02-09-19
The Pixies’ La La Love You, was intended to be a bit of a palette filler on the album Dolittle. Though its creation may have been birthed out of a sense of irony and satire, it has grown on to become one of the most “romantic” ballads of the Pixies catalog.
The silliness that begins with drummer David Lovering’s intro “shake your butts,” followed by the nasally “not too hard,” by Sage Francis sets the perfect tone for a song with only one meaning: to be non-serious, and non-sensical.
The song can be best explained by Black Francis in an interview he gave to Esquire several years back.
It’s a silly non-song. It’s very tongue-in-cheek, almost like a comedy sketch. It’s very simple and sweet but also very ‘fucky-fucky,’ you know? It’s a fuck song done in this kind of sing-songy, oobie-doobie, groovy language. It’s not serious or anything. Just a little comedic break from whatever the hell else was going on.
Drummer David Lovering makes one of just two lead vocal contributions in the Pixies on this song. According to lore, Black Francis “gave it to Lovering as a song to sing, ‘like a Ringo thing’; Lovering at first refused to sing, but [producer Gil] Norton said that soon he was unable to ‘get him away from the microphone.’”
According to Lovering,
We worked the song up, and then Charles turned to me and said, ‘Why don’t you sing it? It might be good to get another voice on the record.’ Which was pretty funny because I had never sung on anything before.
I remember going into the vocal booth, feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing. I probably had about three or four shots of whiskey just to calm my nerves. In fact, if you listen closely to the recording, you can hear me kicking over some bottles – there’s a little bit of clanking going on.
But I pulled it off. In fact, I’ve even had people come up to me and tell me they’ve used it as their wedding song, which is a nice compliment. Live, it’s tricky: I’m not one of those drummers who can play and sing effortlessly. I’m huffing and puffing a little, trying to keep my air flowing. So I pull back on the drums and play the song more reserved than I would if I wasn’t singing.”
Lyrics:
[David Lovering:]
Shake your butt!
[Black Francis:]
Not too hard
[David Lovering:]
Shake your butt
[Black Francis:]
Not too hard
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
I love you, I love you
I love you, I do
I love you
All I’m saying, pretty baby
La la love you, don’t mean maybe
All I’m saying, pretty baby
First base, second base, third base, home run
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah
I love you, I love you
I love you, I do
I love you
All I’m saying, pretty baby
La la love you, don’t mean maybe
All I’m saying, pretty baby
La la love you, don’t mean maybe
All I’m saying, pretty baby
La la love you, don’t mean maybe
All I’m saying, pretty baby
La la love you, don’t mean maybe
All I’m saying, pretty baby