In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Well, Frank settled down in the Valley
And he hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead
He sold used office furniture out there on San Fernando Road
And assumed a thirty thousand dollar loan at fifteen and a quarter percent
And put a down payment on a little two bedroom place
His wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
Made good bloody Marys, kept her mouth shut most of the time
Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
That had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind
They had a thoroughly modern kitchen, self-cleaning oven, the whole bit
Frank drove a little sedan, yhey were so happy
One night Frank was on his way home from work, stopped at the liquor store
Picked up a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths
Drank 'em in the car on his way to the Shell station
Got a gallon of gas in a can
Drove home, doused everything in the house, torched it
Parked across the street laughing, watching it burn
All Halloween-orange and chimney-red
Then Frank put on a top forty station
Got on the Hollywood Freeway, headed north
Never could stand that dog
And he hung his wild years on a nail that he drove through his wife's forehead
He sold used office furniture out there on San Fernando Road
And assumed a thirty thousand dollar loan at fifteen and a quarter percent
And put a down payment on a little two bedroom place
His wife was a spent piece of used jet trash
Made good bloody Marys, kept her mouth shut most of the time
Had a little Chihuahua named Carlos
That had some kind of skin disease and was totally blind
They had a thoroughly modern kitchen, self-cleaning oven, the whole bit
Frank drove a little sedan, yhey were so happy
One night Frank was on his way home from work, stopped at the liquor store
Picked up a couple of Mickey's Big Mouths
Drank 'em in the car on his way to the Shell station
Got a gallon of gas in a can
Drove home, doused everything in the house, torched it
Parked across the street laughing, watching it burn
All Halloween-orange and chimney-red
Then Frank put on a top forty station
Got on the Hollywood Freeway, headed north
Never could stand that dog
Lyrics submitted by yuri_sucupira
Frank's Wild Years Lyrics as written by Thomas Alan Waits
Lyrics © JALMA MUSIC
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
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Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
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There's so much meaning contained in this brief, poetic, spoken-word song. Obviously it reads as a stinging rebuke of the American-consumerist dream/nightmare. In this regard it makes a nice bookend to Tom Waits' earlier and much more sarcastic recording, "Step Right Up." One thing I've always wondered is if the character "Frank" is in some way the central persona of the whole "swordfishtrombones-raindogs-frank's wild year's" trilogy, or if he exists purely as metaphor, and thus merely adds another shade of meaning to the various narratives spun throughout the trilogy.
Davide Van De Sfroos, a very talented Italian singer-songwriter, did a mean job of translating this song into the Como Lake slang. Real Waits diehards should check it out!
i love this song. beat poetry with a modern twist. i think it emphasizes the typical middle-class desk slave stereotype, in this case the result being eventual insanity, resulting in the torching of the house and dog and wife. all this being done just to escape the predictable, boring, tedious nature of Frank's adult life.
So Bukowski inspired you can actually taste it.
"Never could stand that dog." I love it how this last sentence has a double meaning.
It could be the narrator's feelings towards Frank. But it can also mean that Frank directed all his anger towards the dog over the years and that the ugly chihuahua finally sparked his rage and made him feel as if burning everything down was a just act of retribution. "It's all the dog's fault!" A convenient scapegoat to push away the feeling that in fact it's all his own fault by settling down in the valley in the first place.