When Jackson Frank was eleven years old, a furnace exploded at his school, sending a ball of flames down corridors until it ended up in Frank's music classroom in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York. The fire killed fifteen of his fellow students and burned Frank over more than half his body.[1] It was during his time in the hospital that he was first introduced to playing music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought in an acoustic guitar to keep Frank occupied during his recovery. When he was 21, he was awarded an insurance cheque of $110,500 for his injuries, giving him enough to "catch a boat to England."
His eponymous 1965 album, Jackson C. Frank, was produced by Paul Simon while the two of them were also playing folk clubs in England. Frank was so shy during the recording that he asked to be shielded by screens so that Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, and Al Stewart (who also attended the recording) could not see him, claiming "I can't play. You're looking at me." The most famous track, "Blues Run the Game", was covered by Simon and Garfunkel, and later by Wizz Jones, Counting Crows, Colin Meloy, Bert Jansch, Laura Marling, and Robin Pecknold (White Antelope), while Nick Drake also recorded it privately. Another song, "Milk and Honey", appeared in Vincent Gallo's film The Brown Bunny, and was also covered by Fairport Convention, Nick Drake, and Sandy Denny, whom he dated for a while. During their relationship, Jackson convinced Sandy to give up nursing (then her profession) and concentrate on music full-time.
Although Frank was well received in England for a while, in 1966 things took a turn for the worse as his mental health began to unravel. At the same time he began to experience writer's block. His insurance payment was running out so he decided to go back to the United States for two years. When he returned to England in 1968 he was deemed a different person. His depression, stemming from the childhood trauma of the classroom fire, had increased and he had no self-confidence. Al Stewart recalled that: "He [Frank] proceeded to fall apart before our very eyes. His style that everyone loved was melancholy, very tuneful things. He started doing things that were completely impenetrable. They were basically about psychological angst, played at full volume with lots of thrashing. I don't remember a single word of them, it just did not work. There was one review that said he belonged on a psychologist's couch. Then shortly after that, he hightailed it back to Woodstock again, because he wasn't getting any work."
While in Woodstock, he married Elaine Sedgwick, an English former fashion model. They had a son and later a daughter, Angeline. After his son died of Cystic Fibrosis, Frank went into a period of great depression and was ultimately committed to an institution. By the early 1970s Frank began to beg aid from friends. Karl Dallas wrote an enthusiastic piece in 1975 in Melody Maker, and in 1978, his 1965 album was re-released as Jackson Frank Again, with a new cover sleeve, although this did not encourage fresh awareness of Frank.
In 1984, Frank took a trip to New York City in a desperate bid to locate Paul Simon, but he ended up sleeping on the sidewalk. His mother, who had been in hospital for open heart surgery, found him gone with no forwarding address when she arrived home. He was living on the street and was frequently admitted and discharged from various institutions. He was treated for paranoid schizophrenia, a diagnosis that was refuted by Frank himself as he had always claimed that he actually had depression caused by the trauma he had experienced as a child.
Just as Frank’s prospects seemed to be at their worst, a fan from the area around Woodstock, Jim Abbott, discovered him in the early 1990s. Abbott had been discussing music with Mark Anderson, a teacher at the local college he was attending. The conversation had turned to folk music, which they both enjoyed, when Abbott asked the teacher if he had heard of Frank. He recollected: "I hadn’t even thought about it for a couple of years, and he goes, ‘Well yes, as a matter of fact, I just got a letter from him. Do you feel like helping a down-on-his-luck folk singer?"
Frank, who had known Anderson from their days at Gettysburg College, had decided to write him to ask if there was anywhere in Woodstock he could stay after he had made up his mind to leave New York City. Abbott phoned Frank, and then organized a temporary placement for him at a senior citizens’ home in Woodstock. Abbott was stunned by what he saw when he travelled to New York to visit Frank.
"When I went down I hadn’t seen a picture of him, except for his album cover. Then, he was thin and young. When I went to see him, there was this heavy guy hobbling down the street, and I thought, ‘That can’t possibly be him’...I just stopped and said ‘Jackson?’ and it was him. My impression was, ‘Oh my God’, it was almost like the elephant man or something. He was so unkempt, dishevelled.” A further side effect of the fire was a thyroid malfunction causing him to put on weight. “He had nothing. It was really sad. We went and had lunch and went back to his room. It almost made me cry, because here was a fifty-year-old man, and all he had to his name was a beat-up old suitcase and a broken pair of glasses. I guess his caseworker had given him a $10 guitar, but it wouldn’t stay in tune. It was one of those hot summer days. He tried to play Blues Run The Game for me, but his voice was pretty much shot."
