‘Here Comes Your Man’: the classic Pixies song that Frank Black called “hobo film noir”
Frank Black and his immovable force of alt-rock excellence, Pixies, remain arguably one of the most influential artists of the post-punk era. Indeed, to this day, every other teenager appears to have a Nirvana T-shirt hanging in their wardrobe, but things might have been vastly different had it not been for their Boston proto-grunge luminaries. Of course, Nirvana would have existed had it not been for the Pixies, but their sound may not have been quite the same.
After forming in 1986, Pixies began to corral a cult following after touring local venues and releasing their promising 1987 mini-LP, Come On Pilgrim. With this achievement in hand, they got to work on their first full-length record.
Released in 1988, Surfer Rosa was nothing short of groundbreaking. The strange lyrical alchemy and unique delivery, coupled with a melodic style of post-punk, formed a basis for the grunge scene of the 1990s. Needless to say, an aspiring Kurt Cobain heard something in this eccentric sound and threads of its DNA can be heard in Nirvana’s seminal work of the early 1990s.
Pixies somehow managed to supersede their bulletproof 1988 release the following year with their masterpiece, Doolittle. The album refined a winning formula, offering a sumptuous spread of obscure yet highly accessible tracks. This album, in particular, heavily influenced Nevermind, Nirvana’s 1991 tour de force.
Discussing the album’s lead single, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, in a 1994 conversation with Rolling Stone, Cobain 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.”
That said, during an interview in 2013, nearly two decades after Cobain’s tragic death, Francis discussed the Pixies’ legacy. Asked what his contribution to rock was, Francis replied sarcastically: “Being original, influencing Nirvana so they could rip a song. I’ll admit it — if Kurt Cobain ‘fessed up to it, fuck it, I’ll agree with it – you ripped us off.”
Just how much Niravna learned from Pixies is difficult to say, but Cobain certainly had great taste. Black’s lyrical work arrived at maturity in Doolittle, and ‘Here Comes Your Man’ is a salient sample to inspect.
Thanks to the tumbling, upbeat bass and lead parts, the song takes a slightly bouncier tone than some of its neighbouring tracks on the album. Despite such deceiving, floral instrumentals, Black’s lyrics are as dark and dingy as we have learned to expect and love from the band. Describing the song in a Q&A with Songfacts, Black described it as “a hobo tale with a dark ending. Hobo film noir”.
‘Here Comes Your Man’ poses, seemingly, as a sequel to Lou Reed’s lyrics in The Velvet Underground’s New York-set ‘Waiting For The Man’. However, in Black’s story, the subject is a homeless person in California. Something is undoubtedly on the way, but it’s a natural disaster, not $26 worth of heroin.
“It’s about winos and hobos travelling on the trains, who die in the California Earthquake, peeing their pants,” Black told the NME of the song’s origin in 1989. “Before earthquakes, everything gets very calm — animals stop talking, and birds stop chirping, and there’s no wind. It’s very ominous. I’ve been through a few earthquakes, actually, ’cause I grew up in California. I was only in one big one, in 1971. I was very young, and I slept through it. I’ve been awake through lots of small ones at school and at home. It’s very exciting actually — a very comical thing. It’s like the earth is shaking, and what can you do? Nothing.”
Listen to the quaking hit below.
