The last time country crooner
Brent Burns felt enraged when filling his pickup truck was in 1979, when the country was embroiled in an oil embargo. The price of food and crude was skyrocketing, and the longtime Phoenician was fed up.
So he penned a little barb called “Cheaper Crude Or No More Food” and scored himself a Top 40 hit.
Today, he’s updated his rant, railing against the oil companies and oil nations with “Pain At the Pump.“ The song is making its way on YouTube and is bound to be a hit.
“From the gas station to the grocery store, prices are going up and people are frustrated and angry,” Burns said in a written release. “From the comments the video has generated, I guess there’s plenty of blame to go around.”
You can watch the video on YouTube.
Burns, a Seminole, Okla., native who transplanted to Phoenix in 1958, has recorded six albums of original, quirky, political-commentary odes including “If It’s Snowbird Season Why Can’t We Shoot ‘Em?” and “I’m Goin’ Ugly Early Tonight.”
Phil Vassar, country music’s Billy Joel, is also chiming in on gas prices and the state of the economy. Vassar takes more of a rallying call approach, urging Americans to take back their lives from the politicians and fat cats:
“It’s time to speak my piece / Squeaky wheel always gets the grease / One single voice don’t matter / But everybody screamin’ up the ladder / Gonna get the attention of the man on top / Make his ladder shake and rock / And it might just come a-tumblin’ down / Spread all that wealth around / That’s what I’m talkin’ about.”
