Friday, June 10, 2011

New Album!

Too Busy To Worry


I have a new album out called "Too Busy To Worry", featuring 17 songs, 16 new ones and 1 older song re-recorded. This will be the 25th album that I've posted on my site www.GeneBurnett.com , where they are all available for downloading free or with a donation. Please visit and listen to or download as much music as you wish. Donations are strictly optional. At this point in my life, I would rather be heard than rich. And besides, there is so much music available these days, I'm amazed and happy any time anyone takes the time to listen to any of what I do.

So here are the song titles and a lyric sample from each one. I'm also linking each song title to that individual song, in case you want to listen to just that song. Please find the "Musical Recordings" page on my site to listen to or download the entire album.

1. All Wisdom Does Not Agree

This song is about accepting the various contradictions and paradoxes of life and finding some kind of ongoing balance between extremes...

When it suits me I’m an atheist—When it doesn’t I am not

It’s God that’s in the details and the Devil that is not

I don’t believe in omens but I’ll take ‘em if I get ‘em

I don’t believe in hunches but I’m inclined to bet ‘em

All wisdom does not agree



This is a song about facing the consequences of past actions....

My ship has come in—The others I sank

Did it myself—No one to thank

And now I am crying—All the way to the bank

I’ve got a big gun—But it’s just shooting blanks


Chorus:

I see why you left me—I would have left too

And never come back—If I were you

But miracles can happen—I hope that they do

I’m not holding my breath—I’m already blue



This is another of my "loser" songs. I guess it's my version of "Deacon Blue" by Steely Dan...

I finally got the tits to be a pop star

But I’m 30 years too late and the wrong sex

I’m just a fat guy with a six-string and a tip jar

Writing songs that even I forget


Chorus:

I’m a no hit wonder—I’m an amateur detective

On the trail of something I can barely see

When it comes to ambition—I have lost my perspective

Am I next to nothing or is nothing next to me?



I wrote this after reading a post-election facebook post by my friend Jeremy Hickman. Between his job, his music, marriage, and twin baby girls, he found himself focused on the same things the day after the election as the day before. My own facebook post that day read: "Before election: Chop wood~Carry water. After election: Chop wood~Carry water.", so I could relate!

I got bills to pay

Mouths to feed

Songs to sing

Friends to see

I’d love to stop and argue

But I’m in too big a hurry

I’m too busy to worry



Another love song for the missus...

I love to do the dishes

I love to sweep the floors

The garbage is my mission

I always check the doors

I might be going crazy

But I am never bored

I’m so married



I think this is one of my prettier and more commercial melodies, and the lyrics are heartfelt, but alas my muse has made sure this one won't be getting much airplay. (Not that any of my other "cleaner" songs do either!)

When you go away

I know I’ll be OK

I can fill my days just fine

But I want you to stay

Stay here in my way

I don’t want to be right all the time


Chorus:

So…Fuck me up—Throw me off

Slow me down—Turn me on

Crack me up—Brush me off

Just be anything but gone

Fuck me up



Almost there...

Sometimes I must close the store

Shut the shades and lock the door

Be right back I always say

I am not that far away

I might slide and slip around

When you try to pin me down

I might be hard to reach today

But I am not that far away


Chorus:

Not that far away

Not that far away

Give me one more day

I am not that far away



This one was sort of an experiment. I had one lyric idea, but two equally promising musical ideas, so I used both musical ideas with the same lyrics in the same song. It's about being unwilling to be a temporary fix for someone who's on the rebound.

It would have been a piece of cake

To let you love me

You were hurt and didn’t want to feel the pain

There’s nothing I would have had to fake

To let you love me

The way you showed up crying in the rain

But I saw your attraction

Was just a distraction

Just a small fraction

Of what you had inside

I wanted a happy home

You wanted a stepping stone

A temporary Romeo

To keep you safe and dry



This one, on the other hand, is about being perfectly willing to be a temporary fix for someone who's on the rebound!

Chorus:

Let me be your stepping stone

Let me be your good to go

You don’t need a “rent to own”

Let me be your methadone

Something easy—Something nice

All the fun at half the price

Half the virtue—All the vice

Let me be your loaded dice



This song is a slow country-ish dirge about accepting that everything comes to nothing, but still being willing to play...

