Jackson C. Frank
| Jackson C. Frank | |
|---|---|
Frank in 1965
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| Background information | |
| Born |
March 2, 1943 Buffalo, New York, U.S. |
| Died | March 3, 1999 (aged 56) Great Barrington, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupation(s) | |
| Instruments | |
Jackson Carey Frank (March 2, 1943 – March 3, 1999) was an American folk musician. He released his first and only eponymous album in 1965, produced by Paul Simon. After the release of the record, Frank was plagued by a series of personal issues, and was diagnosed with schizophrenia and protracted depression that prevented him from maintaining his career.
Frank spent his later life homeless and destitute, and died in 1999 of pneumonia. Though he only released one record, he has been cited as an influence by many singer-songwriters, including Paul Simon, Sandy Denny, Bert Jansch and Nick Drake. Rolling Stone journalist David Fricke called Frank "one of the best forgotten songwriters of the 1960s."
Frank was born March 2, 1943 in Buffalo, New York, the only child of Marilyn Rochefort Jones and Jack Jones, a test pilot.
On March 31, 1954 when Frank was eleven years old, a furnace exploded at his school, Cleveland Hill Elementary School in Cheektowaga, New York. The fire killed fifteen of his fellow students, including Marlene du Pont, Frank's then girlfriend, about whom he would later write the song "Marlene". Frank survived, but suffered burns over fifty percent of his body. The trauma from the burns also caused extensive damage to his parathyroid glands, resulting in an unregulated buildup of calcium in his body that led to extensive joint problems.
During his hospital stay he was introduced to music, when a teacher, Charlie Castelli, brought Frank an acoustic guitar to keep him occupied during the recovery. He was influenced greatly by Elvis Presley as a teenager. In 1957, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee with his mother to meet Elvis at a meet and greet event for the children injured in the Cleveland Hill fire. When he was 21, he received an insurance check of $110,500 for his injuries, enough for him to "catch a boat to England."
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