Soon after this, Frank was sitting on a bench in Queens, New York while awaiting a move to Woodstock, when someone shot him in his left eye and consequently blinded him. At first no details were known, but it was later determined that children from the neighborhood were firing a pellet gun indiscriminately at people and Frank happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Abbott then promptly helped him move to Woodstock. During this time, Frank began recording some demos of new songs. Frank’s resurfacing led to the first CD release of his self-titled album. In some pressings, Frank's later songs were included as a bonus disc with the album.
Frank died of pneumonia and cardiac arrest in Great Barrington, Massachusetts on March 3, 1999, at the age of 56.
Though he never achieved fame during his lifetime, his songs have been covered by many well-known artists, including Simon and Garfunkel, Counting Crows, Nick Drake, Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch, Laura Marling, and Robin Pecknold (as White Antelope) of Fleet Foxes. Frank's song "I Want To Be Alone", also known as "Dialogue," appeared on the soundtrack for the film Daft Punk's Electroma. Soulsavers covered "Blues Run the Game" on their single "Revival" (7" vinyl, 30 April 2007). Marianne Faithfull covered Frank's arrangement of a traditional song, "Kimbie" on her 2008 album Easy Come, Easy Go and included the song in the repertoire of her 2009 tour. Erland & The Carnival also covered "My Name Is Carnival," apparently Frank's favourite song. Bert Jansch also covered this song as a gesture to Frank.
Sandy Denny's song, "Next Time Around," contains coded references to Frank, her ex-boyfriend. "Marcy's Song" is played by Patrick, John Hawkes' character, in the 2011 film Martha Marcy May Marlene and "Marlene" plays in the closing credits. Laura Barton's BBC Radio 4 programme "Blues Run the Game", first broadcast 20th November 2012, included interviews with Al Stewart, John Renbourn, Jim Abbott and John Kay as well as archive material of Jackson C. Frank talking and singing.
Just Like Anything
Jackson C. Frank Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To sing
To sing
To sing
Is a state of mind
Sunlight dances slowly on a drum beats broken rhyme
I speak in answers only to see them in my mind
If I had a penny I'd throw it in the sea
Or grow of any tree
I play the fool of rhythm
To speak of what is sane
I never think of singing to those who feel the same
See how high the rain falls
See the color in my hair
Hunt for golden pourage bowls
Hear the paper tear
Just like anything
To sing
To sing
To sing
Is a state of mind
Death gives no reason
So why should I
Death has no season
So I know I'll never die
Just like anything
To sing
To sing
To sing
Is a state of mind
In Jackson C. Frank's song "Just Like Anything", the lyrics seem to touch upon the introspective nature of a creative mind. The opening lines, "Just like anything, to sing, to sing, to sing, is a state of mind", suggests that singing is not just a physical action, but a mental one as well. The imagery of "Sunlight dances slowly on a drum beats broken rhyme" creates a scene of contradiction, suggesting that creativity often arises from a paradoxical combination of elements. The mention of "answers" that the singer speaks, only to see the answers in their own mind, could be interpreted as a nod to the idea that creative expression can be a form of self-discovery, as the artist uncovers their own thoughts and emotions through their work.
The rest of the lyrics seem to wander through a series of loosely connected ideas and sensory details, suggesting that the song is less concerned with a cohesive narrative or theme, and more focused on capturing the fleeting impressions of an artistic mind. Lines like "I play the fool of rhythm / To speak of what is sane" or "Death gives no reason / So why should I" offer glimpses into the singer's worldview, suggesting a certain rebelliousness or questioning attitude towards societal norms and values. Overall, the lyrics suggest that creativity is a mysterious and possibly indefinable force that arises from within, and that its power can be difficult to fully comprehend or articulate.
Line by Line Meaning
Just like anything
Singing is like anything else
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
Is a state of mind
It's a mental activity
Sunlight dances slowly on a drum beats broken rhyme
The sun shines on an uneven rhythm
I speak in answers only to see them in my mind
I only speak in response to my own thoughts
If I had a penny I'd throw it in the sea
I don't care about money
To see if would float away
To observe the penny's movement
Or grow of any tree
It doesn't matter what happens to the penny
I play the fool of rhythm
I'm not good at following a beat
To speak of what is sane
To talk about the rational
I never think of singing to those who feel the same
I don't sing to please others
See how high the rain falls
Notice the height of the rainfall
See the color in my hair
Observe the color of my hair
Hunt for golden pourage bowls
Search for valuable objects
Hear the paper tear
Listen to the sound of tearing paper
Death gives no reason
Death is inexplicable
So why should I
So why should I worry?
Death has no season
Death can happen at any time
So I know I'll never die
I won't worry about death
Just like anything
Singing is similar to any other activity
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
To sing
Is a state of mind
It's a mental activity
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
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