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Rating: For some time now, it has been quite fashionable to delve into historical reminiscences, to revive glorious pasts, and renew them, with exercises that unfortunately do not always succeed.
In recent years, almost everyone has tried it, many for commercial reasons and to regain visibility, sometimes launching endless tours, exhausting for bodies that are no longer in their twenties. I recall The Stooges about 3-4 years ago, proudly displayed in Turin with an Iggy as ever unchanged, a true rock icon, never tired of embracing the role of the stage iguana, so animalistic that he is more so than the animals themselves, with the Asheton brothers weighed down by age and Mike Watt, generous, as happy as a child to accompany perhaps the most influential group of his youth. A wonderful evening. Then I saw Lou Reed with Berlin where, if not for a majestic Steve Hunter, he would have been sent back to September. The Sonic Youth with the live performance of Daydream Nation all in one breath. I missed some important comebacks from the Sex Pistols to The Police, but I certainly did not, in these cases, resort to self-flagellation or engage in corporal self-punishment with a cilice.
And now two wonderful pieces of news arrive for a junkie like me: the first, 2 weeks ago, discovering that the Jesus Lizard has reformed and will play 3 dates next September, and the second, the one I want to narrate, the return of Black Francis with his Pixies to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of "Doolittle".
I saw them in '91 during the Bossanova tour in Turin in what was perhaps one of the richest summer seasons in Turin: Primus, Living Colour, them, and much more in the beautiful Valentino park. I was floored by the energy of music that was mixing the narrative ability and pop of XTC with the Nirvanian grunge, the noise of Sonic Youth blended with certain musical themes of Wall of Voodoo, yes, those of Call of the West. They were the flagship group of 4AD, which was one of the most prolific and valued labels at the end of the '80s and early '90s, a label that had the honor of signing the Birthday Party of Nick Cave, Bauhaus in England, Lydia Lunch.
This is truly news! That chubby guy returns to the stage and seems to be in great shape (even if the vocal range doesn’t seem to be what it once was watching the YouTube videos) with Kim Deal still on bass after dedicating a long time to the Breeders, achieving deserved success with Pod. I check the tour dates... Italy is not on it... Dublin, London, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, not a single date in Italy, and I wonder how one can be so obtuse... but we had Madonna in playback, and there’s always Vasco to lift the craving for live emotions, so why risk it?
Let’s get back to Doolittle.
Why is this album fundamental? Because it is simply love at first listen! It's an album that gets inside you, that you don't need to savor slowly, it becomes a real eating disorder akin to bulimia, the more you listen, the more you want to hear it... it ends and you put it back on to re-hear the perfection of "Debaser" and then transition through "I Bleed" with Kim Deal’s counter singing and wait for the climax of "Gouge Away", passing first through Monkey Gone to Heaven. There isn't a second-tier song, you won't find it even if you feel like saying "La La Love You" with David Lovering's drum intro that seems stolen from "John the Fisherman" by Primus. But the Genius is always Joey Santiago, the one who weaves the melodies of all the songs, the one who puts the stamp of quality on everything. Listen to "Hey" and the concept is clear.
I don’t know if I'll manage to go, but I will certainly try, perhaps the Paris date.
