Curless was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, in 1932, and moved with his family to Massachusetts at the age of eight. In 1948, Curless began his music career in Ware, Massachusetts, where he hosted a radio show and toured with a local band called the "Trail Blazers." He married his wife, Pauline, in 1951, and only six months after the wedding, he was drafted into the army. He served in the Korean War from 1952 to 1954 first as a truck driver and later as a radio host with the stage name "Rice Paddy Ranger."
He returned home to Maine in 1954 and continued performing on radio shows, but he spent much of the following year, 1955, in the privacy of his home due to a chronic illness. In 1956, Curless returned to the public spotlight and appeared on the CBS television show Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts. He spent much of the late 1950s performing in clubs in California and Las Vegas but occasionally returned home to Maine to recover from periods of illness and fatigue.
In 1965, Curless recorded one of the biggest hits of his career, "A Tombstone Every Mile," which cracked the top-5 on the Billboard country charts and propelled him to national fame. From 1966 to 1968, he toured the nation with the Buck Owens All American Show. The pinnacle of his career came in the late 1960s with eleven top-40 hits, including "Six Times a Day (the Trains Came Down)." Altogether, he recorded twenty-two Billboard top-40 hits throughout his career.
After his success in 1970 with the hits "Big Wheel Cannonball" and "Hard, Hard Traveling Man," he recorded infrequently until he released the albums Welcome To My World and It Just A Matter Of Time in Norway in 1987. The albums were successful in Europe, especially in Norway and Germany.
Curless recorded an album with German country musician Tom Astor in 1991. During the later part of his life, he performed often at the Cristy Lane Theater in Branson, Missouri. He died of stomach cancer in 1995.
I Ain't Got Nobody
Dick Curless Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And I begin to think it's true
It's awful hard to love someone
When they don't care about you
Once I had a lovin' gal
The sweetest little thing in town
But now she's gone and left me
Now I ain't got nobody, and nobody cares for me!
That's why I'm sad and lonely,
Won't somebody come and take a chance with me?
I'll sing you love songs, honey, all the time,
If you'll only say you'll be sweet gal of mine,
Oh, I ain't got nobody, nobody cares for me!
I'll sing you love songs, honey, all the time,
If you'll only say you'll be sweet gal of mine,
Oh, I ain't got nobody, nobody cares for me!
In Dick Curless's song "I Ain't Got Nobody," the singer laments about the difficulties of loving someone who doesn't reciprocate those feelings. He reflects on a past love who was once the sweetest person in town but has since left him, causing him to feel sad and lonely. The repetition of the phrase "I ain't got nobody, and nobody cares for me" emphasizes the singer's feeling of isolation and abandonment.
The singer offers to serenade his potential future love interest with love songs all the time if she'll only agree to be with him. The repetition of this verse highlights his desperation to find someone to love and be loved by. The song ends on a melancholic note, with the singer still alone and hoping for someone to come along and take a chance on him.
Overall, this song conveys the pain of unrequited love and the longing for connection and companionship. It speaks to the universal human experience of wanting to love and be loved, and the sadness that comes when those feelings aren't reciprocated.
Line by Line Meaning
There's been a sayin' goin' round
I've heard a common phrase going around
And I begin to think it's true
And it's starting to seem accurate
It's awful hard to love someone
It's very difficult to love somebody
When they don't care about you
When they don't have any feelings towards you
Once I had a lovin' gal
I used to have a female lover
The sweetest little thing in town
The most endearing woman in the area
But now she's gone and left me
But now she's departed from my life
She done turn me down
She rejected me
Now I ain't got nobody, and nobody cares for me!
Now I don't have anyone, and no one shows any concern for me
That's why I'm sad and lonely,
That's why I am unhappy and desolate
Won't somebody come and take a chance with me?
Wouldn't there be someone to take a risk with me?
I'll sing you love songs, honey, all the time,
I will serenade you with love songs frequently, my dear
If you'll only say you'll be sweet gal of mine,
If you would just agree to be my endearing lady
Oh, I ain't got nobody, nobody cares for me!
Oh, there's no one in my life and nobody has any affection for me
I'll sing you love songs, honey, all the time,
I will sing love songs to you incessantly, my sweet
If you'll only say you'll be sweet gal of mine,
If you would only agree to be my affectionate woman
Oh, I ain't got nobody, nobody cares for me!
Oh, there's no one in my life and nobody has any interest in me
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: Roger Graham, Spencer Williams
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind