watch out for... the trap door!

In 1982, T Bone Burnett released a small vinyl record, an EP (extended play) as they say, entitled: Trap Door. It remains one of my all time favorite rock n roll records. With just six songs, Trap Door explores love, death, faith, humility, consumer culture, and poetry in a sleek 22 minutes. As one fan wrote: "there isn't a weak moment, note, beat or word" on it. I agree. My two favs include: "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend," and "Trap Door."

"Diamonds..." is pitch perfect in every way: it rocks, it laughs, it critiques sexist culture from the inside, AND you can dance to it. Critic Robert Christgau put Burnett in the rockabilly mold but that's too limited. Listen to the edge and pathos in his voice on verse two - it is particularly powerful:

There may come a time when a lass needs a lawyer
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

There may be a time when a hard boiled employer
Thinks you're awful niceBut get that ice or else no dice.

He's your guy when stocks are high,But beware when they start to descend

It's then that those louses go back to their spouses
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.
Diamonds are a girl's best friend

Every song is a winner, but my other favorite is Burnett's reflection on real life spirituality: "Trap Door." Long before I knew much about paradox, both/and or incarnational mysticism, I dug this song's honesty. It opens with a one note punch, three plopped descending bass notes - repeat - and then these brilliant lyrics: 

It's a funny thing about humility
As soon as you know you're being humble
You're no longer humble
It's a funny thing about life
You've got to give up your life
To be alive
You've got to suffer to know compassion
You can't want nothing if you want satisfaction
Tonight the world looks like a different place
Tonight the moon is turning in its place
Tonight we find ourselves alone at last
Watch out for the trap door
Watch out for the trap door

I don't know a better song about living into God's grace than this one: it is part spiritual direction, part tongue-in-cheek confession, part rave and part rant. And it, too comes in at just over 4 minutes. It is the finest rock and roll sermon on spirituality I know. There are other masters: Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklyn, U2, Bruce Cockburn, The Police, Arcade Fire, Nirvana, Joan Osborne, Lou Reed, Laura Nyro, Nina Simone, Paul Simon, Carrie Newcomer, John Hyatt and others. But I submit to you that Burnett cuts to the chase better than everyone else when it comes to the intersection of faith, ethics and flesh and blood incarnation. He is a genius.