To these old-timers, who are my contemporaries but have aged significantly worse by the looks of them, every merit must be given, first of all, for having written 4 albums in their career that are milestones without ever taking a misstep, from the first Surfer Rosa (which in the CD version also includes the mini album Come on Pilgrim) with the sharp production of Steve Albini to the last Trompe le Monde which marked a return to the origins after Doolittle and Bossanova. Much is owed to them by Nirvana, as well as Blonde Redhead and certainly PJ Harvey. I owe them a lot too. I grew up with their music and a lot of other music, but I recognize in them a unique brand of quality. Alternative rock certainly passed through Boston at the end of those splendid ‘80s that created everything that even today still sounds extremely interesting.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Debaser (02:52)
Got me a movie
I want you to know
Slicing up eyeballs
I want you to know
Girlie so groovie
I want you to know
Don't know about you
But I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
Wanna grow
Up to be
Be a debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Got me a movie
Ha ha ha ho
Slicing up eyeballs
Ha ha ha ho
Girlie so groovie
Ha ha ha ho
Don't know about you
But I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
I am un chien andalusia
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
Debaser, debaser
02 Tame (01:55)
Got hips like Cinderella
Must have been having a good shame
Talkin' sweet about nothing
Cookie I think you're tame
I'm making good friends with you
When you're shaking your good frame
Fall on your face in those bad shoes
Lyin' there like you're tame
03 Wave of Mutilation (02:04)
Cease to resist, giving my goodbye
Drive my car into the ocean
You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away
On a wave of mutilation
A wave
Wave
I've kissed mermaids, rode the El Niño
Walked the sand with the crustaceans
Could find my way to Mariana
On a wave of mutilation,
Wave of mutilation
Wave of mutilation
Wave
Wave of mutilation
Wave
04 I Bleed (02:34)
As loud as hell
A ringing bell
Behind my smile
It shakes my teeth
And all the while
As vampires feed
I bleed
Prithee, my dear,
Why are we here?
Nobody knows
We go to sleep
As breathing flows
My mind secedes
I bleed
There's a place
In the buried west
In a cave with a house in it
In the clay the holes of hands
You can place a hand in hand
I bleed
05 Here Comes Your Man (03:21)
Outside there's a boxcar waitin'
Outside the family stew
Out by the fire breathin'
Outside we wait 'til face turns blue
I know the nervous walkin'
I know the dirty beard hangs
Out by the boxcar waitin'
Take me away to nowhere plains
There is a wait so long
You'll never wait so long
Here comes your man (x3)
Big shake on the boxcar movin'
Big shake to the land that's falling down
Is a wind makes a palm stop blowin'
A big, big stone fall and break my crown
There is a wait so long
You'll never wait so long
Here comes your man (x4)
There is a wait so long
You'll never wait so long
Here comes your man (x4)
06 Dead (02:21)
you crazy baby bathsheba, i wancha
you're suffocating you need a good shed
i'm tired of living, shebe, so gimme
dead
we're apin' rapin' tapin' catharsis
you get torn down and i get erected
my blood is working but my, my heart is
dead
hey
whaddyah know?
you're lovely
tan belly
is starting to grow
uriah hit the crapper, the crapper
uriah hit the crapper, the crapper
uriah hit the crapper, the crapper
dead
07 Monkey Gone to Heaven (02:56)
There was a guy, an underwater guy who controlled all the sea,
Got killed by ten million pounds of sludge from New York and New Jersey.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
The creature in the sky got sucked in a hole,
Now there's a hole in the sky.
And the ground's not cold, and if the ground's not cold,
Everything is gonna burn, we'll all take turns.
I'll get mine, too.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
Rock me, Joe...
If man is five,
If man is five,
If man is five,
Then the devil is six,
Then the devil is six,
Then the devil is six,
Then the devil is six,
And if the devil is six,
Then god is seven,
Then god is seven,
Then god is seven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
This monkey's gone to heaven.
08 Mr. Grieves (02:05)
hope everything is alright
hope everything is alright
what's that floating in the water
oh neptune's only daughter
i believe
in mr. grieves
pray for a man in the middle
one that talks like doolittle
i believe
in mr. grieves
do you have another opinion
do you have another opinion
la la la la la la la la
la la la la la la la la
got bombed got frozen
got finally off to a finally dozing
i believe
in mr. grieves
do you have another opinion
opinion
do you have another opinion
do you have another opinion
you can cry you can mope
but can you swing from a good rope
oh i believe
in mr. grieves
hope everything is alright
hope everything is alright
09 Crackity Jones (01:24)
Jose Jones told me alone his story
He got friends like Paco pico piedra la muneca
He receives on his set
Crack crack crackity Jones
Please forgive me Jose Jones
You need these walls for your own
I'm moving out of this hopedaje
I'm afraid you'll cut me boy
Thirty miles by by hundred miles by stinking island oh
Por goofiar en crushing automovil
Chasing voices he receives in his head
Crack crack crackity Jones
10 La La Love You (02:43)
(Shake your butt!)
