Charlie Nothing
Encyclopedia
Charles Martin Simon better known as Charlie Nothing, was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....

, musical instrument maker and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

. He created the dingulator, guitar sculptures made out of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 cars
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

, and performed at several music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

s in the United States and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

. He made two album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

s and published 12 books.

Biography

Charles Martin Simon was schooled at the Montclair Academy for Boys (later the Montclair Kimberley Academy
Montclair Kimberley Academy
Montclair Kimberley Academy, abbreviated "MKA", is a private coeducational day school located in Montclair, New Jersey, serving students from Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. Thomas W. Nammack became the school's fourth Headmaster in July 2005...

) in Montclair, New Jersey
Montclair, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 38,977 people, 15,020 households, and 9,687 families residing in the township. The population density was 6,183.6 people per square mile . There were 15,531 housing units at an average density of 2,464.0 per square mile...

. After graduating in 1959, Simon went to Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...

 in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 where he majored in Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 and English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

. But after two years at university he grew unhappy with the courses and dropped out.

After the death of his artist wife in 1965, Simon was "reduced to nothing" which produced a "psyche fragmentation" he called Charlie Nothing the Artist. As Charlie Nothing, he pursued music and the visual arts. He created guitar sculptures made out of American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 cars
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 he called dingulators and formed a number of "dingulation" bands in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

In the mid-1960s in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 Nothing formed his first band which included himself on sopranino saxophone
Sopranino saxophone
The sopranino saxophone is one of the smallest members of the saxophone family. A sopranino saxophone is tuned in the key of E, and sounds an octave above the alto saxophone. This saxophone has a sweet sound and although the sopranino is one of the least common of the saxophones in regular use...

, a classically trained India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...

 player and a female Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese vocalist. Then came The First Uniphrenic Church and Bank Band, a group which played at The Village Gate
The Village Gate
The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York.Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 158 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structure by architect Ernest Flagg was known at the time as...

 and is said to have included "a young, pre-Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...

 Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry
Deborah Ann "Debbie" Harry is an American singer-songwriter and actress, best known for being the lead singer of the punk rock and new wave band Blondie. She has also had success as a solo artist, and in the mid-1990s she performed and recorded as part of The Jazz Passengers...

."

Nothing moved to Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 in 1966 where he performed in a show with Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...

 and briefly joined the cast of the musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...

. He then moved to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...

 where he recorded his first album for John Fahey
John Fahey (musician)
John Fahey was an American fingerstyle guitarist and composer who pioneered the steel-string acoustic guitar as a solo instrument. His style has been greatly influential and has been described as the foundation of American Primitivism, a term borrowed from painting and referring mainly to the...

's Takoma Records
Takoma Records
Takoma Records was a small but influential record label founded by John Fahey in the late 1950s.. It was named after Fahey's hometown, the Washington, D.C. suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland.-History:...

, The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing. It featured a sequence of saxophone improvisations
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

 by Nothing accompanied by gong
Gong
A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....

, conga
Conga
The conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...

 and a banjo ukulele. Nothing also did the album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...

 artwork. The album did not sell well in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, but achieved minor cult status in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 in free improvised music
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....

 circles.

In 1967 Nothing moved to Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz, California
Santa Cruz is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California in the US. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Santa Cruz had a total population of 59,946...

 where he joined an organic farming
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...

 movement and for the next ten years, worked a 21 acres (84,984.1 m²) farm entirely by hand. He continued his musical performances until 1984, during which time he also recorded several songs, including "Steal-A-Meal", "Fuck You and Your Stupid Wars", "Eatin’ Ain’t Cheatin" and "A Pizza and a Piece of Ass". In the mid-1970s he formed The Superfabulous Dingulators, a band consisting of Charlie Nothing (dingulator), Patrick Bisconti (dingulator), John Kertisz (bamboo flute) and Jesse Ward Jr. (percussion).

