I admit it, I miss the ’90s. Yeah, I know this song came out in 1988 on the first Pixies album, “Surfer Rosa,” but the post-Replacements sound they helped pioneer, with its distorted guitars and quiet-loud-quiet dynamics, came to dominate the indie-rock music of the early ’90s, so I mentally file it there.
This was the first song Kim Deal wrote for the band (Black Francis added the chorus), and she was still pretty primitive on the bass — she just repeats the riff that starts the song throughout. The lyrics were inspired by the Beth Henley play “Crimes of the Heart,” in which Sissy Spacek’s married character carries on an affair with a teenager, but Francis said the title was his description of the chord progression, which he called “very Lou Reed-influenced.”
The song was released as a single and got the Pixies some attention on college stations, which was how indie bands promoted themselves in the CD era. My favorite part is the way Deal, an Ohio native, sings “gigantic” in that flat Midwestern accent.
Ska revivalists Reel Big Fish recorded the tune for a Pixies tribute album, but did it in an electro-pop style that was atypical of their style while also sounding nothing like the original.
