Here are all known Joe Frank programs and their first lines.
JoeFrank.com is Joe's offical web site. Joefrank.com contains links to the only official online source for Joe's work. This page used be a reference to where to find sharable MP3s of Joe's work but Joe has ever-so-politely chased them all away. I think Joe's polite harrassment of sites sharing his MP3s is misconceived - based on the dozens of hits this page gets every week, and the minuscule number of stations still airing his programs, I sense that there is little enough keeping the flame alive. See the visitor map link at the bottom of this page.
So instead of links to the programs, I've collected all the first spoken lines of his programs, so you can identify what program you heard (or what program you have taped) based on how it starts. It's also interesting to see the duplications, a good start toward a guide to Joe's recycling of his own material.
| 'Til You're Gone | Single male thirty years old, very handsome, five eight |
| 2000 Pledge Drive | I had a dream last night, actually, it was a nightmare |
| A Call In The Night | We were in the garden, I sat in my wheelchair |
| A Death In The Family | The development is called the fountains. Charming Spanish style three story apartment buildings |
| retelling of "A Pact with God" | |
| A Hearing | Why are you so sure that O.J. had nothing to do with this? |
| incorporated into "The O.J. chronicles" | |
| A Kiss is Just a Kiss - part 2 | the funeral took place the following day |
| retold as "To The Bar Life" | |
| A Kiss is Just a Kiss - part 3 | he marched onto a ship and was returned to america |
| A Landing Strip in the Jungle | the first day I arrived there I checked into an odd looking hotel |
| A Natural Disaster | I'm at 1305 Lindbrook Road, about three houses past the blinking traffic light |
| A Pact With God | the development is called the fountains |
| retold as "A Death in the Family" | |
| A Special Family | Ellen was a classmate of mine in high school |
| A Tour of the City - part 1 | you're in a commercial jet, circling above a city |
| A Tour of the City - part 2 | You're riding in a cab in the rain. The windshield wipers swish back and forth |
| continued in "Night Ride" remixed in "Black Hole" | |
| Across The River | about ten, fifteen years ago there was a great scare that strongtium ninety was going to cause cancer |
| Always | When I was a young kid I was very allergic and uh had undergone a number of allergy treatment shots |
| An American Flower | her clock radio starts playing at six thirty in the morning |
| also broadcast as "Rose" | |
| An Enterprising Man | I remember when it snowed in the sahara |
| Another Country - part 1 | when his mother was depressed, you could feel her mood spreading through the house like a foul mist |
| Another Country - part 2 | don't think for a moment she said that israel did this without america's permission |
| Another Country - part 3 | his stepfather always tried to be cheerful |
| Anthology Of Love | I was on my way to an appointment a few years ago, and I got caught in a terrible rush hour traffic jam |
| This starts as "Anthology of Love - Part 2", but goes on | |
| Anthology of Love - part 1 | We talk about love so much of the time, and yet we don't know what it means |
| Anthology of Love - part 2 | I was on my way to an appointment a few years ago and I got caught in a terrible rush hour traffic jam |
| Arena | They stood at the water's edge, the waves mounting, the crashing and sweeping up the coastline |
| At Last | He had told me because for some reason he felt I would be open and non-judgemental |
| pre-Karma, Larry describes troubles with Zachery | |
| At the Border | One evening I walked up to a beautiful woman in a restaraunt and said |
| At the Dark End Of The Bar | I was on vacation in the caribbean with my parents |
| subjective retelling of "The Queen of Puerto Rico" | |
| Bad | so what happened to my church was what happened to many churches |
| essentially the same as "Building A Church" | |
| Bad Karma | I'm sitting at a dinner party, attended by Pol Pot, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao |
| Bible Salesman | A lot of people refer to other people as larger than life |
| Bible Stories | The fact is that Joseph fell into a deep depression when his fiancee Mary became impregnated by God |
| contains material from "God Only Knows", "A Natural Disaster", and "Prayer" | |
| Bitter Pill | If I could write something it would be about, uh you know, equating one's mother to a sun |
| Black Hole | Images of the city at night. People hurry along with umbrellas |
| remixed material from "A Tour of the City" | |
