This song was originally written by a guy called Peter Gutteridge. He was one of the founders of the "Dunedin Sound" a musical scene in the south of New Zealand in the early 80s. From there it was covered by "The Clean" one of the early bands of that scene (he had originally been a member of in it's early days, writing a couple of their best early songs). The Dunedin sound, and the Clean became popular on american college radio in the mid to late 80s. I guess Yo La Tengo heard that version.
Great version of a great song,
Mr. America, walk on by your schools that do not teach
Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached
Mr. america try to hide the emptiness that's you inside
But once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of hungry freaks daddy
They won't go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds
The left behinds of the great society
Hungry freaks, daddy
Mr. America, walk on by your supermarket dream
Mr. America, walk on by the liquor store supreme
Mr. america try to hide the product of your savage pride
The useful minds that it denied
The day you shrugged and stepped aside
You saw their clothes, and then you cried
those hungry freaks, daddy
They won't go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds
The left behinds of the great society
Mr. America, walk on by the minds that won't be reached
Mr. america try to hide the emptiness that's you inside
But once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of hungry freaks daddy
They won't go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds
The left behinds of the great society
Hungry freaks, daddy
Mr. America, walk on by your supermarket dream
Mr. America, walk on by the liquor store supreme
Mr. america try to hide the product of your savage pride
The useful minds that it denied
The day you shrugged and stepped aside
You saw their clothes, and then you cried
those hungry freaks, daddy
They won't go on four no more
Great mid-western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say what's on their minds
The left behinds of the great society
Lyrics submitted by ThreeMilesDown
Hungry Freaks, Daddy Lyrics as written by Frank Zappa
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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I think I sort of got imprinted by this song when I was a kid; first heard it as a teenager.
It's one thing to say that this song is "true", but another to look at a particular detail: It's Frank, telling us that people who can see the spiritual impoverishment of America--the out-of-control "work ethic", the despoiling of nature, the ever-increasing gulf between our glorious self-mytholization and the bleak reality of our march toward social/political stupidity and the ensuing dystopia; all of it--that those people are basically mutants. From whence cometh their X-ray vision? Is it just a DNA anomaly?
We're FREAKS, and we're hungry... for TRUTH.