Messages From Carrie
Questions about Betty's Diner
July 27th, 2005
Thoughts on Betty's Diner
Recently I've been getting a lot of e-mails and questions about Betty's Diner and it's characters, so here are a few random thoughts about the album the spirits behind it.
First, Betty's Diner is a product of my imagination, drawing on several diner's I've known and worked. It is also a metaphor for the human community. The characters are all fictional, but people I've known or met have inspired a few of them. Communities happen wherever we gather. We all bear witness to the unfolding story around us. Forgiveness and grace can come in the most unexpected places. The characters in Betty's Diner have something to say about living in this world. Some are living on the ragged edge of society, three are very old, one very young, one is struggling to keep her head above water, one is grieving, one is bravely risking what's most important to her, one sees the veil between the spirit and the world as very thin, two are giddy in love, some are disappointed and disillusioned, some are finding faith in love again, everyone there understands humor and decency and longing, and one is just a faithful dog. The songs were written very deliberately to stand up individually. In other words the songs did not need the diner concept to be understood or hopefully appreciated as individual songs about individual topics. Yet, they do work as a whole and interact with one another.
I didn't set out to write a collection of diner character songs. The characters created in the original song "Betty's Diner" took on lives of their own, and they still had something to say. They've been living with me for over a year and it's interesting to me how closely I've gotten to know them. It's challenging to resist the desire to make their lives happier. Some of these characters have lived hard lives, and to be true to their voices and experiences I often had to take them some place dark and leave them there. As a writer I get to rejoice with the young lovers, but I also have to let the voices of despair speak truly and clearly. Life is like that, and cleaning up lives of characters and making them pretty, doesn't come across as truth. There is a quote, "In a room where everyone agrees to a lie, the truth sounds like a gun shot." I've always remembered that quote in relation to my writing. The best thing an artist has to offer is the bald faced truth, as they know it. The listener knows when they are hearing something true and it's very powerful. The listener knows when you are candy coating the truth, or alternatively saying something purely for shock value. Dedication to the truth and not writing around the scary or vulnerable parts is a kind of respect a songwriter gives the listener.