"Down to Zero" is a 1976 song by British singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading. It features pedal steel guitar by B. J. Cole and drums by Kenney Jones of the Faces.
The song first appeared on Armatrading's 1976 album Joan Armatrading, which was produced and engineered by Glyn Johns and recorded at the independent Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. It was the first song to be recorded for the album. "Down To Zero" was released as a single, also in 1976, by A&M ("Down to Zero/Like Fire" – AMS 7270), and followed the success of the single "Love and Affection" which had been released in August 1976.
In his review of the album on AllMusic, Dave Connolly cites "Down to Zero" as "[one of] the album's most memorable tracks". Women's music writer Lucy O'Brien described the song as "a full-tilt rollercoaster ... a masterly analysis of rejection." Critic Wilfrid Mellers, in his book Angels of the Night, praised the song's "jazz intensity", achieved he says, through its "triplet cross-rhythms".
Oh the feeling
When you're reeling
You'r stepin' lightly thinking you're number one
Down to zero with a word
Leaving
For another one
Now you walkin with your feet
Back on the ground
Down to the ground
Down to the ground
Down to the ground
All the way Down to the ground
Brand new dandy
First class scene stealer
She strolls through the crowd and walks off with your man
Sends you rushing to the mirror
Brush back your hair and say
There's more beauty in you than anyone
Oh remember when I walked the warm sands beside you
Moored to your heel
Let the waves come a rushing in
She'll take the worry from your head
But then again and again
She'll put trouble in your heart instead
Then you'll fall
You'll gonna know heartache
Still more crying
When you're thinking bout your mama's only son
Take him to your bed
Then you'll find peace in sleepin'
But you'll dream of love instead
Oh the heartache you'll find
Can bring more pain than a blistering sun
But oh when you fall
Oh when you fall
You'll know heartache
Still more crying
When you're thinking bout your mama's only son
Take him to your bed
Think you'll find peace in sleepin'
But you'll dream nothin but love instead
Oh when you fall
Oh when you fall