The Wild Vanity of Being a Singing Cowboy

You Are a Machine

FAUX JEAN is a singing cowboy from Duluth Minnesota who now calls California home. Every Tuesday he releases a new song on his evolving album series on Bandcamp and writes about it here. Subscribe for free and hear a new song every week. Old Faux may be the only Singing Cowboy on Substack at this point. Yee Haw!

If you listen to today’s song addition to the “Mixed Up Files” in the player above, you will perceive the inherent vanity of the singer.¹

This guy is a monster.

There is one person who implores: “Don’t play guitar” and “No thank you” to little avail.

And there is another cherub who’s obviously in possession of magic and literally has it in the other room, and this guy with the guitar (blech!)², thinks it’s more important to capture this song idea at this moment on his phone than go find the magic thing.

Any artist with small kids can understand the pain and guilt I feel when I listen to this.

I’m just rotten.³

Thankfully, by the end, when it is clear that the idea has run its course and there ain’t nothing new/good left to come down the pipe, I give in to the power of the angel and laugh at the futility of my effort as the device, this devil phone, is ripped from my hands.⁴

This was just a wild Winter Wednesday⁵ with my kids at home in the Tundra of Wisconsin with the wind whipping off Lake Medota trying not to lose our minds when I had this little riff/lyric idea come to me.⁶

I feel bad that I was not more attentive to pleas of the cherubim—and we did eventually find the magic thing—but I’m glad I caught the idea at that moment, as it has turned into a real song.⁷

I’ve subsequently made a decent “Hi-Fi” verison of this song and plan to release it on an album of NEW material, good lord willing, before the end of 2024.⁸

That’s how vain I am!

I remain your humble servant,

OX&C,

Faux Jean

Here are the lyrics:

You are a machine
You are a machine
I see your heart beating
electricity in your brain
You are a machine
You are a machine

Hanging around with the kids downtown now

You are a machine
You are a machine
I see your heart beating
You are a machine

You are a machine
You are a machine
I see your heart beating
electricity in your brain
I see your heart beating
you've got electricity in your brain

Hanging around with the kids downtown now
You are a machine

Hanging around with the kids downtown

1. Technically, that’s me, Faux Jean.

2. A greybeard, no less!

3. I’ve abandoned the third person, alas…

4. Now I find myself stripping phones away from them in attempts to share magic.

5. The Voice Memo that I made of this is timestamped January 2, 2019.

6. Nice sentence, Faux.

7. Whatever THAT’S supposed to mean?!

8. The working title for said album is “You’re Magic!” And you are.