| Black Light | it was my night! I owned these people |
| contains material from "A Tour of the City", "Photography", "The Truth About Women", and the phone calls from "No Show" and "Let Me Not Dream". | |
| Blues Singer | There was a time I was a blues singer |
| Brothers | well how do you know it's from you? maybe she's getting her period |
| this is "Jerry's World" edited down to an hour | |
| Building A Church | church was what happened to many churches, we did all sorts of kinds of community activities |
| essentially the same as "Bad" | |
| Caged Heart | I was at rehersal and everything was going along pretty well |
| Case Studies | she was a rather peculiar person, a woman in her mid forties who was always playing the child |
| Cave Dreamer | i'll always remember the great drought, when it didn't rain for two years |
| Clement At Christmas | I was on vacation from school and several of us went skiing |
| Cocktails Before Dinner | In this modern technological age, we humans have more than made up for our physical inferiority to animals |
| Coma | My fingers and toes are torn and bleeding from grasping the rock face |
| Dear Annie | I tell myself she's too young for me, that that's our problem, the difference of fifteen years between us |
| Don't Know Mind | There came a point where I wanted to leave my apartment |
| Dreamland (45 minutes) | Imagine that time is just a dimension of the universe |
| Dreamland (60 minutes) | Imagine that time is just a dimension of the universe |
| Dreamland-1986 | good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome |
| Dreams of the River | the river is a winding tunnel through the jungle |
| retold as "Fat Man Down" | |
| Either/Or - part 1 | This is joe frank, I'm here at the bellflower hotel |
| Either/Or - part 2 | This is joe frank, I'm here at the bellflower hotel |
| El Cholo | I'm from martel alpa, a very small city north of the capitol |
| Emerald Isle | oh emerald isle, surrounded by the raging sea |
| Emergency Room | you gonna do that for long? |
| Emptiness | Menachem's about to come home, and my friends just called and asked if we wanted to meet them at the sky bar |
| Endings | A number of years ago I attended a party, and engaged a very pretty youn woman, literally half my age |
| Escape From Paradise | i was a trucker, I had an eighteen wheeler |
| Evening Sky | Have you heard the one about the guy who goes sailing on the weekend with his dog |
| Eye In The Sky | That sigalert continues out in Chino Hills on the Corona expressway |
| Fat Man Down | He tries to sleep as long as possible. When he feels himself rousing |
| retelling of "Dreams Of The River" | |
| Fire And Ice | So anyway last night we go to mandalay, and it's like on friday nights they have this |
| Five part Dissonance | let me begin by asking you a question |
| contains excerpts from Joe Frank in Concert and The Rare Recording | |
| Four part Dissonance | You know cause I guess I called your to tell you something |
| God | i was standing on broadway, on the upper west side |
| God Only Knows | The fact is that joseph fell into a deep depression when his fiancee Mary became impregnated by God |
| Great Lives | well of course, stalin was a very amusing man |
| Green Cadillac | A few years ago I saw an ad in the paper for an estate sale |
| Haiti | and all of a sudden something has happened and i is house |
| Hawaii | I remember it was one night, it was in summer, and the doors were open because it was so hot |
| also broadcast as "A Trip to Hawaii" | |
| He Hesitated | There are paper clips, rubber bands, cellophane wrappers, and pennies on my living room carpet |
| Higher Learning | i just, just turned eightteen in november |
| Highways West | lenni's a big tall curly haired man with glasses |
| Hit Man | I'm basicly enormously tired all the time |
| Holy Land | I'm in the garden of eden with Eve, she's naked |
| like "Bible Stories", only different | |
| Home | We lived in the slave quaters, big house was a costume shop |
| Hot Line | Tell me about this big thrill. Well it was a sensation that came over me |
| I'm Not Crazy | Oh one night stand, single page, dead end street, first and only never to be repeated passion |
| Iceland Ver A - part 1 | lila always carries a big purse, more of a bag than a purse really |
| Iceland Ver A - part 2 | do you have any idea how many people send me their short stories |
| Iceland Ver B - part 1 | lila always carries a big purse, more of a bag than a purse really |
| Iceland Ver B - part 2 | we find ourselves adrift, not knowing what to believe in |
| Iceland Ver B - part 3 | do you have any idea how many people send me their short stories |
