Ten Frank Black Singalongs

Between now and the end of this year, I'll be posting one Frank Black song per day. These are a few of the songs that 'stuck' for me - the enduring songs that revisit my playlists often.

Why? First, because I'm a card-carrying member of the cult following. Second - move over, Paris, Lindsey, and the sisters Spear - he's the teenager of the year, no matter what year it may be.

Here's my first choice, 85 Weeks, a Captain Beefheart ode from Pistolero. I love the acoustic licks, the fast singing, and the way he makes the high strings ring. This is an anxious ballad, the perfect ode to a perpetually stressed, wide awake, conscious sleepwalker.

From frankblack.net:

"We were just sitting around, I told him a story about Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart) and his lack of sleeping at one point in his life."
- Eric Drew Feldman, "Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies" (US Edition, Pg. 241).

Definitions and References:
som·nam·bu·list (n.)
A person who is subject to somnambulism; one who walks in his sleep; a sleepwalker; a noctambulist.

Eric
Eric Drew Feldman, off and on keyboardist for Frank Black and the Catholics.

"Don/Captain"
Don Glen Vliet, aka Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart.

Frank Black - 85 Weeks (mp3)