"I Don't Know Anything" is a song by the American rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 band Mad Season

Mad Season

Mad Season was an American rock supergroup formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1994 by members of three popular Seattle-based bands: Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees. Mad Season only released one album, Above, and is best known for the single "River of Deceit"...

, released in 1995 as the second single from the band's sole studio album, Above (1995). The song reached number 20 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Composition

The verse bar

Bar (music)

In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...

 for "I Don't Know Anything" features a droning, overdriven guitar melody centered around the use of harmonics

Guitar harmonics

A guitar harmonic is a musical note played by preventing or amplifying vibration of certain overtones of a guitar string. Music using harmonics can contain very high pitch notes difficult or impossible to reach by fretting...

.

Release and reception

"I Don't Know Anything" peaked at number 20 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Although the single was released to radio across North America and the world, it was only commercially available in Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

.

Live performances

"I Don't Know Anything" was first performed live at the band's October 12, 1994 concert in Seattle, Washington at the Crocodile Cafe

Crocodile Cafe

The Crocodile is a music club at 2200 2nd Avenue at Blanchard Street in the neighborhood of Belltown in Seattle, Washington, USA. Opened as the "Crocodile Cafe" on April 30, 1991 by Stephanie Dorgan, it quickly became a fixture on the local music scene. It closed on December 15, 2007...

. A live performance of "I Don't Know Anything" appears on the "I Don't Know Anything" single. A performance of the song is also included on the Live at the Moore

Live at the Moore

Live at The Moore is a home video featuring the final live performance by the American rock band Mad Season. It was released on August 29, 1995.-Overview:...

home video release.

Track listing

All songs written by Barrett Martin

Barrett Martin

Barrett Martin , is an American drummer, upright bassist, composer, producer, writer, and Zen artist. He was the drummer for the Seattle, Washington groups Skin Yard and Screaming Trees, as well as the supergroups Mad Season and Tuatara...

, Mike McCready

Mike McCready

Michael David McCready is an American musician who serves as the lead guitarist for the American rock band Pearl Jam. Along with Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard, Dave Krusen, and Eddie Vedder, he is one of the founding members of Pearl Jam...

, John Baker Saunders

John Baker Saunders

John Baker Saunders was a founding member and bassist for the American grunge rock supergroup Mad Season, as well as a member of The Walkabouts. He was born in Montgomery, Alabama and later attended Providence College...

, and Layne Staley

Layne Staley

Layne Thomas Staley was an American musician who served as the lead singer and co-lyricist of the rock group Alice in Chains, which was formed in Seattle, Washington in 1987 by Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell. Alice in Chains rose to international fame as part of the grunge movement of the...

.
CD (Austria)

1. "River of Deceit
   River of Deceit
   "River of Deceit" is a song by the American rock band Mad Season, released in 1995 as the first single from the band's only studio album, Above...
   
   " (live) – 4:54
2. "I Don't Know Anything" (live) – 5:58
3. "X-Ray Mind" (live) – 5:41
4. "All Alone"/"November Hotel" (live) – 18:44
   • Live tracks recorded on April 29, 1995 at the Moore Theatre
     Moore Theatre (Seattle, Washington)
     The Moore Theatre in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. is a 1,419-seat performing arts venue located at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Virginia Street, two blocks from Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. It is the oldest still-active theater in Seattle. The Moore hosts a mix of theatrical productions,...
     
      in Seattle, Washington.

Promotional CD (US)

1. "I Don't Know Anything" – 5:01

Chart positions

Chart (1995)	Position
US Mainstream Rock Tracks	20