John Bustine is releasing his very excellent “Waltzes and Pleas” with a party This Sunday at the Cat and to celebrate, we are giving you a little taste of his sometimes deceptively simple songs, with an entire life being summed up in two or three verses and in under ninety seconds.
jesus jesus not again
I was kind of shanghaied into writing this song when my girlfried came home one day and said ‘i told sarah you’re writing a song to sing with her at your show next week.’ i see it as a cross between leonard cohen’s ‘hallelujah’ and the ferrel/deschanel version of ‘baby it’s cold outside,’
miss amputee west culver county
This song infuriated me. i had the melody and i knew it was about a one-armed beauty queen but no words would come. i decided to lock myself in the bathroom until i finished it. i was in there for 36 hours.
can you hear me o lord?
i have no recollection of writing this one. i woke up on the floor. there was an empty bottle of knob creek on the table and beneath it the words to this song. i didn’t recognize the hand writing.
the ballad of big snake and mister frog
anyone who called my boston apartment during the month of april in 2001 and got the answering machine will no doubt recognize this song. originally part of a skit about a hopeless irish folk singer, i fleshed it out so the kids would have something to dance to.
the wreck of the good ship lollipop
sometimes you have no one to blame but yourself.
available from Gypsy Eyes
the ballad of big snake and mister frog is the best song ever!
September 28, 2007 at 5:51 pm