Frankie Teardrop

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"Frankie Teardrop"
Song by Suicide from the album Suicide
Genre Experimental rock
Industrial
Punk rock
Writer Alan Vega/Martin Rev

Suicide track listing
  1. "Ghost Rider"
  2. "Rocket U.S.A.
  3. "Cheree"
  4. "Johnny"
  5. "Girl"
  6. "Frankie Teardrop"
  7. "Ché"


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 child, 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 wore their radical philosophies on their sleeve". Bruce Springsteen has cited that he loves this song in interviews, and that it was an influence on his album Nebraska.[3] 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.[4]

In other media

  • The song is featured in the film Downtown 81.
  • The song is featured in the film In einem Jahr mit 13 Monden.
  • The track has become a recurring point of discussion on The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling where host Tom tells callers to try and listen to the entire song on headphones in complete darkness. This is known as the "Frankie Teardrop Challenge"
  • A music video was made for this song in 1978 by Alan Vega friends Walter Robinson and Edit DeAk in collaboration with Paul Dougherty. It has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art several times and is part the museum's permanent collection. Alan Vega appears in the video several times in silhouette.

Personnel

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

References

  1. ↑ "Suicide (first album) review on Allmusic". 
  2. ↑ Nick Hornby. 31 Songs. McSweeney's. 
  3. ↑ Thomas, Ward. "State Trooper - Bruce Springsteen". Allmusic. Retrieved 17 May 2013. 
  4. ↑ "Pitchfork's top 100 of the 1970's". 


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