I never thought abouit the universe, it made me feel small
I never thought about the problems of this planet at all
Global warming and radioactive sites
The imperialistic wrongs and animal rights, NO!

Why think all the bad things when life is so good
Why help with an "am" when there's always a "could"
Let the whales worry 'bout the poisons in the sea outside of California, it's foreign policy
No I don't want changes I've no reactions your dilemmas are my distractions

That's no way to go Franco Un-American, that's no way to go Franco Un-American

I never looked around never second guessed, then I read some Howard Zinn now I'm always depressed
And now I can't sleep from years of apathy, all because I read a little Noam Chomsky
I'm eating vegetation 'cause a Fast Food Nation, I wear uncomfortable shoes 'cause of globalization
I'm watching Michael Moore expose the awful truth, I'm listening to Public Enemy and Reagan Youth
I see no world peace 'cause of zealous armed forces, I eat no breath mints 'cause they're from de-hoofed horses
Now I can't believe what an absolute failure, the president's laughing 'cause we voted for Nader

That's no way to go Franco Un-American, where can we go Franco Un-American
I want to move north and be a Canadian, or hang down low with the nice Australians
I don't want to be another I don't care-ican, what are we gonna do Franco Franco


Lyrics submitted by rjbucs28, edited by Quirkel

Franco Un-American Lyrics as written by Michael John Burkett

Lyrics © Wixen Music Publishing

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Franco Un-American song meanings
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113 Comments

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  • +4
    My Opinion

    I think that this song talks about what is happening with the Americans. Nofx tell us that American people are ingnorant, about the society and the enviroment in general. They also talk about apathy and specially about people who don't care about others.

    But, why are Americans so ingnorant?

    Based on the lyrics of Franco Un-American, NoFx try to show us that this is the EASIEST way to make people feel happy. They just don't care.

    But it's the BEST way?

    Fat Mike (singer and compositer) doesn't think that way, now he is always depressed, it's true, but now he knows the Truth, now he he's started to have a stand on the issues of our world. Now, he's an activist. That's the way to go !!!!!!

    htSon May 24, 2011   Link
  • +2
    General Comment

    This song talks about some attitudes of young people, they dont care about the environment and social problems. They only care about themselves and do not open their eyes to what is really going on in our world. Then the singer changes his mind and now he cares about the world. He is always depressed and cant sleep from years of apathy but now he knows he isn`t a "I-don't-care-ican".

    blackdevilson May 24, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    because Fat mike is like hmmm this would sound wierd if i put this word on this word so he takes out some to make it fit so its not like super fast singing and not bein able to make it out and he also changes words because they make more sense and jsut because he is Fatmike

    xXsieferNOFXxon June 18, 2003   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    paedrough,

    Franco-American Relations is a commonly used term to describe the diplomatic status between the U.S. and France. Because of the fallout from the Iraq war in the relations between the countries, and the view of many in this country that the French are anti-American, this was sort of a play on words. I have no idea why people don't just say French-American relations, but it applies for other countries as well, i.e. Chinese-American relations are known as Sino-American.

    jhnwhillon May 23, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    that fuckin shits me sooo mcuh, i live in australia, i wanna hit the fools who were usa jumpers and were ny yankees caps, i dunno wat they are thinking, i guess they wish they were american or someshit, i hate the fools who try to emulate americans, although its pretty hard no to as we are constantly bombarded with american culture, so much it makes me sick, i hate it. we are slowly becoming the next state of america, at the moment, bushs governemtn has a fair bit of power of ours that pisses me off as well, our prime minister is a puppet and bush has the strings. we followed bush into iraq 4 no good reason, i think it was basically to show that we are always on americas good side...... anyhow this so rocks... i love nofx

    DroppedMidgeton October 14, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I am from Canada and I lived in Australia for a year. From what I have seen, Australians have very much the same views that Americans have. They actually are American wannabes. In high schools there you have Australian kids walking around with sweatshirts that say no more than USA with the flag underneath. It's like a cool thing to do. So I don't really know what Mike is saying about moving to Australia. They don't really seem to give a shit about the environment, they are extremely racist towards their aboriginals and other different people, and they spend most of their money on sports programs and things like that instead of education. The schools there completely suck ass, I was in one. Canada is way more open-minded about a lot of issues, we are more like a lot of European Scandinavian countries like Sweden or Denmark. Australians are ass-kissing American wannabes. And just to finish up, I don't want to say that all Australians are like that, because they aren't. There's lots of Australians who aren't like that at all. But there is a fairly big relative concentration of the population that have the same redneck republican attitude of redneck republican Americans.

