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Frankie Teardrop Lyrics
Frankie teardrop
Twenty year old Frankie
He's married he's got a kid
And he's working in a factory
He's working from seven to five
He's just trying to survive
well lets hear it for Frankie
Frankie Frankie
Well Frankie cant make it
Coz things are just too hard
Frankie cant make neough money
Frankie cant buy enough food
And Frankie's getting evicted
Oh let's hear it for Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie
Frankie is so desperate
He's gonna kill his wife and kids
Frankie's gonna kill his kid
Frankie picked up a gun
Pointed at the six month old in the crib
Oh Frankie
(scream)
Frankie looked at his wife
Shot her
(screams)
"Oh what have I done?"
Let's hear it for Frankie
Frankie teardrop
Frankie put the gun to his head
(screams)
Frankie's dead
(screams)
Frankie's lying in hell
(screams)
We're all Frankies
We're all lying in hell
(screams)
Twenty year old Frankie
He's married he's got a kid
And he's working in a factory
He's just trying to survive
well lets hear it for Frankie
Frankie Frankie
Coz things are just too hard
Frankie cant make neough money
Frankie cant buy enough food
Oh let's hear it for Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie
Oh Frankie Frankie
He's gonna kill his wife and kids
Frankie's gonna kill his kid
Frankie picked up a gun
Oh Frankie
(scream)
Frankie looked at his wife
(screams)
"Oh what have I done?"
Let's hear it for Frankie
Frankie put the gun to his head
(screams)
Frankie's dead
(screams)
We're all lying in hell
(screams)
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My God, is this not the most chilling song you've ever heard? It shows a typical industrialized life; the incessent, chugging drum machine shows how it's constantly moving and how some people fall behind it and can't catch up. It continues long after Frankie kills himself. It just keeps going; Frankie Teardrop's disturbing mercy killings have no effect on the stoic, emotionless charge of human exsistence. The screams are bright flashes of white light in a bleakly gray landscape. They poke holes through the fabric of the brain, reach the soul, and rattle you. I think they show stark realizations on the pointlessness of everything: a failed life, a ruined family, three dead people. None of these things matter. It fades away quickly. This is the quintessential song about nihilism.
This is probably the only song that I don't care for because the realization is all too real. It's so disturbing, But I do like the fact that this depiction was told because America is living this way everyday and no one seems to give a shit. This song disturbs me and makes me sad; About the killing of his family part. So frigging sad.
GREAT SONG
harrowing doesn't do this fever dream justice. 'Suicide' have a real knack for inhabiting urban rot so completly you can practically feel the paint chipped walls closing in around you, heroin withdrawal racking your clammy undernourished frame
the epileptical screams are bloodcurdling, truly the screeches of a caged animal chewing off its own leg
Suicide didn't need to adress specifics here just the depth of the number communicates rage & disgust of the down & out
wish more punks would go this route rather than preaching even the brutal simplicity of the lyrics works in the context of the peice about a thousand times better than i intially thought they would its soooo much more effective
god i HATE the wallpaper music of today @#&7% try blasting this at the mall and see if people still lurch about in a daze
Try listening to this song on acid. Give you a bad trip so fast.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
My thoughts exactly
My thoughts exactly
If your listing to this song now STOP!! Wait till it gets dark, and just lie in bed with the stero cranked, or better yet head phones cranked, just lie down and tune out, and just listin to the song... itll freak the poop out of you, i curled up into a ball i was becasue i was so afraid...
Whoa, this is one quite freaky and disturbing track, especially when Alan starts screaming....!!!!
It depicts the utter desperation and despair of a vietnam vet (and family man) quite effectively...
scary, scary shit. That has got to be the most harrowing ten minutes in music, as well as the most under-noticed anti-war message ever.
hey I'm curious -- how do you read this as anti-war?
hey I'm curious -- how do you read this as anti-war?
There's nothing explicit in the lyrics to suggest it, and I don't think the band has confirmed it in interviews either, but a fairly common interpretation of the song is that Frankie is a Vietnam vet. Viewed through that lens it's sort of a punk "Born in the USA".
There's nothing explicit in the lyrics to suggest it, and I don't think the band has confirmed it in interviews either, but a fairly common interpretation of the song is that Frankie is a Vietnam vet. Viewed through that lens it's sort of a punk "Born in the USA".
The interpretation of the song as anti-war, or rather anti-vietnam-syndrome like the novel First Blood, seems to eminate from the excellent (but low-budget) film COMBAT SHOCK, aka. AMERICAN NIGHTMARES, which is based on the song says the director. Frankie Teardrop becomes Frankie Dunlan and the rest of the song is adhered too pretty closely (SPOILERS LOL)
The interpretation of the song as anti-war, or rather anti-vietnam-syndrome like the novel First Blood, seems to eminate from the excellent (but low-budget) film COMBAT SHOCK, aka. AMERICAN NIGHTMARES, which is based on the song says the director. Frankie Teardrop becomes Frankie Dunlan and the rest of the song is adhered too pretty closely (SPOILERS LOL)
the only song ever to have sent a chill down my spine. I don't spook easy. The only other audio that has ever spooked me was the Jamestown tape.
This song is one of my all time favorites. While I am an artist, not a critic, I was the DJ for the Night Owl show at MITs radio station, WMBR and I played it as often as allowed. This was in 1980 and being only a teen this song made my problems not seem so important to "Frankie" in the song. I also remember somewhere in this song, or another one by this band where the singer is in a telephone booth so he screams into an anwsering machine, but you can help me on this one.