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Flakes Lyrics
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 t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
Swear t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
They got the Flakes
Flakes! Flakes!
They can't fix yer brakes
You ask 'em, "Where's my motor?"
"Well it was eaten by snakes . . ."
You can stab 'n' shoot 'n' spit
But they won't be fixin' it
They're lyin' an' lazy
They can be drivin' you crazy
Swear t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
Swear t'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 'n' went, Frankie
[Wanna buy some mandies, Bob?]
'N'they didn't do nothin'
But they charged me double for Sunday
You know, no matter what you do
They gonna cheat 'n' rob you
Then they'll send 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 th' ceilin'
Yes it will!
I'm a moron 'n' 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 cheesey,
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
'N' wreck it some more
'N' we are so dumb
They're linin' up at our door
Well, the toilet went crazy
Yesterday afternoon
The plumber he says
"Never flush a lampoon!"
This great information
Cost me half a week's pay
And the toilet blew up
Later on the next day ay-eee-ay
Blew up the next day WOO-OOO
We are millions 'n' 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 yer children is sleepin',
Yer puppy is crappin'
You might call us Flakes
Or something else you might coin us
But we know you're so greedy
That you'll probably join us
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
Flakes! Flakes!
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 t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
Swear t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
They got the Flakes
You ask 'em, "Where's my motor?"
"Well it was eaten by snakes . . ."
You can stab 'n' shoot 'n' spit
But they won't be fixin' it
They're lyin' an' lazy
They can be drivin' you crazy
Swear t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
Swear t'God they got the most
At every business on the coast
[Take it away, Bob. . .]
If my job would
Somehow be finished by Friday
Well, the whole damn weekend
Came 'n' went, Frankie
[Wanna buy some mandies, Bob?]
'N'they didn't do nothin'
But they charged me double for Sunday
You know, no matter what you do
They gonna cheat 'n' rob you
Then they'll send 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 th' ceilin'
Yes it will!
She's frosting a cake
With a paper knife
All what we got here's
American made
It's a little bit cheesey,
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
'N' wreck it some more
'N' we are so dumb
They're linin' up at our door
Well, the toilet went crazy
Yesterday afternoon
The plumber he says
"Never flush a lampoon!"
This great information
Cost me half a week's pay
And the toilet blew up
Later on the next day ay-eee-ay
Blew up the next day WOO-OOO
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 yer children is sleepin',
Yer puppy is crappin'
You might call us Flakes
Or something else you might coin us
But we know you're so greedy
That you'll probably join us
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
We're comin' to get you, we're comin' to get you
Add your song meanings, interpretations, facts, memories & more to the community.
Bob Dylan is upset at being screwed over con-men.
I believe it's
"Never flush a tampoon" i.e. tampon.
What are mandies?
@MamboMan 'Mandies' are Mandrex Tablets, used by people to either get high or to feel serene. Don't know if they exist anymore.........They were a 70's thing.
@MamboMan 'Mandies' are Mandrex Tablets, used by people to either get high or to feel serene. Don't know if they exist anymore.........They were a 70's thing.
Mandies are Quaaludes.
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\'...
@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.
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.
“wanna buy some MANDIES, Bob?”
Mandies are MANDRAX, the British equivalent of the Quaalude.
This is a reply to BarnabyHughes\' comment about "flake" meaning "idiot" in the US, and "an unreliable person" in the UK. The Reply composer doesn\'t allow paragraphs, and always inserts a backslash ("\") before an apostrophe.\n\n____\n\nHmmm...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.\n\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. \n\nThere is 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.\n\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"...\n\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. \n\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. \n\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.\n\nI am unfamiliar with the use of "flakes" as a term meaning "idiot" here in the US. I am not saying it\\'s not used that way in some areas; perhaps that\'s a localized usage. \n\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. \n\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 is definitely important to use the same semantics as the message recipient if you want to communicate effectively,