Thursday, July 26, 2012

Gigantic



The lyrics of the Pixies' song Gigantic have a very modern poetry vibe to them:

And this I know
His teeth as white as snow
What a gas it was to see him
Walk her every day
Into a shady place
With her lips she said
She said

Hey Paul, Hey Paul, Hey Paul, let's have a ball
[3x]

Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic

A big big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big big love

Lovely legs they are

What a big black mess
What a hunk of love
Walk her every day into a shady place
He's like the dark, but I'd want him

Hey Paul, Hey Paul, Hey Paul, let's have a ball
[3x]

Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic

A big big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big big love

Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic

A big big love
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic
A big big love 

You don't get too many songs that start out with "and."

Gigantic was from their Surfer Rosa album, which was a big influence on Kurt Cobain (from Wiki):
One notable citation as an influence was by Kurt Cobain, on influencing Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which he admitted was a conscious attempt to co-opt the Pixies' style. In a January 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he said, 
"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it [smiles]. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily I should have been in that band—or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard." 
Cobain cited Surfer Rosa as one of his main musical influences, and particularly admired the album's natural and powerful drum sounds—a result of Steve Albini's influence on the record. Albini later produced Nirvana's 1993 In Utero at the request of Cobain.


Black Francis of the Pixies says that the sound of Gigantic was influenced by Lou Reed:
The song's voyeuristic lyrics mostly revolve around a woman's observation of an attractive black man making love to another woman, culminating in the oddly light-hearted but sexual chorus: "Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic / A big, big love". Francis later commented on the title of the song and the chorus (in the music magazine SELECT), saying:
"A good chord progression, very Lou Reed influenced. I'd had the word 'gigantic' in my mind just because the chord progression seemed very big to me."
 Pretty impressive pedigree for a song - influenced by Lou Reed, influenced Kurt Cobain.

Cobain's "soft and quiet and then loud and hard" is an excellent description of much of the Pixies' work, and Lou Reed's influence notwithstanding, it's actually a lot like classical music.  Rock/pop music tends to stick with one mode, or at most build up to a climax, but classical music is always going quiet-loud-quiet. It adds to the drama.

So the sound opens with a simple drum stick beat and Kim Deal's bassline and lyrics, which is quiet and soft and simple. But Black Francis's wailing adds the perfect eccentricity and quasi-operatic touch. And then the loud part:
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul let's have a ball.
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul let's have a ball.
Hey Paul, hey Paul, hey Paul let's have a ball.
And this is where the song leaps into the stratosphere. One of the best parts of the video on this post is that it shows Joey Santiago making that cosmic dinosaur wailing sound, starting at 00:39.

It's so good but if it goes on much longer it will be painful, so the chorus comes in at just the right moment:
Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic, a big big love.
And repeat. Then it gets quiet again and Black Francis gets a solo - and then loud and hard again. And really that's it. Pretty simple. But effective. And Joey Santiago deserve sainthood for the miracles he performs with sound.

Strangely enough, Ferdinand Marcos gets some credit for the Pixies' sound:
Santiago was born in Manila, Philippines, on June 10, 1965, the third of six sons of an anesthesiologist. In 1972, however, when President Marcos declared martial law, the family emigrated to the United States.

Another big influence - George Harrison:
(Santiago) attributes much of his style to songs he enjoyed when first learning the guitar, such as The Beatles' "Savoy Truffle", where "George Harrison played that bent note that I fell in love with and later milked it for all it was worth." He used such techniques with the Pixies: Doolittle's "Dead" begins with Santiago's guitar "squawking" on an E-flat like "a wounded animal."