| In A Lonely Place | And um, when my parents moved from the big house where they raised their children |
| In the Dark | I'm glad I got this nine millimenter, it's a beauty |
| In the Middle of Nowhere - part 1 | oh oh god oh my arm! |
| In The Middle Of Nowhere - part 2 | all these morphines and pain killers, they didn't touch my body |
| In The Middle Of Nowhere - part 3 | you know charlene, I was just thinking |
| Insomnia - 1995 | I grew up in a town called hopedale massachusets |
| Insomnia - 2001 | this morning, as is my habit, I wake up at dawn |
| Islands | it was twilight, dusk, i was in a deserted part of the city |
| Jam | I would like to open with the following statement: that I have for the last |
| Jerry's World - part 1 | Well, how do you know it's from you, maybe she's getting her period |
| Jerry's World - part 2 | My favorite sexual encounter that I had with you |
| Jerry's World - part 3 | I've been going to court, with a uh motor vehicle, my father gave me money for that |
| Joe Frank KPFA Interview | Hi Susan, nice to be here |
| Joe Frank KPFA phone in program | The content of your stuff,um Joe, is really fantastic |
| Joe Frank On Fresh Air | the wall street journal called joe frank radio's prince of darkness |
| Joe Frank's America | My name is Joe Frank, and I live in Burlington Vermont |
| Journal | So I promised you that I was going to present a journal of my daily life |
| Just a closer walk with thee | I the course of a lifetime we loose keys, pens, wallets, pocket knives |
| Just Get Me Out Of Here | There was a period in my life when I had a breakdown and I was committed to a mental hospital on a ship |
| Just Hold Me | it was a working man's bar in a beach front motel called the surf side in |
| Justine | after we broke up, justine, I crashed. I could barely sleep at night |
| Karma - part 1 | last night, after a series of phone calls in which I was forced to listen to hours and hours of kate raging against me |
| Karma - part 2 | what I'm doing is drinking tequila with a little lemon and salt |
| Karma - part 3 | I hate this nature stuff |
| Karma - part 4 | you remember I told you about marlene drucker |
| Karma - part 5 | I mean I can think of people that there were times in my life |
| Karma - part 6 | and so two weeks passed of emails and phone messages from kate |
| Karma - part 7 | my next door neighbors are a married couple |
| Karma 4 Dollars | I have a funny feeling that this knawing sense of self loathing |
| Karma Crash | My girlfriend and I had broken up, we handn't emailed or spoken to each other for about three weeks |
| Karma Don't Deny Me | there's a particular woman who lives in my building |
| Karma Memories | while my father was slowly dying, my mother had an affair with another, younger man, freddie |
| covers "A Pact With God" territory | |
| Karma Redux | I haven't produced a new show in over a month |
| Last Show | Well it's me, Joe Frank, and this is my last show here on KCRW |
| Let Me Not Dream | settle back and get very comfotable, let everything go |
| Lies | at some point when I was in high school I lost my draft card |
| contains 'The Night Watchman', which concluded All Things Considered on Halloween, 1979 | |
| Lines | What's your name? Nina. Where are you calling from? |
| Live at Market Street | prosperity for out time, so that the spectre of war will no longer loom darkly |
| Loner | One, Two O'clock in the afternoon after calling these major motels where I wished I could have stayed |
| Lost Soul | The parish was set on the rolling hills of a rocky coastline |
| Love Is | It was ten in the morning, he was in an airport waiting to catch a plane to chicago |
| Love Prisoner | I'm sitting on my front porch; a woman pulling a cello in a case on casters |
| Margarita | It takes place back the uh, one of those wonderful Nuremburg rallies |
| Men of the Cloth | alice don't know me that well. She says your momma wants to come back from the dead |
| Mercy | He's always hated Christmas; it's the most depressing time of the year |
| Mercy Now | He's always hated Christmas, It's the most depressing time of the year |
| Mountain Rain | my father was a very, very popular and wonderful teacher |
| Mystery | I must say that I did not come to los angeles to tiptoe through the tulips |
| Nausea | one afternoon I drove by a voluptuous, scantily dressed female hitchhiker |
| Night - part 1 | a jacuzzi is a small pool seven to eight feet in diameter |
| Night - part 2 | when donna got to l.a. the club where she'd been booked had closed down |
| Night Ride | that is the electric plant over there |
| related to "A Tour of the City" | |
| No Angel | Many years ago, my brother played in a uh orchestra |
