Frank's Wild Years
Frank settled down out in the Valley 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 30,000 dollar loan at fifteen and a quarter percent 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 They 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 the way to the Shell station He 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 and headed north Never could stand that dog Words and music by Tom Waits ©1983 Jalma Music (ASCAP) ("For Frankie Z.") Here’s a quote from the ‘Swordfishtrombones’ promo interview: "Charles Bukowski had a story that essentially was saying that it’s the little things that drive men mad. It’s not the big things. It’s not World War II. It’s the broken shoe lace when there is no time left that sends men completely out of their minds. So this is kind of in that spirit. Little of a Ken Nordine flavor. Ronnie Barron, alias Reverend Eather from New Orleans, Lousiana, on Hammond organ, and Larry Taylor, originally with Canned Heat, on dog house. I think there is a little bit of Frank in everybody." And one from the NME interview, explaining how the song turned into a musical: "The song was like a fortune cookie. After I wrote it I thought, what happened to this guy? Everybody knows guys like that, people you haven’t seen in a long time, what happens to these people? ‘What happened to John Chrisswicky? Oh Jesus, John’s second wife left him and he went to work in a slaughterhouse for a while. Then he was in a rendering unit, of course his dad was always in the wine business. That didn’t interest John, I hear he ended up as a mercenary soldier. People go through these permutations in different stages of their life, perceived by someone else it can look strange. I imagined Frank along those lines. Y’see, my folks split up when I was kid and ... hey, look, let me give you $100 and I’ll lie down on the couch over there, you take notes and see if we can’t get to the bottom of this." |
![]() Produced by Tom Waits Recorded by Tim Boyle Additional engineering by Peggy McCreary and Richard McKernon Recorded at Sunset Sound, Hollywood, August 1982 Mixed by Biff Dawes at Sunset Sound Factory Tom Waits: Voice Ronnie Barron: Hammond organ Larry Taylor: Acoustic bass Time: 1.51 Track 9 on the album ‘Swordfishtrombones’ 1983 Side B of the ‘In the Neighborhood’ 7" single 1983 Track 10 on the compilation ‘Beautiful Maladies’ 1998 Click HERE for live bootlegs ![]() ![]() |