FranKlin D. Zodiac

Franklin D. Zodiac

he was anything but cute

just a scaly-green body in

a worn-out spaceman suit ...

​

Beckett and Goya the Two Halves of Danger

The dogs from the desert

have come round my house

as I dance with Lolita

in her low-cut blouse ...

On The Yellow Brick Road

On the train to downtown

just another day

Sit at a computer

and rot my life away ...

“Everything I’ve ever done involved words,” says Kidd, “… teaching English, ad copywriting, newspaper editing, publishing a novel, composing lyrics.” His songs are filled with feeling, humour and everyday wisdom.

He wrote the popular Ballad of the Pilgrim, the Lady and the Sailor when he was 18 and editor of his high school yearbook. He studied English at the University of Stirling, Scotland, and Education at Queen’s University, Canada. His novel Sacrificing Sticks he wrote in his adopted Nova Scotia.

“Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits was the first album I ever bought. I was at high school and I played it until the vinyl wore down. I was reading Dylan Thomas, Rod McKuen, Ian Fleming; listening to James Taylor, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and more. Music and words found me – music got me; the words kept me.”

His songs fall into four genres: “Mostly light rock ... Franklin D. Zodiac and On The Yellow Brick Road, hard rock ... Cancer in the Universe and Poor Men Bleed, some country ... Six Ways From Sunday and Driving to Gainesville, as well as traditional pieces that include Walls Weep in Donegal and Cairneagle Glen.”

And his favourite: “... My Old Guitar. The beat, words and story came together.”

A song gets built
much like bricks in a wall
Progress the chords
words fall where they fall
Comes like a fever
in the dead of the night
Drags you from sleep

and begs you to write
Rhythm and words
the raw steel of life
Iron and carbon
make a powerful knife