Ben Frank

S. Kilbey

Appears On:

Ben Frank

Narration (unofficial)

hey benny franklin
got your portrait with some colour in it
i don't know what you do
don't you discover electricity with a key or a kite?
i got you mixed up with william penn for a moment
jesus, i don't know
i'm not even english or australian
i just saw you once on this hundred dollar note
and i thought i could paint this geezer
i could put him in my exhibition
can i work him in?
sure i can
you're quite the dandy man
look at that long hair
look at your cravat thing
look at your stripy jacket
i bet you liked to drink and a smoke
i bet you liked them 18th century ladies
i bet you liked a good meal and a soft bed
sad you never heard the beatles
glad you never saw 'em kill the kennedys
sad you never got to jump on the internet
glad you never got to jump on the internet
hey, i once stayed in the franklin plaza suites in la
and i went to school with a kid called billy franklin
but he seemed too wild for me
i wonder now if he's some distant relative of yours
i wonder if you have reincarnated upon this earth again
i wonder how you feel now when you see a hundred bucks
i wonder how you feel about electricity when you see a christmas tree
i wonder how you feel about america when you hear rap music
i wonder how you feel about abe lincoln and lyndon b johnson
something tells me you could have been an ok geezer
hanging around in paris at the court and stuff
whiling away your hours with madame x and madame y
asking the frenchies for a little fucking help
please! it's the english we're talking about here after all!
who was it? napoleon or some other bloke, i don't know
and then you guys got louisiana for a song, too
was that anything to do with you?
can you believe that people are still talking about what you did all these years later?
and here i am mistaking you for billy penn
'cause i thought pittsburgh, pennsylvania
yeah, i could kinda honor him
you know, do a portrait of old penn
that'll get 'em going
those guys in pittsburgh, pa
yeah, yeah, yeah
i've been there a few times
always seemed to be cold and rainy
always seemed to be dark
[voice in another room: "maybe that's 'cause it was night"]
yeah, franklin, penn
sean penn
sean connery
one great man after another
i saw a horror film set in pittsburgh
very modern gothic
very pete murphy and stigmata mata
very blood and barbed wires and roses and things levitatin'
i don't think old bf would have dug it
i don't know if old bf ever hung out in pittsburgh much at all
or if he was a democrat or a gop
or if he even believed in one almighty gawd
he was an american but he was pretty english, too
kinda like a hybrid
gee, he must've looked funny in his tights and buckly shoes
and you thought the '80s was a bad fashion trip, ha!
jesus, franklin, i tried to spruce you up a bit, man
like you're a psychedelic granddad
but, man, you still look pretty straight
i bet you didn't look like that after a few brandies in paris
but that's just gossip
and that's just hearsay
and that's just plain conjecture
so that's all i can say about you, ben frank
you're ok with me