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.
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.