"VONNEGUT BUSY" acts as a stylistic sample dish for what one can expect from Sage Francis on Copper Gone, transitioning seamlessly from socio-economic issues to personal politics, all while being punctuated by the project's overall mission statement: "When it seems like you're going through hell...keep going." The reference to Kurt Vonnegut in the title is accompanied by a quote from the satirical writer in one of the song's 3 sub-choruses: "Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, 'it might have been.'"