| No Show - 120 Minutes - Part 1 | I have an announcement to make this evening: there is no show |
| No Show - 120 Minutes - Part 2 | this is on channel none, looks like one of those - looks like an interesting movie on channel nine |
| No Show - 60 Minutes | I have an announcement to make this evening, the is no show |
| No Show - 90 Minutes | I have na announcement to make this evening, there is no show |
| Obsessions | I was at a party, it was late, I was about to go home |
| On the Edge | When I first came to L.A. I lived in a hotel on the beach |
| Pathology | There was a time when I looked in the mirror, and I could see nothing |
| material from "White Moon" and "Mountain Rain". | |
| Performer | A month ago I visited my mother in Columbus Ohio |
| Philosophy | Lately I've ben suffering from the compulsion to wander |
| contains retellings of material from "At The Border" and "Case Studies" | |
| Photography | knockoff was the inventor of the photographic negative |
| Pilgrim | The first light snow of the year has fallen, and the ground is dusted in white |
| Pilot | Once uh I went alone to the Yucatan to go diving |
| Pledge Drive - Winter 2001 | Anyway, Kelly and I go into this bar and the music is kickin' |
| Pledge Drive 2 | Hello. Hi I'm looking for Jenny |
| Plethory of Pain | oh man! What happened? aha, he spit all over his floor |
| Policemen's Ball | My high school gym teacher was the most uh opressive out front personality it's ever been my misfortune |
| Policemen's Ball (remix) | Gym teacher was the most uh opressive out front fasciest |
| Prayer | Alice don't know me that well |
| contains material first heard in "A Natural Disaster" | |
| Predator | this young lady came to stay with us a couple of months ago |
| Pretender | ok, here I am, four years old, sitting on the handlebars of our lawnmower |
| Prison Songs | It was a particularly hot day of a sweltering summer in Manhattan |
| Problems | my father was a pioneer in the flourocarbon and silocon industry |
| Questions | you experience yourself as a free agent |
| Rain | rain is very sexual to me |
| Red Sea | there was a time when I looked in the mirror, and I could see nothing |
| very different from Red Sea 1996. Material from pathology and white moon. | |
| Red Sea - 1996 | there was a time when I was a televangelist |
| Redneck Rounder | My biological grandfather was a huge bear of a man |
| Rent A Family - part 1 | anyway they closed the office and they let me go |
| Rent A Family - part 2 | see there's wendy, she's climbing up on the top of the sliding board |
| Rent A Family - part 3 | I had a terrible dream last night. I had this baby |
| Reprise | Then after the, your experience on lake titticaca |
| selections of other material | |
| Rose | her clock radio starts playing at six thirty in the morning |
| also broadcast as "An American Flower" | |
| Sales | I'm waiting for an epithany, and I'm waiting for understanding |
| Silent Sea | When I'm away from home, I repeatedly check my answering machine with my cell phone to see if she's called |
| Sleep | I was a child, it was late at night, I couldn't sleep |
| Small World Karma | The picture opens with a married couple, sunbathing on a boat |
| contains a retelling of the "He Hesitated" telling of "The Incredible Shrinking Man" story | |
| Smile | I tried to handle this and not, you know, I mean the whole point was for me to take care of this |
| Soulmate | can you believe that I had to wear my brother's hand me down jacket |
| material from Emerald Isle | |
| Stoner | I stepped into a gob of spit on the floor of his room last night |
| Stories For Nothing | i have drunk gallons of chablis, danced the samba, sat outside the casino in the hours ... |
| Streetwise | imagine that time is just a dimension of the universe |
| Summer Hill | A monkey's walking along, like, in the jungle, having a beautiful day |
| Summer Notes | I notice a metal sheet here, lying beside you |
| Talk To Me | um, how long has this been going on, in the next room |
| Talking About Love | my dental hygenist told me to use baking soda |
| Taylor | What is with this day, it's so beautiful?! |
| Tell Me What To Do | he didn't really notice her in the beginning |
| Terminal | I have this strange fantasy life when I eat |
| Thank You, You're Beautiful | Hold on a second I just have to get a ciggarette |
| That Night | My uncle fred was a deeply religious man who labored all his life |
| The 80 Yard Run | now the story of my, as I like to call it my infamous eighty yard run |
| The Angina Dialogues | I was walking past a church, off of central park west, you know |
