Title: Frankie's Gun!
Artist: The Felice Brothers
Year: 2008
Album: The Felice Brothers
I don't own a gun but if I did, this would be its theme song.
"Frankie's Gun!" is one of those songs that could have come from almost any of the last five decades. If not for the drum track and the reference to a rest stop at McDonald's, you could probably add another thirty or forty years to that range. The most prominent song from the band's major label debut, "Frankie's Gun!" rolls off the tongue of Ian Felice like he just thought of it.
The brilliant lyric tells the story of the last illegal cargo run for an unnamed driver who is apparently skimming some money from the boss's take. His regular traveling companion, Frankie, has apparently been ordered to put a stop of to it in the most permanent of ways. I love the cadence of the lyric and the alliterative conversational style:
My car goes, Chicago,
Every weekend I pick up some cargo
I think I know the bloody way by now, Frankie
Turn the goddamn radio down, thank you
Pull over, count the money
But don't count the thirty in the glove box buddy
That's for to buy Lucille some clothes
The chorus is tailor-made for a public house singalong with its He shot me down Lucille response and backbeat handclaps. While I'm sure I would ultimately lament its lack of versatility, Felice's hard-traveled gravel road of a voice makes me jealous. And good for him for finding a style that really suits him. To quote a YouTube commenter, "Makes Mumford and Sons sound like crap." Heh.
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