Background

I have a surf rock (reverb alt rock) CD which I play in the car on sunny days along the coast. Thinking about these issues this kind of music is a handy way to get a handle on what's going on.

Here are some of the songs

Best Coast - Our Deal

When you leave me The bed is empty And I feel crazy 'Cause I didn't say anything I wish you would tell me How you really feel But you'll never tell me 'Cause that's not our deal

When you leave me You take away everything You take all my money You take all my weed I wish you would tell me How you really feel But you'll never tell me 'Cause that's not our deal

I wish you would tell me How you really feel But you'll never tell me 'Cause that's not our deal

That's not your deal That's not my deal } x 6

Best Coast is not a particularly alpha female by nature. This song is about her hooking up with a male who is out of her league and who treats her badly.

He fucks her then rolls out leaving her feeling abandoned, devalued and used. He is emotionally inaccessible although she really wants to connect. He steals from her.

She wants to call him out on this but knows her game isn't tight enough to lock him down and if she tries she will lose him. She is conflicted but tolerates his abusive behaviour as without it she is sad and lonely. This is the 'deal'.

The tone of the song is wistful. The real point as often in creative works is at the end, Best Coast uses 2 voices, the first, higher one is her own in which she says to Chad 'That's not your deal', empathising with him and the lower one is him answering 'That's not my deal' dismissively. Best Coast is left alone and empty again.

Best Coast - When I'm With You

The world is lazy but you and me we're just crazy

So when I'm with you, I have fun Yeah when I'm with you, I have fun

The world is lazy but you and me We're just crazy

So when I'm with you, I have fun Yeah when I'm with you, I have fun

Ever since I was a little girl My mama always told me there'd be boys like you

So when I'm with you, I have fun Yeah when I'm with you, I have fun

I hate sleeping alone x 4 Alone x 5

A lot of similar themes to the previous song. BC is not a particularly hot topic and is lonely and depressed. This song however is more upbeat as most of it describes her spending time with Chad.

'The world is lazy' - my life is dull and boring 'But you and me we're just crazy' - you are alpha and have a cool life and when I spend time with you it's 'crazy' by my standards ie a fulfilling and socially positive experience.

The first sleepy part of the song is in the tempo of her lonely times. Then it speeds up as she moves into spending time with Chad mood.

BC's mum coached her from childhood about taking what she can get from alpha chad and enjoying the experience, not feeling guilt but not getting attached either. When she is with him she has fun implying that when she is not getting hit and quit by chad life isn't fun.

Again the end being the real poing of the song, the end is wistful and frustrated, almost desperate, she has been abandoned again and rages against it before finally becoming resigned to this, I hate sleeping alone, alone, alone.

Nirvana - Come as You Are

In this song Kurt uses two voices to represent the two protagonists, I will call them Commander and Subordinate

Commander Come as you are, as you were As I want you to be As a friend, as a friend As an old enemy

Take your time, hurry up Choice is yours, don't be late Take a rest as a friend As an old

Subordinate Memoria, memoria Memoria, memoria

Commander Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach As I want you to be As a trend, as a friend As an old

Subordinate Memoria, memoria x 2

When I swear that I don't have a gun No I don't have a gun x 2

Memoria, memoria Memoria, memoria (And I don't have a gun)

When I swear that I don't have a gun No I don't have a gun x 4

Memoria, memoria

The harsh commanding voice is his mother during his childhood and adolescence (and the role was transferred over to his girlfriends and wife in adulthood as well). The sad, desperate one is his stepfather and Kurt also as he identifies with him. Americans have an interesting obsession with guns which goes beyond the scope of this post.

Commander issues terse and contradictory passive aggressive commands in a nagging tone ie moving subordinate around just for the sake of moving him around and breaking him to be obedient, issuing commands which are mutually impossible to fulfil which is a hallmark behaviour of people with cluster B personality disorders (whom I believe are possessed by demons so it's not really a person).

Come as you are, as you were As I want you to be As a friend, as a friend As an old enemy

Americans use 'come as you are' to ask someone to a casual social function without having to dress up etc. So S is being summoned to socialise with C and already crowing over having broken C to be something else 'as I want you to be', used to be an enemy but is not a friend while simultaneously desiring him as he was.

Take your time, hurry up Choice is yours, don't be late

Clearest example of the psychological technique described above.

Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach As I want you to be

C has been emotionally attacked and broken 'doused in mud' and is now a clean meat puppet (soaked in bleach).

C is simultaneously Kurt's stepfather and Kurt but the memoria part is presumably more Kurt. Stepfather remembers himself before the woman broke him. All that he can do is sadly remember himself as he has been dispossessed.

It is also Kurt remembering back to his teenage years when his mother demanded that his stepfather throw out his many guns. Stepfather went and threw them into the river and Kurt later went and fished them out and sold them. The river fits with the reverb / watery ambience. Obviously the throwing the guns into the river was an act of ultimate submission and emasculation and Kurt fishing them out and selling them was a limited act of rebellion which simultaneously was a betrayal of his father while also not daring to become a man himself.

There is a little flash of anger in the 'don't have a gun' refrain which again is a dual character, Kurt's stepfather trying to prove his ultimate submission to his mother and gain her approval and also Kurt saying he doesn't have a gun in submission to her although also fighting guilt.

Again the final refrain about not having a gun is the real point of the song where the songwriter really comes out.

Pixies - Where is My Mind?

Oh- Stop.

With your feet on the air and your head on the ground Try this trick and spin it, yeah Your head will collapse But there's nothing in it And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind? [3x]

Way out in the water See it swimmin'

I was swimmin' in the Caribbean Animals were hiding behind the rock Except the little fish Bumped into he I swear Tryin' to talk to me, said wait, wait

Where is my mind? [3x]

Way out in the water See it swimmin'

With your feet on the air and your head on the ground Try this trick and spin it, yeah Your head will collapse If there's nothing in it And you'll ask yourself

Where is my mind? [3x]

Way out in the water See it swimmin'

Oh With your feet on the air and your head on the ground Oh Try this trick and spin it, yeah Oh Oh

Again there are two characters in conflict in this song. The 'oh' part is a siren. By the way the only other place I remember hearing the sound of a siren represented was in the computer game 'Rune' just before Odin appears.

Everything else is Frank Black's autobiographical protagonist.

The song begins with the siren calling and FB saying 'stop'. She then starts to speak but is immediately cut off. The guitar starts but she does continue to call. At first she is quiet but she gradually gets louder throughout the song.

There are two songs on this album which feature Kim Deal speaking and being cut off. There was a lot of tension between her and FB in the Pixies as they are both singer/songwriters but he held the top spot. In fact this was probably the main reason why the band split up.

The first verse of this song is a little less clear - it seems to be about falling over while skateboarding. But the main theme comes through which is about falling under mind control and whose mind control is made clear by the context, the siren calls, way out in the water see it swimming, swimming in the Caribbean etc. It is a siren.

'Way out in the water see it swimming is ambiguous, it can simultaneously mean the siren, the summoner and the dispossed mind now under her control, while FB is left with a collapsed and empty head on the ground.

The second verse intensifies. The song started with FB on land but he is now swimming out in the water, isolated in a foreign domain and the animals are hiding (from the siren) except for one little fish that tries to warn him, tells him wait but it's too late, he doesn't even pay it full attention or stop to think, he can't.

Whereas the first verse contained some independent action the action becomes just him being pulled to her.

The end of the song which as we know by now is the real point of the song is quite sinister. The siren gets louder and FB's voice fades out, then the guitar suddenly cuts out and we are left with the siren's call and then several seconds of silence. She took him but is unchanged.