The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
Flakes, flakes
Flakes, flakes
They don't do no good
They never be workin' when they oughta should
They waste your time
They're wastin' mine
California's got the most of them
Boy, they got a host of them
Swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast, yeah
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast
They got the flakes
Flakes, flakes
They can't fix your brakes
You ask 'em, "where's my motor?"
"Well, it was eaten by snakes"
You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixin' it
They're lyin' and lazy
They can be drivin' you crazy
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast, yeah
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast
Take it away, Bob
I asked as nice as I could
If my job would
Somehow be finished by Friday
Well, the whole damn weekend came and went, Frankie
Wanna buy some mandies, Bob?
You know what, they didn't do nothin'
But they charged me double for Sunday
Now, you know, no matter what you do
They gonna cheat and rob you
And then they'll give you a bill
That'll get your senses reelin'
And if you do not pay
They got computer collectors
That'll get you so crazy
'Til your head'll go through the ceilin'
Yes it will
I'm a moron and this is my wife
She's frosting a cake with a paper knife
All what we got here's American made
It's a little bit cheesy, but it's nicely displayed
Well, we don't get excited when it crumbles 'n breaks
We just get on the phone and call up some Flakes
They rush on over and wreck it some more
And we are so dumb, they're linin' up at our door
Well, my toilet went crazy yesterday afternoon
The plumber he says, "never flush a tampoon"
This great information cost me half a week's pay
And the toilet blew up later on the next day, ay, ay
Yay, yay, yay
Yay, yay, yay
Yay, yay, yay
Blew up the next day
Woo
One, two, three, four
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
One, two, three, four (flakes)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah
We are millions and millions
We're coming to get you
We're protected by unions
So don't let it upset you
Can't escape the conclusion
It's probably God's will
That civilization
Will grind to a standstill
And we are the people
Who will make it all happen
While your children is sleepin'
Your puppy is crappin'
You might call us flakes
Or something else you might coin us
We know you're so greedy
That you'll probably join us
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
Flakes, flakes
They don't do no good
They never be workin' when they oughta should
They waste your time
They're wastin' mine
California's got the most of them
Boy, they got a host of them
Swear to God they got the most
At every business on the coast, yeah
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast
They got the flakes
Flakes, flakes
They can't fix your brakes
You ask 'em, "where's my motor?"
"Well, it was eaten by snakes"
You can stab and shoot and spit
But they won't be fixin' it
They're lyin' and lazy
They can be drivin' you crazy
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast, yeah
Swear to god they got the most
At every business on the coast
Take it away, Bob
I asked as nice as I could
If my job would
Somehow be finished by Friday
Well, the whole damn weekend came and went, Frankie
Wanna buy some mandies, Bob?
You know what, they didn't do nothin'
But they charged me double for Sunday
Now, you know, no matter what you do
They gonna cheat and rob you
And then they'll give you a bill
That'll get your senses reelin'
And if you do not pay
They got computer collectors
That'll get you so crazy
'Til your head'll go through the ceilin'
Yes it will
I'm a moron and this is my wife
She's frosting a cake with a paper knife
All what we got here's American made
It's a little bit cheesy, but it's nicely displayed
Well, we don't get excited when it crumbles 'n breaks
We just get on the phone and call up some Flakes
They rush on over and wreck it some more
And we are so dumb, they're linin' up at our door
Well, my toilet went crazy yesterday afternoon
The plumber he says, "never flush a tampoon"
This great information cost me half a week's pay
And the toilet blew up later on the next day, ay, ay
Yay, yay, yay
Yay, yay, yay
Yay, yay, yay
Blew up the next day
Woo
One, two, three, four
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
Flakes, flakes
Ooh, ooh, ooh
One, two, three, four (flakes)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah (bow, dow, dow, dow)
Ah, ah, ah, ah
We are millions and millions
We're coming to get you
We're protected by unions
So don't let it upset you
Can't escape the conclusion
It's probably God's will
That civilization
Will grind to a standstill
And we are the people
Who will make it all happen
While your children is sleepin'
Your puppy is crappin'
You might call us flakes
Or something else you might coin us
We know you're so greedy
That you'll probably join us
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
We're coming to get you, we're coming to get you
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This is an interesting song as Flakes can mean too different things, depending which side of the Atlantic you happen to reside on. The US meaning of a Flake is; Someone who is an idiot. The UK meaning is: Somebody who is unreliable, let's you down and flakes out on you, A con man or a fair weather friend.
@BarnabyHughes - Hmmm...I live in the US, and in my experience, "flake" has always meant "someone who is unreliable", as in, "Yeah...the guy flaked out on me". A "flake" makes commitments and then doesn\'t honor them.\r\n\r\nThat appears to be the usage intended by Mr. Zappa in his song "Flakes". The song clearly refers to people who represent themselves as being able to perform certain jobs, but they don\'t deliver what they promise, and they don\'t deliver on time. \r\n\r\nThere\'s often an implied element of incompetence, at least in the examples FZ uses in the song. The outcome of the flakes\' efforts is often worse than the original problem they were hired to fix: the motor was eaten by snakes, they wreck it some more, the toilet blows up.\r\n\r\nThe song also disparages the concept of guaranteed pay for bad work; flakes expect to be paid for their time, not for actually accomplishing anything. Hence the reference to "We\'re protected by unions"...\r\n\r\n...which is NOT to say that all unionized workers are incompetent. Rather, it appears to be a reference to the fact that, in cases wherein a flake works incompetently or inefficiently, their jobs generally are not at risk. The companies they work for might eat the loss if the customer doesn\'t pay, but the unionized workers get paid anyway.\r\n\r\nI hasten to repeat that such a condition is not a condemnation of all unionized workers, many of whom are competent, and have sufficient integrity to do professional work. The truth is that many don\'t have a choice. There are places where union membership is a prerequisite for getting certain jobs. \r\n\r\nBut that\'s a result of political interference, which typically guarantees that there will be an outcome that is worse than whatever problem that interference is intended to solve. That theme appears elsewhere in FZ\'s work.\r\n\r\nI am unfamiliar with the use of "flakes" as a term meaning "idiot" here in the US. I\'m not saying it\'s not used that way in some areas; perhaps that\'s a localized usage. \r\n\r\nThere may indeed be "too" (meaning "also") other meanings that are different as you have indicated, depending on where you live in the U.S. Or there may be only "two" (meaning 1+1) meanings. \r\n\r\nIn any case, I appreciate knowing that the "unreliable" meaning is the one that will be understood as such by those in the UK. It\'s definitely important to use the same semantics as the message recipient if you want to communicate effectively,
This "Reply" composer does not allow the use of carriage return to separate text into paragraphs. Instead, it enters the text string "r\n\r\n", glomming everything together into an unbroken wall of text. How idiotic.