Doolittle (album)

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Doolittle
Studio album by Pixies

Publication
(s)

1989

admission

1988

Label (s) 4AD

Format (s)

CD, LP

Genre (s)

Indie rock

Title (number)

15th

running time

38m38s

occupation

production

Gil Norton

Studio (s)

  • Downtown Recorders ( Boston , Massachusetts)
  • Carriage House Studios ( Stamford , Connecticut)
chronology
Surfer Pink
(1988) 		Doolittle Bossanova
(1990)

Doolittle is the second studio album by the American indie rock band Pixies . It was released on April 18, 1989 via 4AD .

History of origin

After the release of Surfer Rosa , which came out March 21, 1988, front man Frank Black began writing new tracks. 4AD co-founder Ivo Watts-Russell selected Gil Norton as producer for the new album , with whom the Pixies had already worked on the recordings for the single Gigantic , which was released in May 1988 . Recordings began on October 31, 1988 and ended on November 23 of the same year.

Name of the album

The name Doolittle is used in the song Mr. Grieves :

"Pray for a man in the middle, one that talks like Doolittle."

Doolittle refers in this song to Doctor Dolittle and symbolizes the counterpart to Mr. Grieves (Eng. "Mr. Grief"), since a person with the ability to talk to animals, so make statements about the future and turn them for the better if necessary can.

Cover picture

The cover of the album, devised by Vaughan Oliver , is adorned with quotes from Monkey Gone to Heaven . A monkey can be seen with a halo surrounded by the three numbers 5 (the number of man), 6 (the number of Satan) and 7 (the number of God).

Style and reception

The lyrics on Doolittle have different influences; the opening piece Debaser quotes the surrealist film An Andalusian Dog , while Monkey Gone to Heaven addresses environmental disasters. Finally, Dead and Gouge Away are about the biblical stories of David and Bathsheba and Samson and Delilah, respectively .

Doolittle was included in the 2006 list of "150 Records for Eternity" published in issue 150 by Visions magazine readers . Also in the Ultimate Music Collection of the magazine Q was Doolittle to find. NME put the album at number 2 on their list of the 100 Best Albums of All Time.

The critics were mostly taken with Doolittle ; The editors of the British magazines Sounds and Melody Maker declared the album the second best of 1989, and Rolling Stone also found words of praise.

Track list

  1. Debaser
  2. Tame
  3. Wave of Mutilation
  4. I bleed
  5. Here Comes Your Man
  6. Dead
  7. Monkey Gone to Heaven
  8. Mr. Grieves
  9. Crackity Jones
  10. La La Love You
  11. No. 13 baby
  12. There goes my gun
  13. Hey
  14. Silver
  15. Gouge Away

With the exception of Silver , which was written with the participation of Kim Deal, all of the songs were written by Frank Black.

literature

  • Josh Frank, Caryn Ganz: Fool the World: The Oral History of a Band Called Pixies , 2005, ISBN 0-7535-1023-5

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Lyrics by Mr. Grieves . SongMeanings.net
  2. ^ After Frank Black: Tackling With The Animals in the New Musical Express , April 22, 1989; excerpts here published
  3. ↑ a b SongMeanings.net: Lyrics of Monkey Gone to Heaven
  4. ↑ Debaser lyrics . SongMeanings.net
  5. ↑ Marc Spitz : Life to the Pixies . In: Spin , September 2004
  6. ↑ visions.de / Back Issues / Heft Nr. 150. Retrieved on February 15, 2010 .
  7. ^ The Q Collection. In: Rocklist.net. April 2005, accessed February 15, 2010 .
  8. ↑ Rocklist.net ... NME Writers Lists ... Retrieved May 15, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Chris Mundy: Doolittle: Pixies: Review. In: Rolling Stone. July 13, 1989, accessed February 15, 2010 .