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EspañolDOOLITTLE (ALBUM)
'''Doolittle''' is the second studio album from the American alternative rock band Pixies, released in April 1989 on 4AD. The album's offbeat and dark subject material, featuring references to surrealism, Biblical violence, torture and death, contrasts with the clean production sound achieved by the then newly hired producer Gil Norton. ''Doolittle'' was the Pixies' first international release, with Elektra Records acting as the album's distributor in the United States.
The Pixies released two singles from ''Doolittle'', "Here Comes Your Man" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven," both of which were chart successes on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. The album itself reached #8 on the UK Albums Chart; an unexpected success for the band. In retrospect, album tracks such as "Debaser," "Wave of Mutilation," and "Hey" are highly acclaimed by critics, while the album, along with ''Surfer Rosa'', is seen as the band's strongest work.
''Doolittle'' has continued to sell consistently well in the eighteen years since its release, and in 1995 was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. The album has been cited as inspirational by many alternative artists, while numerous music publications have ranked it as one of the most influential albums ever. A 2003 poll of ''NME'' writers ranked ''Doolittle'' as the second greatest album of all time.
Background
Following their highly regarded but commercially unsuccessful 1988 album ''Surfer Rosa'',[2] the band embarked on a European tour with fellow Bostonians Throwing Muses, before beginning a tour of North American states. During this time Black Francis, the group's frontman and principal songwriter, began to write new material for a future album, with songs such as "Dead," "Hey," "Tame," and "There Goes My Gun" emerging through the course of the year.[3] Versions of the newly composed songs were recorded during several sessions for John Peel's radio show in 1988, while a live recording of "Hey" appeared on a free EP circulated with a 1988 edition of ''Sounds''.[4]
During the summer of the same year, the Pixies began to record demo sessions while on breaks from touring. The band headed to the Boston recording studio Eden Sound, which at the time comprised a small room in the basement of a hair salon. They recorded at the studio for a week, in circumstances similar to the previous year's the Purple Tape sessions. Francis gave the demo tape and upcoming album the provisional title of ''Whore'', though he later claimed his natural father had originally suggested the name. Francis has clarified that he was thinking of the word "in the more traditional sense [...] the operatic, biblical sense, [...] as in the great whore of Babylon."[5] After completing the demo tape, band manager Ken Goes suggested two producers for the album; Liverpudlian Gil Norton and American Ed Stasium. The band had previously worked with Norton while recording the single version of "Gigantic" in May 1988. Francis had no preference, although Ivo Watts-Russell, head of the band's label 4AD, wanted Norton to produce the Pixies' next album. He was hired as producer, with Stasium not even approached for the position.[6]
Norton arrived in Boston on October 31, 1988, and first visited Francis' apartment in to review the album's demos. The two talked about arrangements, and spent two days intensively analyzing the album's songs. Norton learned to gauge Francis’ reaction to changing arrangements, and later observed that the frontman "doesn't like to do anything twice." Norton spent a further two weeks in pre-production to familiarise himself with the Pixies' sound.[7]
Recording and production
Recording sessions for the album began on October 31, 1988 at Downtown Recorders in Boston, Massachusetts, at the time a professional 24-track studio. 4AD allowed Pixies a budget of $40,000, excluding producer's fees. This was a modest sum for a 1980s major label album, however it quadrupled the amount spent on the band's previous album ''Surfer Rosa''. Along with Norton, two assistant recording engineers and two second assistants were assigned to the project. The sessions lasted three weeks, concluding on 23 November,[8] with "nearly a song a day" being recorded.[9]
Production and mixing began on November 28. The band relocated to Carriage House Studios, a residential studio in , to oversee production and record further tracks.[10] Norton recruited Steve Haigler as mixing engineer, whom he had worked with at Fort Apache Studios. During production, Haigler and Norton added layers of guitars and vocals to songs, including overdubbed guitars on "Debaser" and overdubbed vocals on "Wave of Mutilation." During the recordings, Norton advised Francis to alter several songs; a noted example being "There Goes My Gun" which was originally intended as a much faster Hüsker Dü-style song, however on Norton's advice Francis slowed down the tempo.[6]
