CHAPTER FOUR

“Buster Blue Eyes” is about my mother’s brother George Ernest Burwell III. My Uncle Buster. He struggled with mental illness his whole life. I loved him. I first wrote about Buster in college. When I went to write this song I looked up that old short story and used my images from it to jump start this song. 

Excerpts from my original short story “Buster Blue Eyes”. Written around 1980.
“Clarinet.  Blue music. Camera.  Blue life. Buster started with a tune, a melody that moved slow, and easy.  He stood six-foot-two, lanky body with narrow shoulders and graceful hands.  His face was soft, a soft pale white.  His blue eyes were always a little further down the road, drifting upon unseen waters.  Iridescent flecks in a sea where strange fish dart.  Everything about Buster was right there in his eyes.  You could look away, but it was there.  Prone to smashing up as many cars as his father saw fit to give him. Buster liked jazz, he liked blues and his father liked General Motors.”