Music / Doolittle

"Got me a movie, I want you to know..."

Doolittle is the third studio album by Pixies, released in 1989. Compared to their previous two releases, this one had slicker production thanks to Gil Norton, a Briton who had previously worked with the Pixies' 4AD Records labelmates and New England neighbors Throwing Muses. At the same time the band rocked louder and harder than ever. It's also noteworthy as the band's first album for their American distributor, Elektra Records.

The result brought the band a lot of attention. Doolittle made the top ten in the UK, while also charting in the US and France. It's been acclaimed as a favorite by PJ Harvey and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, among others. The opening track, "Debaser", ended up being a particularly important track in the Pixes' legacy: David Bowie's thrash/grunge supergroup Tin Machine made the song one of their concert staples (Bowie himself was a huge fan of the Pixies), and Cobain cited it as one of Nirvana's main musical inspirations for their 1991 Breakthrough Hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It is also their most popular album, being certified gold (sales of over 500,000 copies) in 1995 and platinum (sales of over one million) in 2018 by the RIAA.

Tracklist:

1. "Debaser" - 2:52
2. "Tame" - 1:55
3. "Wave of Mutilation" - 2:04
4. "I Bleed" - 2:34
5. "Here Comes Your Man" - 3:21
6. "Dead" - 2:21
7. "Monkey Gone to Heaven" - 2:56
8. "Mr. Grieves" - 2:05
9. "Crackity Jones" - 1:24
10. "La La Love You" - 2:34
11. "No. 13 Baby" - 3:51
12. "There Goes My Gun" - 1:49
13. "Hey" - 3:31
14. "Silver" - 2:25
15. "Gouge Away" - 2:35

Personnel

• Black Francis - Vocals, guitar
• Kim Deal - Bass, vocals
• David Lovering - Drums, vocals
• Joey Santiago - Guitar

There is a trope so long (so long, so long):

• Album Title Drop: in "Mr. Grieves":
  Pray for a man in the middle, one who talks like Doolittle
• Alliterative Title: "La La Love You"
• As the Good Book Says...: One of Black Francis' favorite themes, violent Old Testament stories, is represented here. "Dead" references David and Bathsheba, while "Gouge Away" was inspired by Samson's death.
• Design Student's Orgasm: A monkey with arcane charts and formulas, by graphic artist Vaughan Oliver.
• Eye Scream: "Debaser" mentions "slicing up eyeballs".
• Fairy Tale Motifs: The first line of "Tame" is "Hips like Cinderella", which is matched in the second verse by "Fall on your face in those bad shoes."
• Faking the Dead: "Wave of Mutilation":
  Cease to resist, giving my goodbye
  Drive my car into the ocean
  You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away...
• Green Aesop: Black Francis says that he didn't intend "Monkey Gone to Heaven" to have an environmental message, but it's easy enough to pick one up.
  There was a guy
  An underwater guy who controlled the sea
  Got killed by ten million pounds of sludge
  From New York and New Jersey.
• Hartman Hips: The subject of "Tame" has "hips like Cinderella."
• I "Uh" You, Too: "Hey":
  "Uh", said the man to the lady
  "Uh", said the lady to the man she adored
  And the whores like a choir
  Go "uh" all night
  And Mary, ain't you tired of this?
• In the Style of: "Here Comes Your Man" has a lot of The Beatles in it. The band probably knew that "I Feel Fine" was the first pop single to incorporate feedback.
• Miniscule Rocking: "Tame", "Crackity Jones", and "There Goes My Gun" are all under two minutes.
• New Sound Album: This was the band's first album with Gil Norton and has a more polished production compared to Surfer Rosa.
• Number of the Beast: In "Monkey Gone to Heaven" Black Francis says "The devil is six" three times.
• One-Man Song: "Mr. Grieves", "Crackity Jones"
• One-Word Title: "Debaser", "Tame", "Dead", "Hey", "Silver". Also Doolittle itself.
• Pater Familicide: "Wave of Mutilation" was inspired by reports of Japanese businessmen getting their families in the car and driving into the ocean.
• Record Producer: Gil Norton, whose polished style contrasts greatly with Steve Albini, the producer of Surfer Rosa.
• Sanity Slippage Song: Frank Black's insane laughter during "Debaser" makes this song one.
• Shout-Out:
  • The "slicing up eyeballs" on "Debaser" is a shout-out to Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou, which is directly mentioned with the half French/half Spanish title "un chien andalusia".
• Singer Namedrop: In "Monkey Gone to Heaven", Francis says "Rock me, Joe!" just before Joey Santiago's solo.
• Step Up to the Microphone: "La La Love You" is a duet between Kim Deal and David Lovering.
• The Stoner: "Gouge Away":
  You stroke my locks
  Some marijuana
  If you got some.
• Storyboard Body: "No. 13 Baby":
  Black tear falling on my lazy queen
  Got a tattooed tit say number 13.
• Stylistic Suck: The video for "Here Comes Your Man", with the weird effects and Francis and Deal just opening their mouths (without even attempting to lip sync) during their respective singing parts.

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