Norton's suggestions were not always welcome, and several instances of advice to add verses and increase track length contributed to the front man's building frustration. Eventually Francis took Norton to a record store, where he handed him a copy of Buddy Holly's ''Greatest Hits'', in which most of the songs are under two minutes long.[12] He told Norton, "If it's good enough for Buddy Holly.."[13] In a ''Rolling Stone'' interview, Francis later recalled that "this record is him trying to make us, shall I say, commercial, and us trying to remain somewhat grungy."[14] Production continued until 12 December 1988, with Norton and Haigler adding extra effects, including gated reverb to the mix. The master-tapes were then sent for final post-production later that month.[15]
Release
In the months following ''Surfer Rosa'', the Pixies' management fielded calls from a number of labels. Elektra Records A&R scout Peter Lubin first saw the band in October 1988, when they opened for The Jesus and Mary Chain. He immediately sought to convince the band to sign to his label. Pixies contracted to Elektra Records during a UK spring tour in 1989. Elektra followed by releasing a live promotional album, which contained two songs from their forthcoming album, "Debaser" and "Gouge Away," along with a selection of earlier material.4
However Elektra had not yet attained distribution rights to the band's forthcoming album. 4AD, then a small British independent record label, held worldwide distribution rights to the Pixies, but did not have access to distribution outside of the United Kingdom; the band had had to import all its previous records into Europe. The Pixies' management sought international distribution; and while negotiations with Elektra and other record companies began in the third quarter of 1988, they were only completed just two weeks before ''Doolittle's release on 2 April 1989. PolyGram had already secured Canadian distribution rights by that time.[16]
''Doolittle'' was released in the United Kingdom on April 17 1989 and in the United States the following day. Throughout the States, helped by Elektra Records' major label status, retail displays were constructed for the record, and "Monkey Gone to Heaven," the first single from the album, was released to radio stations for inclusion on playlists.[17] ''Doolittle''
In June 1989 4AD released "Here Comes Your Man" as the second single to be taken directly from the album. The single reached #3 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart and #56 in the UK Singles Chart. It was not the last single from the album: in 1997, "Debaser" was released as a single to promote the ''Death to the Pixies'' compilation.
Music
''Doolittle'' features an eclectic mix of musical styles. While tracks such as "Tame" and "Crackity Jones" are fast and aggressive, and incorporate the band's trademark loud-quiet dynamic;[19] other songs such as "Silver," "I Bleed," and "Here Comes Your Man" reveal a quieter, slower and more melodic temperament.[20] With ''Doolittle'', the band began to incorporate further instruments into their sound. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" features two violins and two cellos; while other tracks on ''Doolittle'' are constructed around simple chord progressions.
"Tame" is based on a three chord formula; including Joey Santiago's playing a "Hendrix chord" over the main bass progression.[21] "I Bleed" is melodically simple, and is formed around a single rhythmical repeation. Some songs are influenced by other genres of music; while "Crackity Jones" has a distinctly Spanish sound, and incorporates G# and A triads over a C# pedal, the song's rhythm guitar, played by Francis, starts with an eighth-note downstroke typical of punk rock music.[22]
Content
The lyrical themes explored on ''Doolittle'' range from the surrealism of "Debaser", to the environmental catastrophe of "Monkey Gone to Heaven". The women and whores of "Mr. Grieves," "Tame," and "Hey" share space with the Biblical analogies of "Dead" and "Gouge Away". Black Francis often claimed that ''Doolittle's lyrics were words which just "fit together nicely", and that "the point [of the album] is to experience it, to enjoy it, to be entertained by it".[23] Francis wrote all the material for the album; the only exception to this was "Silver", which he co-wrote with Kim Deal.[24]
The album's opening track "Debaser" references surrealism, a theme that runs throughout the album. "Debaser" alludes to Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí's 1929 surrealist film ''Un chien andalou'', and the lyric "slicing up eyeballs" refers to an early scene in the film.[25] Surrealism, an artistic movement in which liberation of the self and society are reached through exercising the "unconscious mind", heavily influenced Francis in his college years and throughout his career with the Pixies. In 1989, Francis expressed his interest in surrealism and its influence on his songwriting method to the ''New York Times''[26] by stating "I got into avant-garde movies and Surrealism as an escape from reality. [...] To me, Surrealism is totally artificial. I recently read an interview with the director David Lynch who said he had ideas and images but that he didn't know exactly what they meant. That's how I write."