Between 1984 and 2005, Nothing stopped performing and focused on his other activities, which included beekeeping
Beekeeping
Beekeeping is the maintenance of honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, by humans. A beekeeper keeps bees in order to collect honey and other products of the hive , to pollinate crops, or to produce bees for sale to other beekeepers...

 and writing. Under the name Charles Martin Simon he setup his own Stinging Insect Removal business, and published over a dozen fiction and non-fiction books, each handmade and self-published
Self-publishing
Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...

. His non-fiction included books on health and nutrition, and his accounts of the psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...

 1960s.

In 2004 Nothing resumed performing in public again. He started playing at small venues in the Santa Cruz area, but soon began receiving invitations to play at music festival
Music festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

s. He gave a dingulation performance in 2005 at the Two Million Tongues Festival in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, and in 2006 at the Pauze Festival in Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 with Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 musician Jakob Olausson. In 2007 he released a new CD of dingulator songs entitled My Cuntree Tits of Me, a play on the phrase "my country, 'tis of thee".

Charlie Nothing died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...

 at the age of 66 on 23 October 2007 at his home in Soquel, California
Soquel, California
Soquel is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 9,644 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Soquel is located at ....

. An anthology album, 40 Years of the Ding : A Charlie Nothing Anthology comprising all his previously recorded LP
LP album
The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

s and single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

s, plus privately-released cassette
Compact Cassette
The Compact Cassette, often referred to as audio cassette, cassette tape, cassette, or simply tape, is a magnetic tape sound recording format. It was designed originally for dictation, but improvements in fidelity led the Compact Cassette to supplant the Stereo 8-track cartridge and reel-to-reel...

 recordings is scheduled to be released by De Stijl Records towards the end of 2008.

Charlie Nothing characterized himself as a "Philosopher/Clown" who, according to his official biography, "Was not born. Did not die. Does not, did not, will not exist."

Dingulator

Dingulators are guitar sculptures made out of recycled
Recycling
Recycling is processing used materials into new products to prevent waste of potentially useful materials, reduce the consumption of fresh raw materials, reduce energy usage, reduce air pollution and water pollution by reducing the need for "conventional" waste disposal, and lower greenhouse...

 automotive
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

. They are a class of musical instrument
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...

 invented by Charlie Nothing and each construction is unique with its own sound.

Dingulators are steel-string acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...

s having typically seven or eight and sometimes up to 21 strings
Strings (music)
A string is the vibrating element that produces sound in string instruments, such as the guitar, harp, piano, and members of the violin family. Strings are lengths of a flexible material kept under tension so that they may vibrate freely, but controllably. Strings may be "plain"...

. They have friction pegs
Tuning peg
A tuning peg is used to hold a string in the pegbox of a stringed instrument. It may be made of ebony, rosewood, boxwood or other material. Some tuning pegs are ornamented with shell, metal, or plastic inlays, beads or rings....

 and raised fret
Fret
A fret is a raised portion on the neck of a stringed instrument, that extends generally across the full width of the neck. On most modern western instruments, frets are metal strips inserted into the fingerboard...

s like those on a sitar
Sitar
The 'Tablaman' is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages...

. Tuning a dingulator is "variable, organic and evolving." According to Nothing, "the ideal would be to never tune them, to just find where they are going and go with it ... but sometimes I do make adjustments." Nothing, a skilled artisan
Artisan
An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

 and welder
Welder
A welder is a tradesman who specializes in welding materials together. The materials to be joined can be metals or varieties of plastic or polymer...

, used old cars as his material because "cars have the right kind of steel ... [they've] got very soulful steel." Nothing was also making a political statement with his artistic recycling. "It's a sword-to-plowshare kind of thing," he said. "Cars to guitars."

When Nothing began touring, he found taking his big and bulky dingulators aboard aircraft problematic. To overcome these difficulties he developed a smaller portable version with a detachable neck
Neck (music)
The neck is the part of certain string instruments that projects from the main body and is the base of the fingerboard, where the fingers are placed to stop the strings at different pitches. Guitars, lutes, the violin family, and the mandolin family are examples of instruments which have necks.The...

 that could be stored in the body
Sound box
A sound box or sounding box is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibrations at certain frequencies, known as resonances...

