When we play “You’re Special” live we usually get some half-hearted applause and a lot of slack-jawed stares from the audience.  I’m pretty sure they don’t know whether they should laugh or boo us off the stage.

On first listen, the song might seem to be a rip on mentally challenged kids, wrapped in a nice sugar-coated package of Tin Pan Alley/Paul McCartney ragtime pop.  So right there is a disconnect that confuses people.  I mean, how often do you hear songs with clarinets and ukuleles where the vocalist is crooning about Down’s Syndrome in his best old-tyme voice?

But I’m here to tell you that it’s okay to smile and sing along to this upbeat ditty, because we’re not making fun of the disabled, we’re *celebrating* them!  WE <3 “SPECIAL” KIDS!!!

When I was in Elementary School my best friend had an older brother, Jay, who had Down’s.  I thought Jay was one of the coolest kids I knew because he wore crazy clothes and could do the Sit-N-Spin faster than anyone.  Plus, he was a genuinely fun guy and I always enjoyed hanging out with him.

Because of my friendship with Jay, I always held a soft spot in my cold, evil heart for kids with mental disabilities.  So when “Life Goes On” premiered in 1989 I religiously watched every episode, and got really pissed when they stopped focusing on Corky and started up with that bullshit Chad Lowe AIDS plotline.  Fuck Chad Lowe.  Anyway, I became a huge Chris Burke fan and continued to follow his career, even when it seemed like most people had forgotten all about him.

I remember back in college I found out that Chris had a band and was recording love songs, and there was a music video for one of the songs where he was running towards a girl on a beach.  I desperately wanted to track down this album and it became somewhat of an obsession.  Granted, this was pre-Al Gore’s Internet, so there was no good way to find info on obscure stuff like Corky and scat porn.  After a while I sort of gave up and figured I’d never have the pleasure of hearing Corky sing a love song.

Years went by and I moved to Baltimore and forgot all about Corky and Jay (life goes on, I suppose.)  But then my job as a roving IT consultant brought me to The ARC.  ARC used to stand for Association for Retarded Citizens, but they cover that up now because apparently “retarded” has become a derogatory word.  Which is totally retarded.  Anyway, I worked at The ARC and met a lot of cool people with a variety of developmental disabilities, and that made me think of Corky again, so I looked him up on the interwebs and HOLY FUCKING SHIT CORKY IS PLAYING WITH HIS BAND NEXT WEEK ONLY 50 MILES AWAY FROM WHERE I LIVE!!!

Turns out that almost every year Friends of Frederick, an organization devoted to helping out mentally challenged kids, invites Chris Burke to perform at their yearly “Buddy Walk”.  So I fucking freaked out and cancelled all of my prior engagements and drove to Frederick one beautiful fall afternoon to watch Corky strut his stuff.  And let me tell you, that man is a consummate entertainer.  Totally pro, very charismatic, and quite talented.  Unfortunately he’s flanked by two creepy twin brothers who probably steal all of his money and beat him with sacks of cauliflower.  Assholes.

But what was really cool about the show was the audience: dozens of kids with Down’s wearing crazy outfits and dancing and singing like they were the only person there.  Total disregard for what anyone thought about the way they looked or acted, just pure joy to be listening to good music from a musician they respected.  Basically the complete opposite of the hipster douchebags who frequent shows in Baltimore.  It was quite refreshing.

The Chris Burke concert brought me back to thinking about Jay, and how he was the same way: carefree, outgoing, and not at all self-conscious.  And so I decided to write a song in tribute to these fine people who I think we can all learn a lot from.  Their free spirit is a living example of how we could have much more fun in life if we simply stopped worrying about what other people think of us.  Because, seriously, there’s no way you’re going to be cooler than this guy, so why bother even trying?