Another of the album's main themes is environmental catastrophe. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" deals with man's destruction of the ocean and "confusion of man's place in the universe;" as Francis put it: "On one hand, it's this big organic toilet. Things get flushed and repurified or decomposed and it's this big, dark, mysterious place. It's also a very mythological place where there are octopus's gardens, the Bermuda Triangle, Atlantis, and mermaids."[27] "Monkey Gone to Heaven" is concerned with man's relationship to the divine, a theme shared with "Mr. Grieves." Two songs on ''Doolittle'' are fashioned after Biblical stories: the story of David and Bathsheba in "Dead", and Samson and Delilah in "Gouge Away."[28] Francis' fascination with Biblical themes can be traced back to his teenage years; when he was twelve, he and his parents joined an evangelical church linked to the Assemblies of God. This background was to be an influence in ''Doolittle'', where he referred to the Devil being "six" and God being "seven" in "Monkey Gone to Heaven," along with his various takes on Bible stories.
Other songs explored eccentric subjects, such as in "Wave of Mutilation;" Francis described the context of the song as "Japanese businessmen doing murder-suicides with their families because they'd failed in business, and they're driving off a pier into the ocean."[29] "Wave of Mutilation"'s sea and underwater theme, which also featured in "Mr. Grieves" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven," is one where it becomes an arena for man's death and destruction.[30] "Crackity Jones" covers another offbeat subject; Francis' roommate in his student exchange trip to , who he described as a "weird psycho gay roommate."[31]
''Doolittle'' also references more conventional subjects. "La La Love You," sung by the band's drummer Dave Lovering, is a love song about a unknown woman. Francis gave Lovering a song to sing, "like a Ringo thing;" Lovering at first refused to sing, but Norton soon said that he was unable "get him away from the microphone."[32] As well as lead vocals on "La La Love You," Lovering played bass guitar on "Silver," with Deal playing slide guitar; this arrangement did not occur again.
Imagery
"As Loud As Hell" by Simon Larbalestier, from the ''Doolittle'' cover booklet. The image references lyrics in "I Bleed".
''Doolittle'' was the first album where Simon Larbalestier, the Pixies' cover photographer, and Vaughan Oliver, the band's cover artist, had access to the lyrics. According to Larbalestier, this "made a fundamental difference."[33] The availability of the lyrics allowed the art and photographs to be more closely tied to the content of the album; the cover references the themes in "Monkey Gone to Heaven," and depicts a stuffed monkey, with a halo and the numbers five, six and seven above it.
The surrealist and abstract images throughout the album booklet are linked to the album's content. "Gouge Away" is represented by a picture of a spoon containing hair, laid across a woman's torso.[34] "I Bleed" is referenced with the image "As Loud As Hell;" the image shows "a ringing bell," with a set of teeth; this references the line "it shakes my teeth." "Walking with the Crustaceans" is a visual representation of "Wave of Mutilation"'s lyrics. Larbalestier later commented that he was interested in "early Surrealist stuff" at this time.33
Album title
During the recording sessions, ''Whore'' was discarded as a potential album title, after Oliver changed the cover artwork idea to a monkey and halo cover. Francis later explained his rationale for the move:[35]
Francis then named the album ''Doolittle'', from the "Mr. Grieves" lyric "Pray for a man in the middle / One that talks like Doolittle."[36] This was in the tradition of previous Pixies albums; both ''Come on Pilgrim'' and ''Surfer Rosa'' used song lyrics for the album title.