    thankgoditsmondayon October 02, 2004   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    As a northern English man it stands for everything i hate about americans. dont get me wrong i love nofx but the burger eating kiddy fiddlin(see kazaa) corporate whores who exept disney, Mc shit and coca cola teaming together to fuck thier offspring in the arse need to be told that they are wrong. fAT MIKE MICHAEL MOORE NAOM CHOMPSKY YES. CAPITALISM NO. ps franco un american. dont get me started on the rainbow warrior sinking horse eating armpit forresters that live in france. maulinaux line worked well. surrender quick before i cum 2 shave your women

    friendion February 17, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    so clasicrock pretty much got it right about am vs. could but i'll add some more: he's saying he's tired of people just talking and not doing anything (eg: darfur sudan. there's a genocide taking place and everyone looks the other way. another rwanda, another holocaust). people need to face the truth and stop looking at processed news and living in thier bubble. another thought: this song really makes me think about my hometown fo Berkeley CA (which not coincidentally is where NOFX was formed). everyone there is totally liberal (including me). in 2000 the question was nader vs. gore. but at the same time it's really annoying how people are obsessed with politically correct and in a way is as blind as the conservatives they hate. in the schools, is all so fucking holistic and "how do you FEEL? do you want to draw a picture?" they say math and science are elitist and they're "tired of catering to college-bound students". i'm sorry but minorities don't need another person telling they've been victimized (even though they have) so they can blame everyone else for their failure. so while the song is talking about eveything he doesn't like about the US, it's also poking a little fun at people who are totally politically correct " read some Howard Zinn now I'm always depressed". if you only focus on the bad, like some liberals do, you can spend your whole life moping about how horrible the world is and not actually do anything.

    bugmenoton March 17, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    I'm french.....And I will say my opinion about all of this. France is exactly like USA (capitalism model) except that we're a little bit late (maybe, we have more possibilities to act). But we're just following your model.Our leaders (chirac and co.) criticize USA but are building Europe in the same model.... I hate french people that, just because they're watching TV, hate the US people, and are full of prejudices about them... Like Fat Mike say "don't hate us, hate our gouvernement".

    And before hate US governement, we must hate our own governement. Hate the power in general, hate the system... The planet is dying under the pollution, we've got the possibility to remplace petrol, and nobody move a fucking finger.....

    Let's, all the planet, act together in order to do anything....it's urgent....

    lanjoon March 19, 2005   Link
  • +1
    General Comment

    Like Lanjo, I ve got a French passport which permit to go outside "my" country... and while listening to this song of NOFX, I was impressed. It s true that s musically it sounds quite "poppy"... but it pleases so much to me. The lyrics are great. Thanks to musicians like NOFX, the art survives despite the "blunder" the big business leads to. They dare writing lyrics meaning something else than "destroy everything" or "suck it baby" or "love me tender"...

    About the expression "franco-unamerican", it is at first, as noted below, a play on the expression "franco-american relationship", but overall it declares that the french stance against the war on Irak was the right one ! I guess everyone got this point but as it is the core of the song (written in 2003), it does worth asserting it one more time.

    About the lyrics about going "north to Canada" or "han down low" to Australia, I think it is one more ironistic assertion for Fat Mike... As many people here have already asserted, Canada and even more Australia are no better places to live in than the USA... I think it is a way to underline that in "America" (what a selfish denomination!!) people don't know the foreign situation... even in the "siblings countries" !! Moreover, he uses the right term while talking about moving to NORTH for Canada, but about Australia he just says roughly "hang DOWN"... Fat Mike just plays ironically, one more time, with the common ignorance in the USA about "foreign things" ("ok we know Canada is up to North -cause it s the only one!- but Australia... it s down to South, ok... but that s all we know!"), as when it is said at the beginning of the song : "Outside California, it's foreign policy" !!

    I really appreciate this song cause it talks about reading books and getting a criticist point of view about politics... evoking Chomsky, Zinn etc. The principal word of this song is, acccording to me : "I don't want to be another I-dont-car-ican".

    Bullshitdoon February 01, 2006   Link

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