HERE COMES YOUR MAN (AGAIN)

No apologies today even though this is a repeat posting from January 2017 in terms of the songs. In my defence I’m coming at the lead song from a different angle as last time round it was one of the b-sides which prompted the piece.

Pixies never really wanted to be bona-fide pop stars whose songs hung around the higher echelons of the charts – for evidence, you only need to look at the way they handled the eventual release of Here Comes Your Man as a stand-alone single.

The track is very unusual in comparison to much of the rest of the band’s late 80s/early 90s material. As has been written elsewhere on t’internet:-

“In contrast with the fractured compositional style the band became known for, Here Comes Your Man follows a straightforward verse/pre-chorus/chorus structure, with a short instrumental break in the middle – the very definition of a perfect three-and-a-half-minute pop single.”

It’s also a song which, by the time of its release in 1989 was almost ten years old as Black Francis had composed it when he was just 15 years of age. A version had been included in the demo tape which got them the deal with 4AD Records but the composer vetoed its inclusion firstly on Come On Pilgrim and again on Surfer Rosa. Indeed, it was only sleight of hand by producer Gil Norton that led to it being recorded for inclusion on Doolittle – the band, and in particular the front man condescendingly referred to it as ‘the Tom Petty song’ and way too commercial sounding. Norton waited until Francis was out of the studio and had the other three members record a fresh take on the tune, including Joey Santiago adding a new riff to beef things up, with the results being different enough to warrant a new vocal.

The label bosses worked hard to have it scheduled as a single, only getting their way by agreeing it wouldn’t be used as a precursor for the album. A promo video was made but sort of sabotaged by Francis and Kim Deal who made no attempt to mime the words thus causing severe bafflement to the MTV bosses. The band also turned down requests to play the song on the national chat shows which dominated US television in those days and indeed hardly ever included it in any live shows.

Despite all this, the single got a fair bit of play on college radio in the States and on evening shows in the UK and Europe. It reached #54 in the UK singles charts in July 1989, #1 in the UK Indie Charts and #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

Here’s all four tracks from the 12”

mp3 : Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
mp3 : Pixies – Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
mp3 : Pixies – Into the White
mp3 : Pixies – Bailey’s Walk

The question is……given that this alternative, wonderfully slowed-down version of Wave of Mutilation was recorded at Palladium Studios in Edinburgh, does it qualify enough to be aired at Simply Thrilled, the upcoming club night celebrating the best of Scotland’s alternative music??

JC