, making a compact steel carrying case he could take on airlines.

Folk singer-songwriter Josephine Foster
Josephine Foster
Josephine Foster is an American modern folk and psychedelic rock singer-songwriter and musician from Colorado. As an adolescent she worked as a funeral and wedding singer, and aspired to become an opera singer...

, who featured on the same bill as Nothing at the Two Million Tongues Festival in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 in 2005, described dingulators as "folk-art masterpieces". She said they sound like "tuned percussion [that] animate and punctuate [Nothing's] spoken-word diatribes." They are also reminiscent of Hans Reichel
Hans Reichel
Hans Reichel was a German improvisational guitarist, experimental luthier, inventor, and type designer.-Career:...

's pre-daxophone
Daxophone
The daxophone, invented by Hans Reichel, is an experimental musical instrument of the friction idiophones category. It consists of a thin wooden blade fixed in a wooden block , which holds one or more contact microphones...

 modified-guitar recordings, and of Derek Bailey's improvised music, although Nothing was unfamiliar with both these musicians. Nothing described his musical influences as "everything ... probably as much by the stuff I don't like as the stuff I like."

A photograph of one of Nothing's dingulators appears as the back cover art of Hearts and Minds, Musical Instrument Makers of America by editors Nancy Ellis and Robert Bailey, and photographer Jake Jacobson. A dingulator is also the cover art on the "The Western Region" section of the book.

Albums

  • The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing (1967, LP, Takoma Records
    Takoma Records
    Takoma Records was a small but influential record label founded by John Fahey in the late 1950s.. It was named after Fahey's hometown, the Washington, D.C. suburb of Takoma Park, Maryland.-History:...

    )
  • My Cuntree Tits of Me (2007, CD, Self-published
    Self-publishing
    Self-publishing is the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher. The author is responsible and in control of entire process including design , formats, price, distribution, marketing & PR...

    )
  • 40 Years of the Ding : A Charlie Nothing Anthology (2008, CD, De Stijl Records)
  • Charlie Nothing & Dingulator reissue (2010, cassette, De Stijl Records)

Singles

  • Charlie Nothing Dingulator Band: "Ain't No Fascist"/"Dingulation No. 1" (1980, 7", Beyond Omega)

Appears on

  • Various artists: So Much Fire to Roast Human Flesh (2006, CD, Bastet) – one track by Charlie Nothing, "Fuck You and Your Stupid Wars"
  • Various artists: Teenage Meadows of Infinity (Rare Psychs & Stomps) / From the Ashes Perfect Attainment Shall Be (Modern Freaked Sounds) (2007, 2xCD, Drag City
    Drag City (record label)
    Drag City is a Chicago-based independent record label. It was established with a Royal Trux release in 1990 in Chicago, Illinois by Dan Koretzky and Dan Osborn.Drag City specializes in experimental indie rock acts...

    ) – one track by Charlie Nothing, "Steal-A-Meal"

Non fiction

  • Goodnight Cambodia: Forbidden History (1997, ISBN 1-892489-00-7)
  • Speeding Through Satori (1997, ISBN 1-892489-01-5)
  • Life and Crimes: Charlie Nothing (2000, ISBN 1-892489-09-0)
  • Health Enlightenment.com (2002, ISBN 1-892489-11-2)

Fiction

  • Starworms: The Santa Cruz Savior Project (1997, ISBN 1-892489-02-3)
  • The Real Mickey Mouse (1997, ISBN 1-892489-03-1)
  • DragonSlime (1997, ISBN 1-892489-04-X)
  • AmericaCar: A Novel (1998, ISBN 1-892489-07-4)
  • Editor Murders Unmystery (1998, ISBN 1-892489-05-8)
  • The Money (1998, ISBN 1-892489-06-6)
  • The Collection (1998, ISBN 1-892489-08-2)
  • Adventures of Dickless Traci (2001, ISBN 1-892489-10-4)

External links

.
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