Song Of The Day 10/16/2015: Suicide – “Frankie Teardrop”
(Sigh.)
Look, I was really hoping to avoid this one. There have been a couple of times in the past when I programmed "Frankie Teardrop" and then backed off. I was going to do it during a Halloween week when I was putting so-called "scary" songs up, but backed off because it -- well, saying that "Frankie Teardrop" is scary is kind of like saying Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer is about a troubled young man in search of himself. Technically true, but nowhere close to what it actually is. There was another time fairly recently when I had it lined up, but took it down because of a horrible event that had been in the news and I didn't want to put anything negative up here. As it unfortunately stands we're not far removed from the last time some undetected malcontent got hyped up on his own photo-negative myth and decided to take a bunch of strangers down with him. I'm tired and near numbed about the increased regularity with which these indiscriminate massacres occur. But I suppose this country has priorities. We'll wail about the constant flow of collateral damage loud enough so CNN can hear us, as long as we don't have to do anything to stop it.
There, that's my one flailing moment at the dais for the year. Anyway. If you're one of the sensitive people in the general audience to whom I market this blog and you haven't heard "Frankie Teardrop" by Suicide, think twice before clicking that little red play button up there. It's a song that regularly tops listicles like "The 10 Most Depressing Songs Ever Made." Yes, it's depressing. It's claustrophobic and violent and ransacks your emotional attachments to everything you hold dear. Its unflagging and dulled mechanical pulse only ratchets up the inhumanity. It's also brilliant. I also thought Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer was brilliant, but I didn't recommend it to anyone I knew either. I tried to find another Suicide song that had more of an effect on me than "Frankie Teardrop," and although "Dream Baby Dream" and "Rain of Ruin" were in the ballpark, metrics is metrics.
Well, thanks anyway, Ricardo.