My plates are all full and they’re all spinning

I try to keep ‘em going but gravity’s winning

If there’s a Devil he must be grinning

‘Cause sooner or later they’re all gonna fall

Back to the ground where they always have been

Where losers don’t lose and winners don’t win

It’s a journey to nowhere that never begins

But as long as I’m here—Well—deal me in



Sometimes I really get tired of the narcissism and self importance of myself and my fellow singer-songwriters...

Who are you trying to fool?

Worrying about who might be better than who

Dylan kicked all our asses in 1962

Why don’t you just shut up and play?

Life is tough—Is that really news?

Plenty of people got it tougher than you

You’re not famous yet? Well boo hoo hoo

Why don’t you just shut up and play?


Chorus:

Shut up and play—The sky is falling

Shut up and play—It always will be

Shut up and play—The sky is falling

Shut up and play—It always will be



This one's about giving up self-pity and listening to Nature...

I am standing by the water

Looking at the water

Wishing I was water—So free

I am standing by the rocks

Looking at the rocks

Thinking that the rocks are me

And a leaf floats by

Like a butterfly

And testifies to me:


Chorus:

Only a fool could be bored on this Earth

Nothing’s lost ‘til you call off the search

And nothing that matters is out of your reach

You’re not the prisoner you thought you were

Or the center of the Universe

You’re a big fish but you are not the Sea

So jump into the world and explore it

Nothing’s lost ‘til you stop looking for it

Nothing’s lost



This song makes no sense at all. It's just a bunch of Pop-Country song clichés thrown together. While I love what I think of as authentic Country music, I really don't like most modern Pop-Country music at all. I started off wanting to parody those kinds of songs, but now I see why people write them. They sure are fun to sing!

Country boy pick-up that ain’t a dog

Mama always told me this here guitar

Number one Hell yes Saturday night

Shotgun God bless ain’t you a sight

America freedom kickin’ your ass

Honky tonk Hell no you got class


Chorus:

Everybody wants to be a cowboy

But sunsets they don’t lie

Everybody wants to be a cowboy

Train tracks neon signs



I've been shooting short videos featuring 360 walk around views of people's heads, which I then post on facebook. No idea why this idea caught my fancy, but I stopped arguing with my muse a long time ago. After shooting and posting a number of these videos, I told my friend and musical hero Robbie Lindauer that I might end up using them in a music video someday. He said: Well the song should be called "This Is Your Head". So, of course, I had to write it...

This is where you live

This is where you die

This is where you tell the truth

This is where you lie

This is where you hate

This is where you love

This is where your body fits you like a glove


Chorus:

It’s everything you’ve heard

It’s everything you’ve said

It’s everything in the world

This is your head



Inspired in part by a line in my brother Allison Burnett's novel, "Undiscovered Gyrl", this one has existential as well as humorous implications...

I’m gonna give myself a call

And say we have to talk

I’m gonna take me out to dinner

Take me for a walk

I’m gonna let myself down easy

I don’t want to break my heart

I’ll just say I need some space

A little time apart

I’m gonna dump myself (X4)



This is an older song from my 2006 album "Plan B". I noticed that over time, I had changed the way I played and sang it, so this is a new version.

I meant it when I said it—All those years ago

When I pledged my love to you and no one else

I said “Your lonely days are gone—Darling, from now on

There’s no such thing as ‘all by yourself’ ”


There’s no such thing as “all by yourself”

There’s no such thing as “all by yourself”

I’ll be with you everywhere—I’ll always be there

There’s no such thing as “all by yourself”


17. Can't Help Feeling Beautiful


I thought I was going to set writing aside and work on recording the 16 songs above, but suddenly this one appeared out of no where. Inspired again by my friend Robbie Lindauer, who is sometimes pretty hard on himself. I got to thinking...and I thought, "You know if the things we don't like about ourselves, the things we are ashamed of, were really true, it would not be a big deal. We'd just accept them as facts and move on. But there seems to be this underlying sense of our own beauty, or potential for beauty, that makes these self-criticisms painful, since on some level we know they are not true...


Chorus A:

I can’t help feeling beautiful

I can’t help feeling beautiful

I can’t help feeling beautiful

Though I try and I try and I hide and I lie but…


Chorus B:

I can’t help feeling beautiful

I can’t help feeling beautiful

I can’t help feeling beautiful

I just do


Thanks for your support!

GB
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