Why Kurt Cobain wished Kim Deal wrote more Pixies songs
Three decades on from the death of vocalist Kurt Cobain, Nirvana remain one of the most innovative and influential bands in the alternative sphere. The influence of their sound and ethos can still be found within grunge and outside of it. Visceral lyrics, soundscapes unafraid to vary in dynamics – no one was doing it quite like Nirvana. Apart from, maybe, Pixies.
One year before Nirvana made their debut with Bleach, Pixies unveiled Surfer Rosa. A future favourite in the alternative rock scene, the album produced the beloved ‘Where Is My Mind?’ and solo single ‘Gigantic’. Though it failed to achieve chart success, the record had a particular impact on Cobain, who set out to emulate it in his own work.
The Nirvana frontman was stunned by the record’s ability to flit between harsh and soft, between loud and quiet, something that he would incorporate into his own songwriting. Pixies had a particular influence on the 1991 hit ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, which Cobain once admitted was him “basically trying to rip off the Pixies.”
“When I heard the Pixies for the first time,” he explained, “I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band – or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.”
There was one song from ‘Surfer Rosa’ that particularly impressed Cobain – the 1988 single ‘Gigantic’. Though it has since been overshadowed by love for ‘Where Is My Mind?’ and tracks from the band’s follow-up record, Doolittle, ‘Gigantic’ remains, fittingly, one of the band’s biggest hits.
The song finds Kim Deal singing of a “big, big love” over equally huge guitars, a stellar example of the band’s alternative rock prowess. The song was also the only track on Surfer Rosa that wasn’t penned entirely by frontman Black Francis, letting Deal into the songwriting process.
Cobain believed that ‘Gigantic’ represented the band at their best and once shared his disappointment that Deal didn’t pen more Pixies songs. “I wish Kim was allowed to write more songs for the Pixies,” he stated in 1992, “Because ‘Gigantic’ is the best Pixies song and Kim wrote it.”
Unfortunately, Deal only co-wrote one song on their sophomore offering too, titled ‘Silver’. It served as another example of her songwriting talents, as well as another demonstration of Cobain’s frustrations. Though they may have been few and far between, Deal’s contributions to Pixies spawned some of the band’s greatest moments, and maintained a major influence on their fellow grunge inhabitants.
Revisit ‘Gigantic’ below.
