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Gigantic (song)

"Gigantic"
Gigantic single.jpg
Single by Pixies
from the album Surfer Rosa
A-side "Gigantic" (New Version)
B-side "River Euphrates" (New Version)
"Vamos" (Live)
"In Heaven (The Lady in the Radiator Song)" (Live)
Released August 22, 1988 (1988-08-22)
Format Vinyl record (12"), Compact Disc
Recorded December 1987
Q Division
Somerville, Massachusetts
Genre Alternative rock
Length 3:45 (album version)
3:13 (Single version)
Label 4AD
Songwriter(s) Kim Deal, Black Francis
Producer(s) Steve Albini (Album), Gil Norton (Single)
Pixies singles chronology
"Gigantic"
(1988)
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
(1989)
"Gigantic"
(1988)
"Monkey Gone to Heaven"
(1989)

"Gigantic" is a song by the American alternative rock band the Pixies, co-written by bassist Kim Deal and lead vocalist/guitarist Black Francis. The song appeared on the band's first studio album, Surfer Rosa, released in 1988. One of the longest songs on the album, "Gigantic" was released as the band's first single later that year.

Featuring Deal on lead vocals, the song is one of Pixies' biggest hits and a crowd favorite at concerts, often played as the encore. The melody line comes from Deal's simple but effective bass playing—the same bassline is repeated throughout the song.

"Gigantic" never achieved a ranking on any major charts and was their only release from Surfer Rosa. However, it was a fairly successful first hit for Pixies and maintains radio play to this day. The single version of the song appeared on Pixies' 2004 best-of compilation, Wave of Mutilation: Best of Pixies.

According to Deal, the main inspiration for the song was the film Crimes of the Heart, in which a white married woman falls in love with a black teenager and the song "Gigantic" is credited to Mrs John Murphy (Kim Deal's pseudonym at the time of Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa as an ironic feminist joke).

The song's voyeuristic lyrics mostly revolve around a woman's observation of an attractive black man making love to another woman, culminating in the oddly light-hearted but sexual chorus: "Gigantic, gigantic, gigantic / A big, big love". Francis later commented on the title of the song and the chorus (in the music magazine SELECT), saying:

"A good chord progression, very Lou Reed influenced. I'd had the word 'gigantic' in my mind just because the chord progression seemed very big to me."

The melody, particularly at the beginning, differs between the album and EP version.


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