"The Camera Turns Away"

In one way, writing these little introductory blurbs to my songs is easy: My attention span has shrunk to the point where it can be measured in seconds then counted on one hand, so short is good. What keeps them from being TOO easy is that there are just so darn many of them. I don’t want to write the same thing over and over for every song, so I keep needing new material. The first time I heard comedian Steven Wright, I thought it must be much harder to write his act, which consist of zillions of short observations, than it would be for the more standard comedian who tells longer stories, or who sticks with a single subject until the humor potential is exhausted. Writing in the latter format, you’d only need a handful of topics to fill a set onstage. To do it the Wright way, you’d need to come up with dozens of independent ideas. This is all a way for me to pat myself on the back and try to convince you, Dear Reader, that though this looks easy, I am actually toiling away very hard. If I toil even harder, my material may begin to approach the excellence of Steven Wright’s, but probably not.

The Camera Turns Away

© 1994 by Brian Hutzell

Hush it up! No one has to know

It’s just our little secret

We’ll never show and tell the world about it

That’s not the proper thing to say

We’ll save the story for when the camera turns away

They’ll never know; they’ll never suspect

It’s all up front; we’ve let them inspect the books

Let them photograph our honest looks

If that’s not enough, well, tough!

Hush it up! No one has to know

It’s just our little secret

We’ll never show and tell the world about it

That’s not the proper thing to say

We’ll save the story for when the camera turns away

The truth is dull--makes us look unkind

Doctor it up; no one will mind the ruse

And the proper slant makes for better selling news

While the tabloids speculate, the facts can wait

Shh! Be very still

Let them say what they will

If we like it we’ll let it stick

If not, we can contradict with a lie of our own

Live by the lie, die by the lie

Don’t you trust me now?

Live by the lie, die by the lie

Don’t you believe me now?

Hush it up! No one has to know

It’s just our little secret

We’ll never show and tell the world about it

That’s not the proper thing to say

We’ll save the story for when the camera turns away