Hungry Freaks, Daddy

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Lyrics

Mr. America, walk on by
Your schools that do not teach
Mr. America, walk on by
The minds that won't be reached
Mr. America, try to hide
The emptiness that's you inside
But once you find that the way you lied
And all the corny tricks you've tried
Will not forestall the rising tide of
Hungry freaks, daddy

They won't go for no more
Great, big Western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say
What's on their minds
The left-behinds
Of the great society

Hungry freaks, daddy

Mr. America, walk on by
Your supermarket dream
Mr. America, walk on by
The liquor store supreme
Mr. America, try to hide
The product of your savage pride
The useful minds that it denied
The day you shrugged and stepped aside
You saw their clothes and then you cried,
"Those hungry freaks, daddy"

They won't go for no more
Great, big Western hardware store
Philosophy that turns away
From those who aren't afraid to say
What's on their minds
The left-behinds
Of the great society

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Notes About This Song

FZ liner notes on "Freak Out!" (1966): "'Hungry Freaks, Daddy' was written for Carl Orestes Franzoni. He is freaky down to his toe nails. Some day he will live next door to you and your lawn will die. Drop out of school before your mind rots from exposure to our mediocre educational system. Forget bout the Senior Prom and go to the library and educate yourself if you’ve got any guts. Some of you like pep rallies and plastic robots who tell you what to read. Forget I mentioned it. This song has no message. Rise for the flag salute."

The "Great Society" referred to in "Hungry Freaks, Daddy" and "Trouble Every Day" was an idealistic catch-phrase of President Johnson’s. Some startling kazoo notes leap out of the mix after each bridge in the former song, aligning pop-music idioms with little-kid music in a cheap fanfare manner. Frank, who wrote in his book that every song on Freak Out! had a "function within an overall satirical concept," molded the garbage of the industrial music machine into images of pure acidity, asking listeners to question the music they typically chose for their entertainment ("shaking people out of their complacency" was a frequent Mothers motive).

CC Clues In This Song