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If You Can't Be Good (Be Careful)

from Optimist Breakfast by Dean Batten

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about

Inspired by something his aunt actually said to him once, in parting, "If You Can't Be Good (Be Careful)" is another large gamble for Dean. Leaning full-tilt into the boot-stomping country rock of his forebears like Johnny Cash and Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen, Dean tells real stories from his month-long motorcycle tour with minimal poetic license used. Plus, some honest-to-Pete good advice: "If you can't be good, be careful; it's only illegal if you get caught."

lyrics

Mama always told me
Honey, use your judgment good
Try to make the smart decision
Don’t go acting like some hood
But I would never listen
No matter how my mama tried
And now I’m just a grease spot
Somewhere out I-95

I got that motorcycle for about 2000 cash
Black Honda 750, she could go just like a flash
From the minute I rode her up, my mama prayed I wouldn’t crash
But I didn’t see the box truck
'Til it was too late to pass

Aunt Florence sat down with me
While I was passing through
About twenty-nine months later
On a national solo cruise
From Vegas through to Wytheville
With a bag of Cali grass
She could smell it on me rolling up
And hollered, “Boy, you watch your ass!”

“‘Cause if you can’t be good, be careful”
And “it’s only illegal if you get caught”
“There ain’t no shame in being honest,
So don’t pretend you’re something that you’re not”

credits

from Optimist Breakfast, released April 29, 2023

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Dean Batten Daytona Beach, Florida

Often genre-bending, thought provoking and emotion stoking, Dean Batten's music is most concretely one thing: captivating.

Moving forward from his previous work, Dean has re-embraced the folk, early rock and country sounds of his childhood with 3 new albums: "Optimist Breakfast", an acoustic album; "Pessimist Lunch", a full band version with the same songs; and "Realist Supper", a live album. ... more

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