Frankie Teardrop

Frankie Teardrop is a song by Suicide from their acclaimed first album Suicide. The song tells a story of a young father and poverty-stricken factory worker. He is very depressed about this, and eventually drifts into insanity. One day, Frankie comes home from work, murders his wife and then commits suicide. The narrative then continues to follow him into hell. The music backing this is sparse, featuring just a simple keyboard riff, drum machine, and the vocal line, creating a chilling atmosphere. Singer Alan Vega's "Dark, inhuman screams"^[1] add to the claustrophobic nature of the piece.

Reviews

The track has had many reviews for its unique nature, both in its disturbing nature (Nick Hornby in his book 31 Songs described it as something you would listen to "Only once"),^[2] and for its political viewpoint, by Allmusic as "More literally and poetically political than the work of bands who won their radical philosophies on their sleeve".^[3] Bruce Springsteen has cited that he loves this song in interviews, and that it was an influence on his album Nebraska.^[4] Pitchfork cited it as "[The track that] gets most of the ink" in terms of critical acclaim, and jokingly as "Taxi Driver: The Musical" when citing the album Suicide in their "100 Greatest 70s Albums" list.^[5]

In other media

• The track is one of the songs selected in Nick Hornby's book 31 Songs.
• The song is featured in the film Downtown 81.

Personnel

• Martin Rev- Keyboards/Programming
• Alan Vega- Vocals

References