“Atlanta’s Burning” is a song that had to be written. After all, when you leave home, you have to write about it.
We’re talking about the city of my birth. Where I raised a family. Had a career. Where my mother, son and daughter live.
Atlanta
But I also knew Atlanta when. And I am not a fan of what it had become by the 21st century. And by the close of this century’s first decade, I was ready for a change in scenery.
Actually, it was mostly job related. A 28-career at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was not ending well. The newspaper industry, which had been hurting for years, was suddenly thrown into chaos with the Great Recession. The AJC was no exception.
By the time the third buyout was offered the newsroom, I talked my girlfriend of 14 years into taking the buyout with me. I also retired. We got married and moved to an island.
Sounds romantic. And it was that. It was also trying to make something good out of something bad. We’d planned on retiring eventually to Tybee Island. We’d even purchased a house there. The Great Recession simply moved up those plans several years.
We are blessed.
In this song, as in some others, I employ a technique taught me by David Leonard, my friend, songwriter and producer of my first two albums. When the first verse is repeated, two lines are changed from the first version. That way, the listener thinks she is hearing that verse again, when, there’s a new twist. And in this case, I was able to include an allusion to the TV series “The Walking Dead,” which of course was filmed in Atlanta and complemented the sense of a city in ruins.
1st verse, 1st time:
yeah I left that city,
couldn’t run fast enough
my soul was twisted,
and my brain had turned to mush
2nd time:
yeah I left that city,
couldn’t run fast enough
skyscrapers were falling,
walking dead wherever you looked
I like that, and am always interested in who picks up on “The Walking Dead” reference whenever I sing it.
P.S.
The line in the second verse:
And the sand is icy white
has been changed since the recording.
Here’s why: Melissa and I were walking on the beach in Clearwater while in Florida on the Edge Tour. As we walked toward the ocean, she pointed down and said, “That’s icy white.” Not in a corrective tone at all, but I knew what she meant.
Message: The sand on Tybee isn’t that white.
So that night when I was singing “Atlanta’s Burning,” I looked straight at her, smiled and I changed the line to:
and the sand is almost white
Turns out, I love that description. To me, it says it just right and in a way that’s never been said.
To read the story behind “The Message,” click here.
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