honky cracker: Hang On to Your Ego The New Year is gettin' all up in our shits soon. Since it's the Holidays, I'm mailin' this one in like a Christmas Card from a hooker in Minneapolis.
In 2005, I vow to be more like Frank Black in each and every way that I can. I leave you with these words of wisdom from The Man, The Myth, The Legend Himself, Mr. Charles Kittredge Thompson IV.
"Classy band. Classy guy, Brian Wilson. Classy song. It's called 'Hang On To Your Ego.' It doesn't get much crasser and cool than that. It's like recording a song called 'I Am The Greatest.'"
"I am a guitar player. I am not a dancing bear....I am a singer...I am a guy loading a trailer... I am a cabaret singer. I am not a dancing bear... Sometimes people think that I am rude when I don't switch into that dancing bear routine. I am not complaining. I adore playing music to the people that support my art. But I am not a fucking dancing bear... I may look like a dancing bear! Sure. I admit it." (from frankblack.net)
"I like being the underdog. Itīs better than sucking."
"If people don't like what I'm doing, I don't know if they would necessarily know what I should be doing instead. I think fortunately people either like what I'm doing or don't like what I'm doing. It's kinda clear-cut. It's not like polka music with people saying, 'Man I wish you just get off this polka thing it's just too weird.' It's not anything specific that people can complain about."
"If I was gonna take it seriously, the first thing I'd do is go to fat camp, get an image makeover, a producer, start listening to what's on the radio."
"The problem with her and I is that, you know the song Pretty Woman, I prefer the Roy Orbison version - the original version - and she prefers the Van Halen version, and this has been the source of our pain." (Frank Black on his divorce - Interview on BBC 6 Music)
"This is a song about the advent of electricity and artificial light into modern life." - Frank on stage, 5/93
"Anyway, 'Heloise,' you've only got a few lines. You don't need to do a lot of research. You don't need to read books or novels to come with the subject matter for a song. All you've got to do is read or hear some little thing and you have an impression of it. It practically writes itself. "Helloise," I had probably written two or three different sets of lyrics before I settled on the last one. I knew that I wanted to write a song called "Helloise." That was the name. I knew I wanted a female name, and that's where it sat. All right, who's Helloise? I don't know who Helloise is? I think on that one I actually researched the name Helloise, to see what came up. I just punched it up on a search engine, and there she was. A nun! Not a nun, she was a pupil of some priest guy, and they had a kid, they took the kid away from her and they castrated the guy and they both retreated back into religious lives, but they wrote to each other, love letters for the rest of their lives, and when they both finally passed away they were buried next to each other in some Paris cemetery. There you go. Gee, I wonder what I should write about?"
"It was a grey and windy day.... Scott and Dave had been trying to get me to put lyrics on that one for years. Lyrics are, you know, about stuff."
and finally... from a chat room q&a...
Question]: What is "Humboldt County Massacre" about? Frank Black:Ponder the title. Therein lies the answer my son.
Happy New Year. And remember,
I don't care if they're real or they're pseudo I don't care if they get any higher I hope if someone retires They pull another menudo
