Burn One Down
Clint Black
1992
Peak: #4
Written by Clint Black, Frankie Miller, and Hayden Nicholas
One of Clint Black’s greatest singles didn’t quite make it into golden oldie rotation, sandwiched as it was between two bigger hits from his third album The Hard Way, the #2 kick-off “We Tell Ourselves” and the #1 hit “When My Ship Comes In.” Both of those singles fit the climate of 1992 radio perfectly, as the format was beginning to be a bit more aggressive in its incorporation of pop and rock flavor into the new traditionalist sound.
There’s nothing new traditionalist about “Burn One Down.” This baby is old traditionalist, something that could have been released as is during the heyday of Haggard and not sounded out of place, the digital clarity being the only clear indication that this came out in the CD era. It’s very rare to hear anything like this today that isn’t either a self-conscious or ironic throwback.
“Burn One Down” captures Clint Black at the end of his lonely man phase – his last great bitter moment, if you will. The clever wordplay is there, but it remains in service of the song, something his later hits got backwards (“A Good Run of Bad Luck”, “Like the Rain.”) He’s known for a long time that his departing lover wasn’t pure of heart, and the inevitable has finally come to pass.
He knows that he’ll be the only one hurting over them coming to the end of the road, which he captures in one of my favorite song lines ever, playing off the double meaning of kind: “Anyone can see you won’t be crying over me, and you never were that kind.” After all, as he notes in the chorus, “That’s just the way you are. I’ve known all along.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX86Bd3N70o
The blusier arrangement of this song on D’Lectrified is also pretty good.
…far too good a song to be forgotten but thanks for the reminder anyway.
I love this song.
I agree with Andrew too. D’lectrified has some cool arrangements of old Clint Black songs.
For whatever reason, that album’s not on Amazon MP3. Is it on emusic?
Damn. I miss Clint Black.
Yes, it actually is on Emusic:
http://www.emusic.com/album/Clint-Black-D-Lectrified-MP3-Download/11543232.html
Clint Black is pretty much a traditionalist and does have memorable music… I just can’t stand his vocals! Never could and it hasn’t gotten any better with time.
Good songs… just not listenable.
When Clint Black was good, he was great. Even some of his meh material is pretty enjoyable by today’s standards.
One of my favorite songs from the 90s. I like this new feature!
“Burn One Down” is a great song. I like early Clint Black — he made some really great music during the first half of the 1990s.
Another one of my favorite of his forgotten hits is “Nothing’s News”.
hm… great music… i like this music..
Clint Black always created great music as my opinion..
I’m really liking this new feature too.
This song is my favorite among Clint’s hits – just brilliant. I also like ‘Untanglin’ My Mind’ and ‘Where Are You Now’ a lot.
Clint Black and George Strait were the two artists who originally got me interested in country music. As a kid I hated it…. listening to the oldies while riding with him in his truck.
Soul Miners Daughter: “Clint Black …
Good songs… just not listenable.”
Me: hmm.
Really like the new feature
As someone said above, nothing!