Critical recognition
Reaction to ''Doolittle'' was positive in general, with the album garnering praise from several major music publications. ''NME'' commented that "the songs on ''Doolittle'' have the power to make you literally jump out of your skin with excitement."[37] ''Q'', giving the album four stars out of five, said that ''Doolittle''
However, ''Doolittle'' received mixed reviews from several music critics.38 ''Time Out'' said that "Gil Norton's toy theatre production makes a drama out of what should have been a crisis." ''Spin'' ran a hundred-word review of the album, including critic Joe Levy's comment "the insanity less surreal and more silly, and the songs themselves more like songs and less like adventures." ''Rolling Stone'', reviewing the album in July 1988, gave the album three and a half stars.38 ''Doolittle'' appeared on several end-of-year "Best Album" lists; both ''Rolling Stone'' and ''The Village Voice'' placed the album tenth, and independent music magazines ''Sounds'' and ''Melody Maker'' both ranked the album as the second best of the year. ''NME'' also ranked the album highly, placing it fourth in their end-of-year list.[41]
A range of music magazines have since acclaimed ''Doolittle'' as one of the quintessential alternative rock albums of the 1980s. ''Rolling Stone'', reviewing ''Doolittle'' again in 2002, gave the album five stars out of five, remarking that it laid the "groundwork for Nineties rock."[42] ''Doolittle'' has received a number of international accolades and is consistently noted as one of the best albums of the 1980s in any genre.41 The band's later albums have failed to attract the same level of retrospective critical praise.
Legacy
The loud/quiet dynamic present on ''Doolittle'', most notably in "Tame", has been very influential on alternative rock and grunge. After writing "Smells Like Teen Spirit," both Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana thought: "this really sounds like the Pixies. People are really going to nail us for this."[43] Former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha described ''Doolittle'' as less raw than ''Surfer Rosa'' but "more listenable" and "Here Comes Your Man" as a "classic pop record." Fellow alternative musician PJ Harvey was "in awe" of "I Bleed" and "Tame," and described Francis' writing as "amazing".37
Band relationships
During the recording of ''Doolittle'', tensions between Francis and Deal became visible to band members and the production team. Bickering and standoffs between the two marred the recording sessions and led to increased stress among the band members.[44] John Murphy, Deal's husband at the time, later recalled that with ''Doolittle'' it "went from just all fun to work."[45] Exhaustion from touring and from releasing three records in two years contributed to the friction. This culminated at the end of the US post-''Doolittle'' "Fuck or Fight" tour, where they were too tired to attend the end-of-tour party. Soon afterwards the band announced that they were taking a break.[46]
After they reconvened in 1990, Francis began to limit Deal's contributions to the band. He wrote and sang all the original material on the Pixies' two subsequent albums; 1990's ''Bossanova'' and 1991's ''Trompe le Monde'' (both produced by Norton and mixed by Haigler). This breakdown in the relationship between Deal and Francis, first apparent during the recording of ''Doolittle'', ultimately led to the band's breakup in late 1992 and early 1993.[47]
Sales
Following its release, ''Doolittle'' sold steadily in America, and broke sales of 100,000 after six months. By early 1992, while the band were supporting U2 on their Zoo TV tour, the album was selling 1500 copies a week. The middle of 1993, two years after the band's last album, ''Trompe le Monde'', saw sales average 1200 per week. ''Doolittle'' was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in 1995.[48] Ten years after the breakup, ''Doolittle'' was still selling between 500 and 1000 a week; the reunion tour saw sales creep back up to 1200 a week. At the end of 2005, best estimates put total sales in America at between 800,000 and one million copies.[49]
Charts
Album
| Chart (1989) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| US ''Billboard'' 200 | 98 |
| UK Album Chart | 8 |
| French Album Chart | 66 |
Singles
| Single | Chart (1989) | Peak position |
|---|---|---|
| "Here Comes Your Man" | US ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks | 3 |
| "Here Comes Your Man" | UK Singles Chart | 54 |
| "Monkey Gone to Heaven" | US ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks | 5 |
| "Monkey Gone to Heaven" | UK Singles Chart | 60 |
Track listing
All tracks were written by Black Francis, except where noted.