(Not too hard!)
(Shake your butt!)
(Not too hard!)
[whistle] Yeah.
[whistle] Yeah.
[whistle] Yeah.
I love you,
I love you,
I love you,
I do.
I love you.
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
La la love you, don't mean maybe
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
First base
Second base
Third base
Home run
[whistle] Yeah.
[whistle] Yeah.
[whistle] Yeah.
I love you,
I love you,
I love you,
I do.
I love you.
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
La la love you, don't mean maybe
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
La la love you, don't mean maybe
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
La la love you, don't mean maybe
All I'm saying Pretty Baby
La la love you, don't mean maybe
All I'm saying Pretty Baby.
11 No. 13 Baby (03:51)
got hair in a girl
that flows to her bones
and a comb in her pocket
if the wind gets blown
stripes on her eyes when she walks slow
but her face falls down
when she go, go, go
black tear falling on my lazy queen
gotta tattooed tit say number 13
viva
dont want no blue eyes
la loma
i want brown eyes
rica
im in a state
viva
dont want no blue eyes
la loma
i want brown eyes
rica
im in a state
choir in the yard in the house next door
where her grandma brought
some songs from the shore
six foot girl
gonna sweat when she digs
stand close to the fire
when they light the pig
standing in her chinos
shirt pulled off clean
gotta tattooed tit
say number thirteen
viva
dont want no blue eyes
la loma
i want brown eyes
rica
im in a state
viva
dont want no blue eyes
la loma
i want brown eyes
rica
im in a state
13 Hey (03:31)
Hey
been trying to meet you
mmm..
hey
must be a devil between us
or whores in my head
whores at the door
whore in my bed
but hey
where
have you
been
if you go i will surely die
we're chained
we're ch-ained
we're chained
uh
said the man to the lady
mmm
uh
said the lady to the man she adored
and the whores like a choir
uh uh all night
and mary ain't you tired of this
uh
is
the
sound
that the mother makes when the baby breaks
we're chained
we're ch-ained
we're chained
14 Silver (02:25)
in this land of strangers
there are dangers
there are sorrows
i can't see this lady
it is shady
i am leaving tomorrow
tomorrow
tomorrow
even there's a reason
it's silver
it's gone
in this land of strangers
there are dangers
there are sorrows
sorrows
sorrows
sorrows
15 Gouge Away (02:44)
Gouge away, you can gouge away
Stay all day if you want to
Missy aggravation, some sacred questions
You stroke my locks, some marijuana if you got some
Gouge away, you can gouge away
Stay all day if you want to
Sleeping on your belly
You break my arms, you spoon my eyes
Been rubbing a bad charm with holy fingers
Gouge away, you can gouge away
Stay all day if you want to
Chained to the pillars, a three-day party
I break the walls and kill us all with holy fingers
Gouge away, you can gouge away
Stay all day if you want to
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Other reviews
By easycure
The Pixies have been one of the craziest and most brilliant interpretations of Rock ever.
Doolittle transmits a destabilizing lack of balance, yet everything appears completely homogeneous.
By sexyajax
The four Pixies lay out a white sheet of black, bitter, cynical irony, and build upon it, brick by brick, a beautiful structure full of irregular corners and angles.
The happy consonance of noise and melody derived from an askew perspective, like through a distorting wide-angle lens, through which rock ’n’ roll is misconstrued with a desecrated fervor bordering on hysteria.
By Laggio
The Pixies were changing the coordinates of garage in a musical manner that would enormously influence the following decade.
With Doolittle, the Bostonian band gets their high school diploma without losing an ounce of the adolescent rage of the previous two, gluing the listener to the speaker.
By MissBlinky
Kim Deal starts decisively with the perfect bass line, followed by a powerful and intense riff and an ever-cryptic text shouted by the degenerated voice of Frank Black.
"The line between genius and madness is very thin."
By lester69
The problem (and the delight) of this album is that you never fully understand it.
I find myself moved like the pimpled teenager I was as I sing Silver at the top of my lungs, not knowing exactly why.
