Chromatics have a new video for their cover of the Jackson C. Frank song “Dialogue (I Want To Be Alone).” While Frank only released one album, 1965’s Jackson C. Frank produced by Paul Simon, his songs would go on to be covered by artists like Simon and Garfunkel, Nick Drake, and Sandy Denny–to name just a few. The musician’s tragic tale includes suffering from severe burns after a furnace exploded at his high school killing fifteen other children including his then-girlfriend Marlene du Pont (about whom he later wrote the song “Marlene.”)
Frank would go on to learn to play the guitar while recovering from the accident. After receiving an insurance settlement at 21, the young musician moved to England where he met Paul Simon and became immersed in the burgeoning folk-rock scene. However, bouts of depression and a lack of confidence in his musical abilities meant that during the recording of his debut album he asked to be shielded by screens so that Paul Simon, Art Garfunkle, and Al Stewart couldn’t see him playing guitar and singing.
After the release of Jackson C. Frank, the artist’s mental health would begin to decline further. Eventually returning to the States, he would go on to marry the former British model Elaine Sedgwick. The pair had a son and daughter, but after his son died of cystic fibrosis the musician’s struggles with depression deepened. Eventually finding himself homeless in New York City, he was accidentally shot in the eye by a pellet gun while sitting on a park bench in Queens. Frank would end up dying in 1999 of pneumonia and cardiac arrest. He was only 56 years old, but life had dealt him a difficult deck.
Chromatics’ cover of “I Want To Be Alone” finds the synth-pop band leaving behind their neon glow to follow a paisley path back to the English Folk-Rock of the mid-’60s. But, even with a minimalist arrangement centered around the song’s florid guitar melody and the bracing breeze of Ruth Radelet‘s vocal delivery, this song still fits in perfectly with the group’s melancholy vibe. Directed by Johnny Jewel, the video for the track star’s Radelet in this kaleidoscopic and dreamy imagery.
