Chords for Burton Cummings - "The New Music" '80 Rare Interview #2

They're too short.
[G] No they're not.
[D] He's still considered to be the quintessential [G] Canadian,
even though he spends about 95% of his time in Los Angeles.
[C] Burton won a Juno for Best Male Vocalist of the Year,
something he seems to do [A] without even trying.
That makes a total of 17 Junos now, to Burton's credit.
[Gm] He's been spending the [Eb] last few weeks putting the finishing touches
on a [Cm] new album that'll be released at the end of the month.
[C] But the part of Burton [Cm] Cummings that people are making the [N] most noise about
is the new look.
Basically I just woke up one morning in November
and I was sick and tired of the way I looked.
You know, these nice curls, and just over the ear but not too low.
Oh, just like the guys in the magazines.
Isn't that mustache nice?
Shouldn't we just trim it over here?
It all just made me sick, so I just chopped it all off.
Nothing to do with the music, nothing to do with the new wave syndrome,
nothing to do with the end of the 70s.
Just boredom.
You know, I wanted to see how I used to look.
And what about your bust?
The press really made a big thing of that and you only had about three joints on you.
What nonsense. _
_ Now here's a funny one.
The day that happened, the Winnipeg Tribune came out
and my mom came home from work.
And there on the front step was lying the Winnipeg Tribune,
right up at the top, the logo, the Winnipeg Tribune,
and right beside it, a big picture of me, and a huge headline saying,
Cummings Arrested.
Three quarters of the way down the page, the headline said,
U.S. Overly Concerned About the Russian Troops in Cuba.
Priorities, come on folks.
You know, everything is totally blown out of proportion.
Yeah, but you must love the attention of it.
I didn't like that much.
Not that particular one, I didn't like that.
But in terms of them [Gb] regarding you as the guy who walked down the street
and caused the stir, I mean, that's sort of flattering, wouldn't you say?
It's a testimonial to my achievement as far as showbiz success,
but nonetheless, I could have lived without that experience.
I was in jail for a night, which I hated.
Oh God, please let me never do anything that they could put me away for.
I mean, it was just terrible.
Do you find yourself, when you're alone at all,
ever escaping into drugs to find a new reality within yourself?
No, I just use drugs to feel good.
I'm not finding any answers.
How about when you're on stage?
No, straight as an arrow, every performance.
And I used to get high before I went on stage,
and I listened to the tapes when I was high,
and I listened to other tapes when I was straight,
and there's never been any comparison.
It's always a thousand percent better when you're straight.
I like being in control.
You know, you can get loaded up before a concert,
and there's 20,000 people screaming and cheering,
and you walk out there and you're blasted,
and the minute you hit one note, it's every chord in the universe.
Everything becomes too wonderful.
It's too easy to get tripped away in your own wonderfulness.
So I really do believe that I'm not giving to the crowd
what I owe the crowd when I'm high.
So I'm straight as a judge for the last 5, 6 years on stage.
_ After the show, now that's another matter, you know.
In my personal times, I like to get out there a bit,
but on stage, definitely.
Do you still find yourself staying up late drinking cold beer
and listening to loud music?
Oh, are you kidding?
That's the best, man.
That is the best.
We have the greatest parties in the world at my house in California. _
All music people, and we sit there,
and I have 750 watts driving my stereo,
so it is so loud that it's pain level,
and it's wonderful, and it's clear,
and it's like platter parties from the 50s,
but we get together and get real,
and get a little out there in the right frame of mind
and listen to the records, and it's wonderful.
It's great.
And people think that that's, I don't know,
they think it's silly and wimpy to get together and listen to records.
You know, what are you, 15 again?
But it's very hip.
You said you're afraid of growing old.
Part of the reason you have these big parties with your friends is to stay young?
No, I just refuse to grow up.
_ It's a drag, man.
We have so little time.
70 years, 75 years, it's not enough.
It's really not enough.
And I'm 32 now, and I find that the weeks are going so fast,
I just, I can hardly keep track of my birthdays anymore.
It just goes so fast.
_ It seems, you know, like a few weeks ago I was 25.
And it seems like about half an hour ago I was 30.
It's like, it's just, it's very depressing.
If you had to do it all again, would you do anything differently?
No.
Oh, yes I would.
I never would have gotten involved with a certain girl.
_ _ Your relationships with women don't work out?
Oh, no.
Terrible luck.
Terrible luck.
Bad news.
Maybe you're just riding on it.
More and more and more these months I'm getting against women, against relationships.
[Eb] Just, I'd rather hide and talk [N] to my dog.
What's the matter with women, you three?
Love Stinks by the Jay Giles Band is my favorite philosophical view in rock and roll in the last ten years.
I think they summed it up perfectly.
It is.
It's not worth it.
I'm never going to get my teeth kicked in again emotionally.
Never.
What is it?
Besides, I can't imagine.
_ Linehan was asking me about living with somebody.
You know, I've never lived with anybody.
I can't imagine plowing my way through [Fm]
a bathroom cabinet to try and get my razor blades
and having to move hair curlers out of the way and nail polish and perfume and pantyhose.
What about your shaving foam?
That just [N] disgusts me.
And your razor blades.
It's my house.
Oh, all right.
You mean, because that's your attitude.
You don't enter into a relationship where you were the one that was controlling the thing.
You were the one that bought the house.
What if you ended up with a lady that had just as much cash as you?
I hate the word relationship.
It's disgusting.
It's like the word hippie.
It's undefinable.
Well, it might get pretty wrong.
_ It does, but then again, there's a strength in living alone.
You know, when I see something really good on television and there's nobody to turn around and say wow to,
then it's all mine.
I get to keep the experience and not have to put it out through somebody else's vibes and stuff.
I like it better.
You told us before when we talked to you that there wasn't a drug, a woman, or a liquor
that could compare with going out there and performing on stage.
You still feel the same way?
I still haven't found anything to take the place of that.
There's a buzz, an intangible energy that you get.
Applause is so addictive.
Oh, God, what a drug applause is.
I don't know if you ever entertained this idea, but what's going to happen when there's nobody left out there to applaud?
_ I'd hire some 11-year-old girls with blonde hair and dress them in leather
and get them into my living room and sing all my dirty songs for them, I guess.
I don't care.
Five, six people is as good as 100,000.
As long as I'm getting across something from my head to one other head, that's cool.
Is there anyone else you'd rather