Something from Nothing

Staring down the dry hole
That used to be a well
This town has dried up long ago
There's no tale left to tell
I am a sole survivor
Each day I search the sky
And never a rain cloud goes by

I have faith
I have faith
What is faith?
Something from nothing

I live without companionship
Nobody takes this road
It doesn't lead to anywhere
Since they closed the motherlode
I gaze at the horizon
Until it hurts my eyes
And never a soul passes by

I have faith, I have faith
Without faith then there is nothing
But with faith I create
Something from nothing

And inside every atom
There is naught but empty space
Why does the sight of rainbows
Put a smile upon your face?
And how will you become yourself
From a little tiny ball?
The answer is nothing at all

Just have faith, I have faith
Without faith then there is nothing
But with faith I create
Something from nothing

"Unlike a lot of my records, which have some sort of central theme, this record isn't really like that. What it is, is a series of somewhat contemporary cautionary tales. In other words, the songs come off as being about something specific or they set a certain mood but in reality, they are really about something different — that is to say the actual realities are perhaps different than what they seem to be about. For instance a song like 'Something From Nothing' — a lot of people's first impression is that I'm saying that faith is a good thing to have. And I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that faith is possibly a necessary thing to have but that faith is a very limited thing and is not an adequate substitute for actually knowing something or doing something. So just sitting around thinking that faith can make things turn out okay is really just a waste of time [laughs]. So in that sense a lot of people are going to have a mistaken impression, thinking I'm coming from one direction when I'm really coming at it from a different angle." — Todd Rundgren source: noisecreep.com "The whole thing is that if all you have is faith, nothing is ever going to change. Every once in a while, you need to have real knowledge of something. Every once in a while, you have to actually act — and sometimes throw faith out the window and apply yourself to something."
— Todd Rundgren source: rockcellarmagazine.com

"There's a guest vocalist on this track — Rachel Haden, who played bass with me when I did the Arena tour a couple of years ago. She has this great kind of choirboy voice. There's very little inflection in it; it just has this pure thing. I tried to sing it myself, but I couldn't find the place in my voice where it worked. Fortunately, Rachel was able to do it. The keyboard sound is supposed to be this plinky-plunky, folky Bon Iver kind of thing. The song is another one of those cautionary tales in that it sounds like one thing, but it's really about the opposite thing. It seems like an exhortation to have faith in hard times, but it's really pointing out the shortcomings of faith. If all you have is faith, then you never actually know anything. You never actually do anything. Reality, in the end, is a much more important thing to believe in than just things that have no substance."
— Todd Rundgren source: musicradar.com

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