# "Debaser" – 2:52
# "Tame" – 1:55
# "Wave of Mutilation" – 2:04
# "I Bleed" – 2:34
# "Here Comes Your Man" – 3:21
# "Dead" – 2:21
# "Monkey Gone to Heaven" – 2:56
# "Mr. Grieves" – 2:05
# "Crackity Jones" – 1:24
# "La La Love You" – 2:43
# "No. 13 Baby" – 3:51
# "There Goes My Gun" – 1:49
# "Hey" – 3:31
# "Silver" (Francis, Kim Deal) – 2:25
# "Gouge Away" – 2:45
Personnel
All information is taken from the CD release of ''Doolittle'':
★ Black Francis – vocals, guitar
★ Kim Deal – bass guitar, backing vocals (slide guitar on "Silver")
★ Joey Santiago – lead guitar
★ David Lovering – drums (lead vocal on "La La Love You", bass guitar on "Silver")
★ Gil Norton – production, audio engineering
★ "Monkey Gone to Heaven" strings: violins: Karen Karlsrud, Corine Metter; cellos: Arthur Fiacco, Ann Rorich
★ Dave Snider and Matt Lane – assistant engineers
★ Steve Haigler – mixing engineer
★ Published by Rice 'n' Beans Music BMI
★ Simon Larbalestier, Vaughan Oliver – cover image, album booklet imagery
Accolades
The information regarding accolades attributed to ''Doolittle'' is taken from AcclaimedMusic.net.41
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ''Hot Press'' | Ireland | Top 100 Albums[50] | 2006 | #34 |
| ''Juice'' | Australia | The 50 Best Albums of All Time[51] | 1997 | #2 |
| ''NME'' | UK | 100 Best Albums[52] | 2003 | #2 |
| ''Panorama'' | Norway | The 30 Best Albums of the Year 1970–98 | 1999 | #1 |
| ''Q'' | UK | Ultimate Music Collection[53] | 2005 | ★ |
| ''Rolling Stone'' | US | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time | 2003 | #226 |
| ''Spin'' | US | 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005[54] | 2005 | #36 |
(
★ ) designates unordered lists.
Notes
1. Sisario, 2006. p. 63
2. Frank, Josh; Ganz, Caryn. "." Virgin Books, 2006. ISBN 0-312-34007-9. p. 87
3. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 104
4. 4AD - Pixies profile
5. Sisario, Ben. ''Doolittle 33⅓''. Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0-8264-1774-4. p. 21
6. Sisario, 2006. p. 45
7. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 112
8. Sisario, 2006. p. 47
9. Ganz, Caryn. "Pixies - ''Doolittle''". ''Spin''. July 2005.
10. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 116
11. Sisario, 2006. p. 45
12. Frank, Ganz, 2006. p. 114
13. Sisario, p. 46
14. Sisario, 2006. p. 52
15. Sisario, 2006. p. 55–6
16. Sisario, 2006. p. 22
17. Sisario, 2006. p. 61
18. Artist Chart History - Pixies
19. Pop:Loud quiet loud Edwards, Mark
20. albumvote reviews - Doolittle by Pixies
21. Sisario, 2006. p. 80–82
22. Sisario, 2006. p. 102
23. Sisario, 2006. blurb
24. ''Doolittle'' CD cover booklet.
25. Un Chien Andalou Ebert, Roger
26. Sisario, 2006. p. 26
27. Sisario, 2006. p. 96
28. Spitz, Marc. "Life to the Pixies." ''Spin''. September 2004.
29. Sisario, 2006. p. 83
30. Sisario, 2006. p. 85
31. Sisario, 2006. p. 12
32. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 113
33. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 117
34. Frank, Ganz, 200. insert.
35. Sisario, 2006. p. 54
36. Francis, Black. Lyrics. "Mr. Grieves." ''Doolittle''. LP. 4AD 1989.
37. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 120
38. Sisario, 2006. p. 62–3
39. Pixies Press Quotes Bie, Jean-Michel; Gourraud, Christophe
40. Robert Christgau: CG: Pixies
41. Doolittle at AcclaimedMusic.net
42. Doolittle: Review Mark Kemp
43. Azerrad, Michael. ''Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana''. Doubleday, 1993. ISBN 0-385-47199-8, p. 176
44. Sisario, 2006. p. 53
45. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 115
46. Pixies > Biography Stephen Thomas Erlewine
47. Frank, Ganz, 2005. p. 176
48. RIAA Certification RIAA
49. Sisario, 2006. p. 69
50. Electric Ladyland (100/100 Greatest Albums Ever)
51. Juice All Time 50 Albums
52. NME's 100 Best Albums
53. Q Ultimate Music Collection
54. SPIN.com: 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005
References
★ Frank, Josh; Ganz, Caryn. "." Virgin Books, 2005. ISBN 0-312-34007-9.
★ Sisario, Ben. ''Doolittle 33⅓''. Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0-8264-1774-4.
External links
★ ''Doolittle'' at Last.fm
★ ''Doolittle'' at Google Music
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