| The Best | Rockwell gave visual form to essential American values |
| The Box | This is a microphone, are we recording now? |
| The Cruise | I was on a small luxury cruise ship, sailing from |
| The Death of Trotsky | the bus leaves in the evening, from the beuna vista station |
| the 'nada poem' can also be found in Ernest Hemingway's 'A Clean, Well-Lighted Place' | |
| The Decline of Spengler | Hoffman died today, during surgery to remove fatty deposits from his thighs |
| The Dictator - part 1 | I'll always remember the great drought, when it didin't rain for two years |
| The Dictator - part 2 | Now many people condem me for rocketing the cities of our enemy |
| The Dictator - part 3 | my picture can be seen on highway billboards |
| The End | when did it begin? I don't know really |
| The Future | We were in this little town called Northfork, Pennsylvania |
| The Last Run | One time, we went to Reno, we went there for the weekend |
| incorporated into "The O.J. chronicles" | |
| The Loved One | When I was in high school, I hung out with a tall, skinny guy named Howard |
| The Lover Man | is it the smouldering beauty of my purple eyes? |
| The More I Know You | I've always have very peculiar taste in men |
| The Nature of Things | According to the theory of the big bang, the universe exploded from a single point |
| The O.J. Chronicles | One time we went to Reno, we went there for the weekend |
| "The Last Run" followed by "A Hearing" | |
| The Other Side | I'd like to talk, uh, a little bit about and get your opinions |
| contains material from "Warheads", "Across the River", "Lines", etc. | |
| The Queen Of Puerto Rico | He was seventeen, on vacation with his mother and father in the Caribbean |
| The River | we were on the nile, going down the river |
| The Road To Calvary | I was working in a slaughterhouse. My job was to grasp two cantilevers |
| The Road To Hell | oh midnight special, I ride the rods a hobo, not homeless |
| The Sacred | I remember once, were were sitting on my front steps, watching ants |
| The Street | You know like I say I'm just a drifter. I like to travel from different cities |
| The Sunday Morning Service | when I first started talking to him, every time we'd start to say a sentence it was like |
| The Truth About Women - part 1 | I became involved with this, with guy once |
| The Truth About Women - part 2 | i grew up in a desert resort town not far from here |
| The Wire | I'm doing this play called 'God is Vengence' |
| Therapy | None of us has escaped the injuries and indignities of growing up |
| Third World Country | I first saw Raymond washing and waxing cars on my block |
| also aired as "Raymond" and "Third World Country" | |
| Three Shingles | It's a roadside bar, with a jukebox playing country and western music |
| To the bar Life | We don't have any Jamisons, we got some, um, we got a little Imperial over here |
| polished retelling of "A Kiss is Just a Kiss" | |
| Tomorrow | It happened three years ago, about two weeks before new year's eve. My father, extremely drunk |
| Two Babes | I think I'm over the illusions of prince charming and somebody to take care of me |
| Two Women | I became involved with this, this guy once |
| shares material with The Truth about Women | |
| Untitled 1987 | one evening i walked up to a beautiful woman in a restaraunt |
| At the border? | |
| Untitled 1997 | It was my night, I owned these people |
| could be 'black light' | |
| Waiting For Karma | I feel very uncomfortable, eating when I'm sober |
| Waiting For The Bell | Is it the smouldering beauty of my purple eyes |
| contains material from "Lover Man", "Zen", "Obsessions" | |
| Warheads | I'd like to talk a little bit and get your opinions about some new systems we've come up with at the institute |
| What Women Want | We left off with him playing the guitar and you singing |
| When She's Asleep, She Looks Like an Angel | years ago, when I lived in manhattan, I went to a psychoanalyst four times a week |
| Where Will It End? | I told you that I I made this decision to sort of be engaged to myself |
| White Moon | there was a time when I looked in the mirror, and I could see nothing |
| shared material with red sea, white moon, pathology | |
| Why I Don't Love You Anymore | have you, uh, ever been in a restaraunt or a theater |
| Windows | There was a man who lived in an apartment complex in a city |
| Woman And Bull In Paint Factory | Settle back and get very comfortable, let everything go |
| Women Police | Got I, I really hate David Sendaris and Ira Glass |
| Words | gentlemen in striped pants, cutaway morning coats, white fronted vests |
| Zen | This goes back to nineteen uh fify nine |
|
|
|
Help Map The Web |