The Firecracker Kid
The album’s Fourth of July song is a movie.
There are a few tracks in my catalogue that really demand some sort of video. “Six Million Dollar Ken” & “The Webpage of Dorian Gray” come to mind, as well as this tale of a vicious child, his unforgiving mother, and the collateral damage to his gunpowder games.
I knew lots of Firecracker Kids when I was growing up. I was one. Not as bad as this kid, but then, we’re all going to say that. Like the veteran in “Flashback Barbeque” I have to contend with the karmik ramifications of my actions (if only on the psychological level).
On a musical level, Tom Johnson’s keyboards on this track always get me very excited, and remind me that the initial keyboard player quit the project on the day before we started recording because it was “too dark”.
Painful synchronicities leave pretty wounds on the tracks.
Lyrics
THE FIRECRACKER KID
The 4th of July was always his favorite holiday
When he was blowing things up
growing up seemed like it was OK
His mum would say,
“Son, be careful with that gun”
And he’d say, “Okay”
and then rush off into the vicious world
where his violence held sway
His sister’s boats would be on a cruise
‘Til they heard that sizzlin’ fuse
And then the firecracker kid
bursts onto the scene
quoting “Apocalypse Now”
dressed in the khakiest green
His daddy says,
“Someday he’ll be a marine”
Yeah but patriotism is the furthest thing from his little mind
as well as the pictures he’s seen of kids who’ve been maimed
and blinded
It coulda been me
His ten nimble fingers seemed like they were perfectly well-designed
for carrying out the cruel tasks that his mind had assigned
I saw him tie a rocket to a toad
just to watch its head explode
Oh God the firecracker kid is out of control
He turned the red robin’s nest into a sulphury hole
He frightens the turtles and tortures the vole
He says, “That ant hill’s gonna blow
Yeah that ant hill’s gonna go”
“It’s gonna be great”
He said he
had an m-80 and he
wasn’t afraid to use it
Well now the doctor said,
“Son be glad it’s only one
It could be much worse
You coulda lost the whole hand
or even landed in a hearse”
His days of harassing the insects of his backyard universe
are over and done
Now his son keeps his thumb in her purse
and when he’s bad she takes it out
and waves the gruesome thing about
She says, “The firecracker kid shoulda done like I said
but all my great advise it went disregarded
Maybe this’ll put some sense in your head
Credits
Written by Andras Jones
Andras Jones – Electric Guitar & Vocals
Tom Johnson – Hammond Organ
Brian Schey – Bass Guitar
Colin Mahoney – Drums & Percussion
Produced with Brian Schey & Colin Mahoney
at z’gwon,th studio in Lawrence, Kansas – September & October 1999
with engineering help from Tom Johnson,
Dan Balsinger & Anne Stephens
Purchase
$1.50