Story Behind The Song

In 1999, I picked up a copy of Time magazine. The cover story was the tragic death of J.F.Kennedy Junior in a plane crash. When I read the story, I was struck by how high prosperous the Kennedys have been, but how they have been haunted by a curse, with tragic consequences. I wanted to use it as a starting point, but also wanted to make it universal. The drug dealer in the second verse is fictional, and is set in the Cape Flats, a very poor area in Cape Town, South Africa. In the bridge I wanted to connect this character, with the glitz and glamour of the Kennedys. I wanted to make a trail from the slums of Cape Town, to the grandiose lifestyle of the Kennedys. The final message: that it doesn't matter who you are, we are all bound by the same rules in this existence.

Song Description

It starts with a character being shot through the night sky, like a burnt-out star. The world mourns about his death, but the news sells, and the newspaper boy is happy. One's loss is another's gain.The chorus describes how this character, like the paperboy, is tied to a chain, and lost in the maze of life, and can't escape, He thought that fame was the answer to all his problems, but it couldn't save him from death - something we all have to face. In this sense we are all equal, in this sense we are all "Frail." The second verse deals with another character, who aims to make a fortune, by selling drugs. He wants to use the money to get famous. But tragically, there is a shoot-out between drug lords, and he gets shot in his own driveway. The story appears on TV, and his family watches. He got his shot at fame, post-humously. He is also "Frail." The third verse releases the two characters. At their funerals, they are hovering above their graves, free from the frailty of life on Earth. They are not weighed down by the rules of human existence anymore, but as spirits, are free.

Lyrics

Head in the clouds
Shot through the night sky
No angel to rescue
A star burnt out

The world?s on its knees
And strangers cry
But the mourner?s are paying
And the paperboy smiles

Chorus:

Caught in a chain
Lost in a riddle
Worn out by fame
You?re brave, but your bones are brittle
Frail

Dreaming of grass
On the other side
You sever the routes
To your family tree

Our son is a hero! He made it big!
He got shot in the driveway
His break on TV

Chorus

And now that you?re gone
They advertise
With statues and medals
How you?ve been a saint

But they don?t realise
That you?re through with these games
That you?re hovering above
With a smile on your face
Chorus