Good lyrics thrive on what they leave out of a story and how skillfully they do it. You can't tell everything that's important in a short text of three to five minutes in length. It is important to direct the listener's imagination in the right direction with just a few strokes. But there are also texts from which you just don't make sense, and it's not uncommon for this to be intentional.
Uwe Ebbinghaus
Editor in the feuilleton.
- Follow I follow
The song "Frankie's Gun!" from the album "Adventures of The Felice Brothers Vol. 1" from 2007 raises an unusually large number of questions – quite contrary to the exclamation mark at the end of the song title, which seems to promise special unambiguity. This much becomes clear at first hearing: the song's staff consists of at least five people – the lyrical self, Frankie, who is referred to as "friend" in the third verse, Lucille, who is apparently the narrator's girlfriend, and the "mama", who appears as an important point of reference in the second and third verses. A sister is mentioned in passing.
Where the story takes place is reasonably clear: in the north of the USA, between New Jersey – where the lyrical self once had to go into hiding, as it tells in the song – and Chicago, where it undertakes regular transport trips. By the way, upstate New York, where the Felice Brothers come from, is right in between.
The milieu can also be narrowed down, the song is almost certainly set in the rather precarious working class, a proximity to petty or even large-scale crime is at least hinted at, which all corresponds to the conventions of a certain kind of folk music.
Ingenious rhyme at the beginning
The chronological classification is more difficult. Almost the only clue is the mention of a McDonald's restaurant, but this is not a real help, after all, the chain has existed for a while. The language seems a bit old-fashioned in places ("picture show", "long legged Brenda"), so that it could well be a story from the early twentieth century.
All in all, images of a road movie in rural America are created in the listener's head, which fit well with the music: At the beginning, an accordion sounding like Cajun music together with the rattling washboard strikes up a dance rhythm that sometimes spirals boogie-woogie-like, which becomes more and more pounding with the onset of bass and drums. A basic tension arises from the fact that the music sounds surprisingly cheerful in view of the events described.
The Felice Brothers, who were steeled with street music at a young age, develop a tremendous musical steam – this is particularly evident in live recordings. The heavyweight James Felice on the accordion shows spirited grace, the lanky singer Ian Felice stands badly coiffed with his head tilted like the early Bob Dylan. But his worn-out voice, which is constantly struggling to assert itself, stands out clearly.
The first stanza begins with an ingenious rhyme:
My car goes Chicago
Every weekend to pick up some cargo