don't hurt
And you sleep good through the night
Call me for nothing
Waste a little time with me
No favor
No emergency
Nothing broken
Nothing coming undone
Call me
Just because
Call me
Just because
Where It Started
What They Call You For
Call Me For Nothing grew out of Episode Four of The Carrying — a letter to the person everyone knows they can call when something needs handling.
The essay asks what happens when being needed becomes tangled up with being loved. This song stays with a different question: what would it feel like if somebody called simply because they wanted you there — not because they needed something from you?
Listen to What They Call You For →Letters