5. The Ballad of Me and My Friends
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Album: Campfire Punkrock
Year: 2006
Why I Love It:
The Ballad of Me and My Friends could be a song about any twenty-thirty-something, anywhere in the world. When you're a teenager, you have these grand plans for your future and you think that all of your friends are creative, talented, unique, and that you're all destined to be rockstars, astronauts, actors, or professional french fry eaters but once you hit your twenties or thirties, you begin to see all of these plans fail. By now you're all shouting furiously at your screens, "Hey Mr. Author-Man, SOME people DO realize their dreams!". You're right, dear reader. I am overgeneralizing. However, a great majority of your most talented friends will never live up to their potential because other things tend to get in the way; namely, reality.
In the end, Frank's lesson for us all is "if you're all about the destination, then take a f---ing flight" and he's absolutely right. Even if you make zero money writing music, acting, eating french fries, or building a life-size rocket out of Popsicle sticks in your mom's backyard and pretending to fly it to mars, you should remember that life is about more than financial success.
4. Try This At Home
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Album: Poetry of the Deed
Year: 2009
Why I Love It:
Frank Turner's Try This At Home isn't just a song; it's a manifesto. In a world where ninety percent of our culture is imported from the United States of America, this song serves as an important reminder that anyone who picks up a guitar can write songs about their friends and that there is nothing more Rock n' Roll than writing songs about where you're from. Most importantly, this song makes fun of those guys we all know that wear skinny jeans in some misguided attempt to be edgy.
3. Anymore
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Album: Tape Deck Heart
Year: 2013
Why I Love It:
Anyone with two ears and a heart loves this song.
2. The Real Damage
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Album: The Real Damage EP
Year: 2007
Why I Love It:
While this list is really about song I wish I had written, this is a song I feel as though I actually could have written. The story Frank Turner tells in The Real Damage, while vaguely reminiscent of the Hangover movie, is something that happens to almost everyone at least once in their lifetime (for others this is called the weekend). This song really has everything. It's a song about getting blackout drunk, waking up in a room full of strangers with no money and absolutely no recollection of how you got there, and finally, realizing its actually Monday and you've just had a weekend long marathon drinking binge.
1. Love Ire & Song
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Album: Love Ire & Song
Year: 2008
Why I Love It:
Speaking of drinking binges, the first time I heard this song was at an after party at a house where I knew only one person - and it wasn't the home owner. It was somewhere between 4 and 5 in the morning, we had spent most of the night listening to 2000's hardcore bands when this little blonde girl put on this song and shouted "If anyone in the scene doesn't love this song, they don't belong here". I was more than intrigued, and a little ashamed because I had never heard of Frank Turner (nor would I remember his name the next morning).
She was absolutely right.
This song hit me so hard the first time I heard it because it spoke to the many ways in which I was feeling jaded. The Punk Rock scene in my community had disappeared completely and the activists along with it. This song lit a flame in me which had long burnt out and I realized that instead of complaining about the lack of a scene, it was time to build one. The very next day I talked to a friend of mine and we started a music promotions group and began to put on shows. This is the power of Frank's music. He is able to awaken in even the most jaded of old punk rockers the sixteen year old within that believed that if given enough effort, you can change things.
Do You Disagree?
Please leave a comment with your list of the Top 5 Frank Turner songs you wish you had written below!
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