Friday Song: "Saved By Zero"

Sometimes, having nothing of something can mean everything . . .

There were two things this week that brought The Fixx’s 1983 hit “Saved By Zero” to mind — the continued and rapid downward trend in Covid infections and deaths in the US, and fact that in the state where I live, the number of communities deemed high-risk for Covid has fallen since January from 229 towns to 0.

Sometimes, it’s nice when things disappear.

Zero was the last number to be discovered, moving from placeholder status to number status over time. It is neither positive nor negative, but represents the point where you could go either way. In lyricist Cy Curnin’s mind, “Saved By Zero” addresses the issue of how getting to nothing can be liberating — there’s nowhere to go but up.

Written in Bb, with a nice strolling pace of 117 bpm, the song and its video were fixtures on MTV in the early 1980s. The song peaked at #20 on the pop charts, and has had an enduring presence since then, including a 2008 appearance in a Toyota ad promoting 0% financing.

Enjoy!


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