About
Key E, Tempo 125
1984, Austin
Written about a waiter I worked with when I was in college at a 5 star restaurant called Green Pastures on South Congress in Austin (it’s still there, but it’s now called Mattie’s). We all considered him quite the player and called him the Butter Boy because of how he slipped in and out of complicated situations with women all the time. …This was one of my favorite jobs, because of the camaraderie among the waiters. We used to hang out drinking leftover wine and champagne from the weddings we catered, and taunting the peacocks that strolled the grounds. The Butter Boy was such a player one night one of the male peacocks in its rut starting chasing him around, and it took all his slippery skills to avoid becoming its next victim…
Musically, this is one of the songs in the set that features horns (along with “Love is Like a Roller Coaster” and “Miracles“). I am a lifelong fan of Van Morrison (although I’m not a fan of his current politics) and really loved the way he arranged the horns on his classic albums “Moondance” and “His Band and the Street Choir“. I found a set of loops called “Cuban Horns” that seemed to fit the song.
The video includes some animation I created in Adobe After Effects. I really like the Butter Boy being fired from the gun into the bosom of the female dancer. I liked it so much, I repeated it in the second half of the video, with the dancer asking, “Again?” Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery, right?
All right, without any further delay, let’s slip into the “Butter Boy”…
NOTE: This song was remixed in July of 2023 and added to the Happiness is a Warm Guitar album.
Music available on all major streaming and social platforms. Watch video below.