Friday, May 12, 2006

Frank Mills

(I originally intended to put up a long explanation as to why I posted this song. I think I will elaborate further at future date. Have you heard the original version on the Broadway album? Her voice is girlish and sweet, and fills me with the most bittersweet nostalgia and longing for people who have slipped away. In particular, it reminds me of a certain individual, who bears almost no resemblance to Frank Mills whatever, but the emotion evoked is the same. The tune is really quite simple, melancholic, and yet somehow optimistic. It's just plain lovely.)

I met a boy called Frank Mills
On September twelfth right here
In front of the Waverly
But unfortunately
I lost his address

He was last seen with his friend,
A drummer, he resembles George Harrison of the Beatles
But he wears his hair
Tied in a small bow at the back

I love him but it embarrasses me
To walk down the street with him
He lives in Brooklyn somewhere
And wears this white crash helmet

He has gold chains on his leather jacket
And on the back is written the names
Mary
And Mom
And Hell's Angels

I would gratefully
Appreciate it if you see him tell him
I'm in the park with my girlfriend
And please

Tell him Angela and I
Don't want the two dollars back
Just him!

- from Hair the musical. Rado & Ragni, 1967

3 comments:

Huckleberry said...

As lame as it is, the Lemonheads have a version of this on one of their albums, or maybe their only album - I am unfamiliar with their catalogue - thats pretty good...

kissyface said...

Huck - i posted an answer within the original posting, which I should have done to begin with.

The Frito Pundito said...

This song has interesting connection for me. They were filming location shots for the Milos Forman version of Hair in Central Park one Saturday (in 1978, I thnk) and put out a call for people to put on their 60s gear (which at that point still fit) and come on out. I did just that, wandered around a bit, and found myself in the filming of the "Frank Mills" sequence. The singer was walking through a meadow and I actually brought up some rocks to her as a present. Sadly, the song did not make the final cut of the movie, so my only chance at screen time was lost forever. Hmmm...I wonder if the DVD version has missing sequences?